Bug#555980: debian-policy: No policy on statically linked binaries

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Bill Allombert wrote:

> --- a/policy.sgml
> +++ b/policy.sgml
> @@ -8466,7 +8466,11 @@ fi
>  	  renamed.  If a consensus cannot be reached, <em>both</em>
>  	  programs must be renamed.
>  	</p>
> -
> +	<p>
> +          Binary executables must not be statically linked with the 
> +          GNU C library, unless there is technical requirement for
> +          doing so.
> +	</p>

What does it mean for there to be a technical requirement?  For
example, is there a technical requirement for bash-static to be
statically linked?  (A rescue disk could always include the libc
shared library instead of using a statically linked binary.)

xzdec contains binaries statically linked against liblzma but not
against libc.  That means they wouldn't run afoul of this requirement.
Is that within the spirit of this policy?

What is the purpose of this change?

 * avoiding nss pain when libc gets upgraded?
 * license compliance, it being too hard to remember to use
   Built-Using?
 * security, missing out on fixes when libc gets upgraded?
 * something else?

Thanks,
Jonathan