Bug#167422: general: files in /usr/share should be world-readable

[tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)]

Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au> writes:

> If you want to share nethack bones files, you put them in /var/games/nethack,
> or similar, then share it.

The problem with this strategy is that it requires administrators to
keep track of which packages can share which directories, and this is
in general hard to figure out.  The idea behind the GNU Coding
Standards (and FHS, which copied this from them) is that the
maintainer should determine what can be shared, and then the
administrator (if he wants sharing at all) arranges to have the
relevant generic directories shared.

That said, my faulty memory misattributed the "share" directory;
according to both the GNU Coding Standards and the FHS, it's supposed
to have *read-only* data.  So the nethack example isn't on target
after all.

Still, I'm loath to create extra rules that we don't need.  In
general, yes, *every* file should be readable, and it's appropriate to
file bug reports for the Debian packages which needlessly prevent
files from being readable.  But I don't think we should ensconse a
rule here.