On Mon, Oct 18, 1999 at 06:16:58PM -0700, Philippe Troin wrote: > "Pure data" packages are a problem because: > 2) There is NO packaging needed. It's just a tar ball. Well, it has to be arranged according to policy (ie, /usr/share/doc/foo, instead of just ./foo), and running things like install-docs or install-menu could be useful. > 3) Where do we stop ? As someone says, there's nothing preventing > me from uploading as debian package every single .wav or .mov > file on the Internet just because it's useful. But OTOH, it *is* useful, and it'd be nice to have it integrated into the distribution rather than just thrown in /usr/local or ~ or somewhere. E and Gnome themes strike me as one good example here. > This is what I believe are acceptable "pure data" packages: > 5) Linux-specific or debian-specific data (HOWTOs, FAQs, > debian-user-guide). ie, "documentation" ? What of things like Linux Gazette? Or, say, a collection of old issues of lwn or slashdot? Or a collection of old bug reports against Debian packages? I'd be inclined to leave all of them in a data section. > Examples of data packages which does NOT belong to debian (IMHO): > 2) Any kind of text easily findable on the web (RFCs (even though I > love to have RFCs around, but we have a draw a line)) The whole point being that with a data/ section, you can just add an Apt line, or buy a "Debian + Data" CD set, and still have them lying around. > Pros of this policy: > 2) Avoids controversial materials (politics and religious texts) Like bitchx, or SATAN, or nmap, or devfs? :) > Of course, with some common sense we would have avoided this > discussion. Common sense is ever so much more common in the past tense. Cheers, aj -- Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/> I don't speak for anyone save myself. PGP encrypted mail preferred. ``The thing is: trying to be too generic is EVIL. It's stupid, it results in slower code, and it results in more bugs.'' -- Linus Torvalds
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