Re: Software in main that is throughly useless without non-free software
Remco Blaakmeer <remco-blaakmeer@quicknet.nl> writes:
> IIRC, the whole discussion started after an archive maintainer
> rejected a new package that was supposed to go into main, for the
> reason that _he_ thinks it is useful only if it talks a proprietary
> network protocol for which there is no free server available. If
> this reason isn't even mentioned in Debian Policy, then what gives
> him the right to do so?
The right that every developer has: the right to not do something
which they find morally objectionable. There seems to be a grave
misunderstanding of the term reject here (among other things).
Rejecting a package means running `dinstall -m "$(cat ~/x)"
package-name_*.changes'. (where ~/x is a file containing the REJECTion
notice). It's a one off thing. The files get moved out of Incoming
and into REJECT. The developer is free to move the files out of
REJECT or plain reupload. I even made this clear in the REJECTion
notice.
Iff I had made a cron job which removed any tik_* files from Incoming
every 5 minutes, then and only then, would this abuse be even vaguely
justified.
I REJECTed it because at the time I was the one processing NEW &
BYHAND packages in Incoming, because I did not feel comfortable with
putting it in main (I have to add it to the override file, to me, that
carries connotations, YMMV, but then again if it does, so what? No
one else in this discussion does this job) and because it was a
convenient way for me to notify the maintainer of my intentions and it
got it out of Incoming temporarily so I could see what other packages
I needed to work on.
--
James
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