Hi, >>"Jim" == Jim Pick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> Might it be possible to, say, have a list of `supported formats' -- >> .tar.gz, .zip, others? -- and at least give the option of >> downloading upstream sources which were originally in other formats >> as a tarball? This is far from ideal, for any number of reasons >> (maintainer upload time, archive space), but on the other hand it's >> IMHO important not to force people to install piles of random >> decompression programs just to get at the source archives.
Jim> Well, either we are going to wrap the pristine upstream sources Jim> in a "Debian format source package" -- or we are going to just Jim> store the pristine upstream sources (in tar.gz, .zip, etc, etc) Jim> in the source archive individually. If we go with pristine Jim> sources, we can't modify the package they originally came in (or Jim> the md5 checksum is different). I think that it would be Jim> pragmatic though to not allow any upstream source packages that Jim> come in a file format that can't be unwrapped by an available Jim> Debian package. Also, it might be wise to limit the variety of Jim> upstream source package formats for packages in the base system. Or, thirdly, we use pristine sources iff they are in supported formats, or else the upstream source is massaged into a supported format, and BIG signs are posted pointing to the real sources and the steps taken to massage it into the supported format. manoj -- Manoj Srivastava <url:mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mobile, Alabama USA <url:http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/> -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .