Re: Build-depending on non-free package

[Ole Streicher <debian-devel@liska.ath.cx>]

Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org> writes:
> On Thu, 21 Aug 2014, Ole Streicher wrote:
>> Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> writes:
>> > On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 1:07 AM, Ole Streicher wrote:
>> >> I am just looking for a solution for this problem...
>> >
>> > It might be easier to port the software to something that isn't
>> > non-free so the package can be put in main.
>> 
>> As you can see from the bug, dependency from pgplot is quite common. It
>> seems not so easy to have a free replacement for that.
>> 
>> At the end, this is what contrib is for, isn't it?
>
> Not really, although it can certainly be used like that (when autobuilding
> doesn't get in the way).

The policy manual says (2.2.2):

| The contrib archive area contains supplemental packages intended to
| work with the Debian distribution, but which require software outside
| of the distribution to either build or function.
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Which lists a non-free build requirement as its first use case of contrib.

> Contrib is well-suited to packages that require non-free data.  It has
> always had a problem when there are build-time dependencies on
> non-free.

Sure. The bug #690282 is two years old. All I ask here is how this can
be changed, or what the effective way is to support all platforms
here -- especially for a DM without abusing his mentor.

> Actually, for a *long* time we didn't even autobuild anything in contrib or
> non-free.

So, the first step is done, but not the second?

Best

Ole