Package: debian-policy Version: 4.6.2.0 Severity: normal Tags: patch It has been four months since the General Resolution 2022/vote_003 was voted¹, but it has not yet been completely adopted. The archive area was created and at least a package was uploaded to it in October, but it has not seen further movement. Two days ago, a call to action for moving packages was sent by Cyril Brulebois², and I just sent a mail checking for other places where it should be included³.
¹ https://www.debian.org/vote/2022/vote_003 ² https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2023/01/msg00150.html ³ https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2023/01/msg00018.html To my surprise, the non-free-firmware archive area has not yet been discussed for inclusion in the Policy. I am (now!) aware there is a clear process to get changes included in the Policy, but this is the first time I do this, so please excuse me for jumping all the way to "State D: Wording proposed" (of course, my words can be checked and improved, particularly given I'm not a native English speaker). ⁴ https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ap-process.html I am suggesting the following patch, which I'm attaching to this bug report, and also uploaded them to my fork of debian-policy in Salsa: https://salsa.debian.org/gwolf/policy/-/commit/79c58a40065c01f56850f86e883d8fa482c7cca0 Thank you very much for considering this! -- System Information: Debian Release: bookworm/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 6.0.0-6-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) LSM: AppArmor: enabled debian-policy depends on no packages. Versions of packages debian-policy recommends: ii libjs-sphinxdoc 5.3.0-3 Versions of packages debian-policy suggests: pn doc-base <none> -- no debconf information
diff --git a/policy/ch-archive.rst b/policy/ch-archive.rst index ab04261..15b9343 100644 --- a/policy/ch-archive.rst +++ b/policy/ch-archive.rst @@ -24,11 +24,11 @@ The aims of this are: The *main* archive area forms the *Debian distribution*. -Packages in the other archive areas (``contrib``, ``non-free``) are not -considered to be part of the Debian distribution, although we support -their use and provide infrastructure for them (such as our bug-tracking -system and mailing lists). This Debian Policy Manual applies to these -packages as well. +Packages in the other archive areas (``non-free-firmware``, +``contrib``, ``non-free``) are not considered to be part of the Debian +distribution, although we support their use and provide infrastructure +for them (such as our bug-tracking system and mailing lists). This +Debian Policy Manual applies to these packages as well. .. _s-dfsg: @@ -130,6 +130,27 @@ In addition, the packages in *main* - must meet all policy requirements presented in this manual. +.. _s-non-free-firmware: + +The non-free-firmware archive area +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The *non-free-firmware* archive area contains packages providing +firmware needed to initialize, use or keep updated hardware required +by our users, typically necessary for important functions to be +available (i.e. wireless network connectivity) or for fixing security +defects in hardware (i.e. CPU microcode updates). Packages in this +archive may not comply with all of the policy requirements in this +manual due to lack of source code availability, restrictions on +modification or other limitations. + +Packages in *non-free-firmware* + +- must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them, and + + - must meet all policy requiremens presented in this manual that it + is possible for them to meet. + .. _s-contrib: The contrib archive area @@ -261,8 +282,8 @@ prohibited" and "distribution restricted". Sections -------- -The packages in the archive areas *main*, *contrib* and *non-free* are -grouped further into *sections* to simplify handling. +The packages in the archive areas *main*, *non-free-firmware*, *contrib* +and *non-free* are grouped further into *sections* to simplify handling. The archive area and section for each package should be specified in the package's ``Section`` control record (see @@ -272,8 +293,8 @@ the Debian distribution. The ``Section`` field should be of the form: - *section* if the package is in the *main* archive area, -- *area/section* if the package is in the *contrib* or *non-free* - archive areas. +- *area/section* if the package is in the *non-free-firmware*, *contrib* + or *non-free* archive areas. The Debian archive maintainers provide the authoritative list of sections. At present, they are: admin, cli-mono, comm, database, debug,