Sigh. On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 09:25:39AM +0200, Giacomo A. Catenazzi wrote: > Wouter Verhelst wrote: > >That doesn't follow. You're assuming it's going to be impossible to keep > >the original debian/changelog file, and/or that the only way to package > >something that an upstream has packaged as native is to package it as > >non-native. > > hmm. Do you think we should pack an external package as native, if > upstream (or "upstream distribution") packages it as native?
No, of course not. Please don't put any words in my mouth. What I'm trying to discuss here is that Debian Developers who package their own software as Debian native packages should be allowed to do so, if they know what the downsides are. That is not even remotely similar to upstreams doing the wildest things. I've said so multiple times now. [...] > >People fork software *all the time*. This is no different. > > Yes, but it is not our job to fork packages (freely interpreted from > devref 3.5). I didn't even come close to saying that. When downstreams change a Debian-native package, they are in fact forking our software. That is what I was referring to with the above-quoted sentence. However, that is not the same, nor does it even remotely have anything to do, with Debian Developers forking upstream software. Of course, if someone packages software for Debian as a native package, doing so will encourage downstreams to fork their software. That is one of the downsides of packaging software natively, and again, this should be documented; but there's nothing inherently wrong with that. If an upstream were to say that a Debian Developer should stop sending them patches, and that they instead should just develop their own version, then that, perhaps, would be somewhat similar. If you really must have an upstream analogy. Now, can you please stop twisting this discussion into insanity? -- The biometric identification system at the gates of the CIA headquarters works because there's a guard with a large gun making sure no one is trying to fool the system. http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/01/biometrics.html
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