Re: ``Disclaimer'' field to document non-free-ness reasons [ Was: non-free? ]
Stefano Zacchiroli <zack@debian.org> writes:
> On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 09:10:05PM +0800, Paul Wise wrote:
>> Now Debian policy (section 12.5) says it should be stored in
>> debian/copyright.
> Right. For reference here is the relevant snippet from §12.5:
> Packages in the _contrib_ or _non-free_ archive areas should state in
> the copyright file that the package is not part of the Debian
> distribution and briefly explain why.
> and from Copyright Format 1.0:
> Disclaimer
> Formatted text, no synopsis: this field is used for non-free or
> contrib packages to state that they are not part of Debian and to
> explain why (see Debian Policy section 12.5).
> Questions for my -policy friends: can I conclude from the above that the
> Disclaimer field is to be used _only_ for contrib/non-free packages, and
> only to explain the reason of their (transitive) non-free-ness? Or is
> there a risk of overloading it for other reasons? (The current text
> implies it is not, but the name is a bit generic, and I prefer safe over
> sorry.)
I believe the intent was for it to be used only for this purpose. It
probably would have been better to give it a more unambiguous name.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
Reply to: