Re: What is the source code (was: [RFC] General Resolution to deploy tag2upload)

[Sam Hartman <hartmans@debian.org>]

>>>>> "Ian" == Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:

    Ian> Gerardo Ballabio writes ("What is the source code (was: [RFC]
    Ian> General Resolution to deploy tag2upload)"):
    >> Paul R. Tagliamonte wrote:
    >> > I wonder if we have a good idea of what the project believes to
    >> be the case between #1 and #2:
    >> >
    >> > 1) Is the source of a package the debian source distribution?
    >> > 2) Is the source of a package the VCS where the source is held?
    >> 
    >> Let me rewrite that in a different way:
    >> 
    >> 1) is the source of a package the current version of the code?
    >> [*] 2) is the source of a package the complete history of the
    >> project? [**]

    Ian> Yes, this ks the key question.  I agree with you that the
    Ian> representation doesn't matter for this purpose. [1]

    Ian> My answer is that it depends on the development practices
    Ian> (mostly, the development practices of upstream), but for most
    Ian> modern software the answer is 2.

    Ian> I should be clear that I thiknk there is room for reasonable
    Ian> disagreement on this, particularly since the question is so
    Ian> context-dependent.

I agree with Ian's answer.

I happened to do some digging through mail archives about our internal
discussions about preferred form of modification over the years
recently.

My conclusions are:

* There is no consensus here. We've been arguing about related issues
  since 2003 and while the argument  has advanced, we're no more near
  consensus now than then.

* Simon Mcvittie talks about "a preferred form of modification" rather
  than "the preferred form of modification."
  I think that is a useful think to keep in mind.

Even for a GPLed work, I do not think we would consider either a release
tarball or a git repository to fail to comply with the GPL's requirement
to distribute the preferred form of modification for a work.
(Obviously, other factors might impact things.  For example, if the work
included minified javascript without corresponding source, a lot of us
would argue that failed to be the preferred form of modification. Note I
don't even think there is project consensus on that point; it doesn't
matter because there is consensus in the FTP team that minified
javascript is not enough without the source somewhere in the archive.)