Package: debian-policy Version: 2.5.1.0 Severity: wishlist I have rewritten section 5.7 of the policy manual to reflect some changes that have taken place as a result of the Great X Reorganization. I also reworded the section on LessTif/Motif, though that's not strictly my province. I thought about mentioning the fact that the Hungry Programmers really want to hear if an app based on Motif 1.2 has problems, but couldn't make up my mind how germane that would be a *Debian* policy manual. If we do mention it, it could be interpreted as an act of support for the LessTif project (i.e., our developers can help them find ways to debug their project, just as, thanks to them, there is lots of DFSG-free software that we otherwise would not be able to put in main). I personally would be in favor of adding such a sentiment but for the purposes of this proposal I wanted to stick to the technical issues. There are also some typographical corrections in sections outside 5.7, but I do not expect these to be controversial. (Hopefully the meat of my proposal isn't either, but one never can tell...) Unified diff to the .sgml source is MIME-attached. -- G. Branden Robinson | Measure with micrometer, Debian GNU/Linux | mark with chalk, branden@ecn.purdue.edu | cut with axe, cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu/~branden/ | hope like hell.
--- policy.sgml.old Sun May 23 23:54:30 1999
+++ policy.sgml Mon May 24 00:30:05 1999
@@ -555,10 +555,10 @@
because we are trying to produce, amongst other
things, a free Unix. Other packages without which the
system will not run well or be usable should also be
- here. This does <em>not</em> include Emacs or X11 or
- TeX or any other large applications. The
- <tt>important</tt> packages are just a bare minimum of
- commonly-expected and necessary tools.</p>
+ here. This does <em>not</em> include Emacs, the X
+ Window System, TeX or any other large applications.
+ The <tt>important</tt> packages are just a bare
+ minimum of commonly-expected and necessary tools.</p>
</item>
<tag><tt>standard</tt></tag>
<item>
@@ -580,8 +580,8 @@
all the software that you might reasonably want to
install if you didn't know what it was or don't have
specialised requirements. This is a much larger system
- and includes X11, a full TeX distribution, and lots of
- applications.</p>
+ and includes the X Window System, a full TeX
+ distribution, and lots of applications.</p>
</item>
<tag><tt>extra</tt></tag>
<item>
@@ -1806,7 +1806,7 @@
The interpretation of any keyboard events should be
independent of the terminal that's used (either the console,
- X windows, rlogin/telnet session, etc.).</p>
+ X terminal emulators, rlogin/telnet session, etc.).</p>
<p>
The following list explains how the different programs
@@ -2747,20 +2747,21 @@
<sect>
- <heading>Programs for the X Windows system</heading>
+ <heading>Programs for the X Window System</heading>
<p>
Some programs can be configured with or without support for
- X Windows. Typically these binaries produced when
- configured for X will need the X shared libraries to
+ the X Window System. Typically, binaries produced when
+ built with X support will need the X shared libraries to
run.</p>
<p>
Such programs should be configured <em>with</em> X support,
- and should declare a dependency on <tt>xlib6g</tt> (for the
- X11R6 libraries). Users who wish to use the program can
- install just the relatively small <tt>xlib6g</tt> package,
- and do not need to install the whole of X.</p>
+ and should declare a dependency on <tt>xlib6g</tt> (which
+ contains X shared libraries). Users who wish to use the
+ program can install just the relatively small
+ <tt>xfree86-common</tt> and <tt>xlib6g</tt> packages, and do
+ not need to install the whole of X.</p>
<p>
Do not create two versions (one with X support and one
@@ -2769,33 +2770,62 @@
<p>
<em>Application defaults</em> files have to be installed in
the directory
- <tt>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</tt>. They are
- considered as part of the program code. Thus, they should
+ <tt>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</tt>. They are
+ considered as part of the program code. Thus, they should
not be modified and should not be tagged as
- <em>conffile</em>. If the local system administrator wants
- to customise X applications globally, the file
- <tt>/etc/X11/Xresources</tt> should be used.</p>
-
- <p>
- If you package a program that requires a non-free Motif
- library, it would be good if you can provide a "foo-smotif"
- and a "foo-dmotif" package, containing a (against Motif
- libraries) statically and a dynamically linked version,
- respectively. This way, users without Motif can use the
- package too, while users that have Motif installed get the
- advantages of a dynamically linked version.</p>
-
- <p>
- However, if your package works reliably with lesstif, you
- should package it with lesstif, and not with Motif at
- all.</p>
-
+ <em>conffile</em>. If the local system administrator wants
+ to customise X applications globally, a file with the same
+ name as that of the package should be placed in the
+ <tt>/etc/X11/Xresources/</tt> directory instead.
+ <em>Important:</em> packages that install files into the
+ <tt>/etc/X11/Xresources/</tt> directory <em>must</em>
+ declare a conflict with <tt>xbase (<<
+ 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>; if this is not done it is possible for the
+ package to destroy a previously-existing
+ <tt>/etc/X11/Xresources</tt> <em>file</em>.</p>
+
+ <p>
+ No package should ever install files into the directories
+ <tt>/usr/bin/X11/</tt>, <tt>/usr/doc/X11/</tt>,
+ <tt>/usr/include/X11/</tt>, or <tt>/usr/lib/X11/</tt>; these
+ directories are actually symbolic links, which <tt>dpkg</tt>
+ does not follow when unpacking a package. Instead, use
+ <tt>/usr/X11R6/bin/</tt>, <tt>/usr/doc/package/</tt> (i.e.,
+ place files with the rest of your package's documentation),
+ <tt>/usr/X11R6/include/</tt>, and
+ <tt>/usr/X11R6/lib/</tt>. It is permissible, and even
+ preferable, however, for a package to refer to the
+ <tt>/usr/{bin,include,lib}/X11/</tt> directories internally,
+ however; this restriction governs only the paths used by the
+ package as it is unpacked onto the system.</p>
+
<p>
- Note, that packages that require non-free Motif libraries
- can't go into the main section. If your package is free
- otherwise, it should go into contrib. Otherwise it has to go
- into non-free.</p></sect>
-
+ If you package a program that requires the (non-free)
+ OSF/Motif library, you should try to determine if the
+ programs works reasonably well with the free
+ re-implementation of Motif called LessTif. If so, build the
+ package using the LessTif libraries; it can then go into the
+ main section of the package repository and become an
+ official part of the Debian distribution.</p>
+
+ <p>
+ If however, the Motif-based program works insufficiently
+ well with LessTif, you should instead provide "-smotif" and "-dmotif"
+ versions (appending these identifiers to the name of the
+ package), which are statically and dynamically linked
+ against the Motif libraries, respectively. (All known
+ versions of OSF/Motif permit redistribution of
+ statically-linked binaries using the library, but check the
+ license on your copy of Motif to be sure.) This two-package
+ approach allows users without Motif to use the package,
+ whereas users with Motif installed can enjoy the advantages
+ of the dynamically-linked version (a considerable savings in
+ disk space usage, download time, etc.). Neither "-smotif"
+ nor "-dmotif" packages can go into the main section; if the
+ licensing on the package is compatible with the Debian Free
+ Software Guidelines, it may go into the contrib section;
+ otherwise it must go into the non-free section.</p></sect>
+
<sect>
<heading>Emacs lisp programs</heading>
@@ -2848,7 +2878,7 @@
<p>
As described in the FSSTND, binaries of games should be
installed in the directory <tt>/usr/games</tt>. This also
- applies to games that use the X windows system. Manual pages
+ applies to games that use the X Window System. Manual pages
for games (X and non-X games) should be installed in
<tt>/usr/man/man6</tt>.</p>
</sect>
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