Re: Lintian Warnings and Modifying Upstream Source
Cameron Dale <camrdale@gmail.com> writes:
> I'm trying to create a new package for Debian, and I have some Lintian
> warnings that I'm not sure how to deal with. I know I could fix all of
> them by removing some files from the upstream source, but I'm not sure
> if this is justified. I read the "Best Packaging Practices" section of
> the Developer's Reference, and I'm still just not sure if these qualify
> as a good reason. Here are the warnings:
> I: torrentflux source: cvsignore-file-in-source
> TF_BitTornado/BitTornado/.cvsignore
> I: torrentflux source: cvsignore-file-in-source
> TF_BitTornado/BitTornado/BT1/.cvsignore
> W: torrentflux source: source-contains-CVS-dir TF_BitTornado/BitTornado/BT1/CVS
> W: torrentflux source: source-contains-CVS-dir TF_BitTornado/BitTornado/CVS
> W: torrentflux: extra-license-file var/www/torrentflux/adodb/license.txt
> The first 4 are easily fixed by removing the files.
The first four you're probably going to have to just live with unless
upstream repackages their source better. (The first two aren't even
really problems in my opinion; the I: level of lintian output is just
informational and isn't something you should really worry about.) In
order to get rid of those messages, you'd have to repackage the upstream
source, and removing CVS directories isn't a good enough reason to
repackage the upstream source.
> The last one is a little more problematic, but I asked on debian-legal,
> and as the license file is for the LGPL, then the package can
> redistribute it under the GPL, and I think that means I can remove the
> license file.
The error message isn't about its presence in the source package but
rather its presence in the generated binary package. In general, in
Debian, you should never install additional copies of the GPL, the LGPL,
or other common licenses; instead, just refer the user to the copy that
already ships with Debian in /usr/share/common-licenses.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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