Julian Andres Klode writes ("Re: Bug#908747: Default -I and -i option should
not exclude .<vcs>ignore"):
> On Thu, Sep 13, 2018 at 12:26:27PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > The result of this default is that many source packages in the Debian
> > archive are incomplete. [...]
>
> By the same reason, you could argue that not shipping .git is a DFSG/GPL
> violation. ignore files are things that integrate the source code with
> the version control system.
This is an interesting argument but it is probably sensible to defer
it for another day. (If you do subscribe to that argument, I guess
you would always use dgit, or always push your git branch to salsa
with appropriate signed tags.)
Looking more narrowly, it seems to me that: including the .gitignore
(say) is sometimes helpful, and never harmful. So stripping it out is
simply a mistake.
It is helpful, for example, if the user does
apt-get source && cd $p && git init && git add . && git commit
so they can work under version control. This is a common approach to
work around the fact that Debian still often does not publish a
useable branch. Including the .gitignore is helpful for a user
using dgit to fetch a not-uploaded-with-dgit package (because dgit
ends up doing something a bit like that git add.) It is helpful when
handling nmus, sponsorship, etc. because it means the source package
is more like the git repository.
Do you agree ?
Whereas including the .git/ directory is currently forbidden in
Debian. That is surely a separate, much wider, debate, which I would
be happy to have with you - indeed, I am sympathetic - but not in this
bug report.
Ian.
--
Ian Jackson <ijack...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> These opinions are my own.
If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
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