Re: PROPOSAL: complete list of documentation files, "man <packagename>", all man pages refer to said doc list in "See Also" section
On 21-May-00, 23:25 (CDT), "Stephen R. Gore" <sgore@debian.org> wrote:
> Steve Greenland wrote:
> > Actually, if there is an INSTALL type document, I usually don't include
> > it in the package. The user doesn't need to know how to configure and
> > compile the softwarer -- that's the major point of a Debian package.
>
> Steve, at one point I would have unhesitatingly agreed with what you said
> above. But I've recently become involved in porting, and have repeatedly
> been reduced to gnashing my teeth and using web search engines to try and
> find the info used to configure and build packages. While the information
> is certainly superflous in .debs, it would be very useful included in the
> source.
>
I was writing strictly about binary packages (.deb), source packages
should obviously (?) include any INSTALL files, etc. But the "pristine
source" goal should take care of that, right? Surely nobody removes
files from their source packages...I hope!
I guess the weird case would be that the upstream tar.gz file doesn't
include the build/install instructions, but they are available as a
seperate file(s) on a web site. In that case, I'd strongly encourage
including them in the Debianized source (which would end up in the
.diff.gz file). Is this situation common enough to be worth mentioning
in the packaging manual (which seems the appropriate place, rather than
policy).
Steve
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