Re: Recommending get-orig-source for packages ?
Hi Ben,
> I think adding a field to ‘debian/copyright’ for that purpose is a bad
> idea, so I am unlikely to incorporate that functionality into the
> document.
I'm sure you are aware that policy §12.5 requires the details of where
upstream sources were obtained from; that is commonly interpreted to include
specifying what modifications were made to the upstream tarball since the
modification is part of the tarball's origin. DevRef once recommended that
this information be in debian/README.Debian-source, but this recommendation
was removed on the basis that this information should already be in
debian/copyright (see #413320).
In the current copyright-format/1.0, people are including repackaging
information with a Comment field, as an explanatory text to the Source field
or with some other ad hoc field name. The data are free form and, if some
other sort of debian/repack is to be used, are then duplicated between
debian/repack (get-orig-source or any of the other options that are in the
archive) and debian/copyright. Consolidating this information in one place
seems like a good idea which was the very rationale behind #413320 and then
these uscan improvements. If you believe there is a better place for this
information than debian/copyright and that Policy §12.5 and the thoughts of
our policy delegates in #413320 are wrong, then discussing this on the
debian-policy mailing list would be appropriate. Both §12.5 and §4.14
(debian/README.source) could certainly be clarified on this point. (See also
an abortive attempted to discuss this further in #492661.)
Using d/copyright + uscan for this is also finally an opportunity to do this
using a standard tool set with a declarative syntax. It's a chance to reduce
the number of different ways of doing this in the archive; let's not let the
perpetual wait for the perfect to miraculously appear get in the way of
using the good that is right in front of us.
regards
Stuart
--
Stuart Prescott http://www.nanonanonano.net/ stuart@nanonanonano.net
Debian Developer http://www.debian.org/ stuart@debian.org
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