Bug#889820: debian-policy: 12.5, relaxed requirement for copyright location

[Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>]

On Wed, Feb 07, 2018 at 01:43:08PM +0100, Javier Serrano Polo wrote:
> Package: debian-policy
> Version: 4.1.3.0
> Severity: wishlist
> X-Debbugs-CC: aba@debian.org, ballombe@debian.org, spwhitton@spwhitton.name, rra@debian.org
> 
> Copyright information, like changelogs and manuals, is not technically
> required by software.
> 
> I propose this enhancement to section 12.5:
> 
>         Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its
>         copyright information and distribution license in the
>         file /usr/share/doc/package/copyright
>         or /usr/share/doc/source-copyright/copyright; the latter may not
>         be installed. [...]
> 
>         [...] and the first package Depends on the second.
>         Alternatively, /usr/share/doc/package may not exist if the
>         package Recommends source-copyright, which comes from the same
>         source. [...]

Let it be clear: this alternative is to ship an optional, extra arch-all
package named <source package-name>-copyright that includes the copyright
files and only the copyright files ?

For what it is worth, I never liked the idea of publishing .deb files
that did not include the copyright file.
However your proposal has the benefit of avoiding spurious circular
dependencies caused by the symlink option.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.