Re: Clarification of Policy and Packaging manuals requested
Zed> - Files listed as conffiles are still constrained by any other
Zed> rules that may apply to them; e.g. configuration files that
Zed> are conffiles must still go in /etc, variable data files
Zed> still go in /var, and so forth.
Hmmm. Ok.
Zed> After having lurked in debian-devel for a while, I suspect that
Zed> Manoj will object that developers for Debian need to be sufficiently
Zed> proficient in writing shell scripts and whatever else that they can
Zed> deal with this on their own.
;-)
Zed> I think that mindset is not in the best interests of the Debian
Zed> project.
I think I disagree. Letting developers who can't write shell
scripts can in no way be in the interests of the project, one of
whose goals is *excellence*.
Zed> One of the (several) reasons why I switched from Redhat to Debian
Zed> was the ease in which I was able to set up my own local .deb
Zed> files to maintain my own system.
Users are not bound by the Policy. Developers are.
Zed> This provides an atmosphere in which a community at large *can*
Zed> contribute to a system.
The community at large does not get to put random bits of
software on my production machine.
Zed> The easier it gets to do this *in a proper fashion*, the more
Zed> software will show up as being available under Debian, even if
Zed> it's only in the contrib/non-free areas.
I do not wish to promote quantity at the expense of
quality. If it is in Debian, it is a high quality product. I never
want that diluted.
Zed> Note that I don't mean this to be understood as my condoning poor
Zed> coding practice overall; for instance a note was made on
Zed> debian-devel of a case where someone had tagged a shell script in
Zed> /usr that got customized as a conffile, where in fact it should
Zed> have been including a configuration file from /etc, and I agree
Zed> that this ought to be filed as a bug.
I'm glad you clarified that ;-)
manoj
--
Better than being sole king of the whole earth, better than going to
heaven or sovereignty over the whole universe is the fruit of
becoming a stream-winner. 178
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
Reply to: