On pe, 2010-08-13 at 09:08 +1000, Craig Small wrote: > I tried to use it once on one program and just ditched it. It only made > it more difficult for me and for anyone who read it.
That would indicate there is a bug in the DEP-5 spec. It is, in my very non-humble opinion, not acceptable for DEP-5 to make it harder to maintain debian/copyright in DEP-5 format than as a free-form one, except for minimal markup. It seems that the process so far has created an impression that a DEP-5 file should be incredibly specific and detailed, and we'll have to fix that. > You really need to stop and think what is this for? What information is > important to have and what can be found in the source files later if > someone really cares. The answer (obviously to me, but not so obviously to others) is that it should have the same information as a free-form copyright file, at the same precision as the free-form file would have, while allowing more precision for those who want provide it. > My suggestions: > * Split out the authors and the copyright dates into one chunk. The > fact that fileA is copyright 2005 Joe and fileB is copyright 2006 > Fred and then fileC is copyright 2006 both of this is completely > irrelevant for most people, just that Joe and Fred have copyright > of some parts of the package is enough. Files: * Copyright: 2005-2006, Joe 2006, Fred But I'll bring this up later in a separate thread, since there is a detail that may need discussing. > * Make it possible to say "this package is licensed under foo > except fileA which is licensed under bar" Files: * License: foo Files: fileA License: bar > > More importantly, making debian/copyright be machine parseable provides > > some immediate benefits, without having to wait for a solution to the > > big, difficult problem. > What are these benefits? >From me initial mail in this thread: 'For example, answering questions like "what stuff is GPLv2 only, and therefore incompatible with GPLv3?".' (With 'stuff' being 'package', and not 'file'.) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-project-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1281658184.2264.115.ca...@havelock