Bug#610083: Remove requirement to document upstream source location in debian/copyright ?
Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> writes:
> Le Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 09:38:51AM +0100, Thijs Kinkhorst a écrit :
> > […] the proposal lacks the information about what cost is associated
> > with the current sitiuation. Really, it's just a few keystrokes when
> > first creating the package and hardly needs to be changed afterward.
> > […]
> >
> > What problem is this trying to solve?
>
> In a recent discussion about DEP-5, it was noted that often the
> Homepage field is redundant with the information in debian/copyright:
>
> http://lists.debian.org/20110113213843.GB11512@gnu.kitenet.net
That doesn't argue against the current situation. The Homepage field
isn't recording the same fact as needed in the ‘copyright’ file.
> Note that the purpose of the Homepage field, perhaps unfortunately
> more in the Policy than in the practice, is already to lead to the
> upstream sources:
I think you are misrepresenting that part of Policy:
> 5.6.23 Homepage
>
> The URL of the web site for this package, preferably (when
> applicable) the site from which the original source can be obtained
> and any additional upstream documentation or information may be
> found. The content of this field is a simple URL without any
> surrounding characters such as <>.
Note that this does not say “the URL from which the original source was
obtained”. The purpose of ‘Homepage’ is to record the homepage of the
*site* from which various information about the upstream package, not
only the source, can be obtained.
A URL pointing *only* to the source would be inappropriate for
‘Homepage’, unless that best met the description of “the web site for
this package”.
For any package whose upstream website contains a mix of descriptions,
news, release downloads, BTS, VCS, documentation, mailing lists, etc.,
the URL appropriate for ‘Homepage’ would not be one appropriate for
DEP-5 ‘Source’.
So your lament that Homepage is “perhaps unfortunately more in the
Policy than in the practice … to lead to the upstream sources”, is
because the Policy wording doesn't support that view.
The ‘Source’ field of DEP-5, on the other hand, is specifically about
the provenance of the source code for the package in Debian. This is not
the same thing as ‘Homepage’. If the same URL is appropriate for both,
that would be a special case only, and does not make either one
redundant.
--
\ “I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we |
`\ understand this cosmos, in which we float like a mote of dust |
_o__) in the morning sky.” —Carl Sagan, _Cosmos_, 1980 |
Ben Finney <ben@benfinney.id.au>
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