Re: The Gordian Knot (was Re: Negative Summary of the Split Proposal)
On Mon, Jul 05, 1999 at 11:08:05AM -0500, Chris Lawrence wrote:
> On Jul 05, Richard Stallman wrote:
> > I have asked Debian to provide A main server that holds only the free
> > software. This doesn't mean removing the non-free packages from ALL
> > the main Debian servers, only from ONE or some of them.
> >
> > I have asked for the web pages to be separated, so that we can refer
> > to the free part alone. This means removing the reference to non-free
> > packages from PART of the Debian web pages, not from all. There would
> > still be Debian web pages on Debian web servers which talk about the
> > non-free packages, just as there are now.
>
> My understanding was that the archive split proposal only affects the
> FTP and HTTP services for downloading packages. As such, it does
> nothing to promote your goal of providing an interface to only the
> free packages (it only changes the URLs of the non-free ones).
Exactly. I think your (rms) support of this proposal misses the point
that most people don't download packages directly from the web/ftp
site--there are tools that hide the actual location from the user.
*Moving the packages from one url to another doesn't change how they
appear to, or are accessed by, the end user.* There have been
discussions on how to correct that, but it's an interface issue--_not_ a
repository layout issue.
If what you're after is a sanitized web site, that's a different
proposal than Wichert's, which he has stated only refers to the package
url's. Otherwise, mirroring only ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/main will
get you the ftp site you're looking for without necessitating a lot of
changes and work for _all_ of the other debian mirrors.
Mike Stone
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