Re: syslinux: main or contrib?

[Adam Klein <aklein@eskimo.com>]

On Tue, Feb 17, 1998 at 04:44:15PM +0100, Juan Cespedes wrote:
> 	Hi.  I am the maintainer of `syslinux', and I wonder if it
> should be in main or in contrib...
> 
> 	It's DFSG free, and it includes sources and binaries in the
> package, but if you want to build the binary from the sources, you
> need to use one not-DFSG package (nasm, see Bug#14859).
> 
> 	From the Debian Policy:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>      In addition, the packages in "main"
>         * must not require a package outside of "main" for compilation or
>           execution (thus, the package may not declare a "Depends" or
>           "Recommends" relationship on a non-main package),
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 	It doesn't need any package outside of "main" for execution,
> but... what's the meaning of "compilation"?  Anyone can get a binary
> package from the source package, because the binaries are included in
> the sources.  But it cannot be recompiled without `nasm'.

nasm is in the main distribution.  Should it not be?

> 	I was trying to port it to use `as86' (free assembler), but
> it's not easy.
> 
> 	BTW: this is a bit delicate... it's in our `base' section, and
> it's `required' (but, IMHO, it shouldn't be...)

I agree with this.

Adam Klein