Bug#902981: Bug#1135180: DFSG status of fonts-font-awesome (was: Re: Bug#902981: new upstream (5.1.0))
On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 05:51:40PM -0400, Reinhard Tartler wrote: > Thanks for your diligence and the massive effort by Jonas, Vasudev, > Pirate, Julian, and the rest of the team in navigating the complexities > of Font Awesome over the years. I'm following up from the DFSG team's > perspective, keeping the recent discussions in bug #1135180 and the > history of #902981 in mind regarding a compliant path for these icons. > > Our look at the 5.0.10+really4.7.0~dfsg tree confirms that the > exclusion of the upstream src/ directory in debian/copyright was a > necessary move to purge several non-free blobs. Specifically, the > upstream src/assets/js/ directory contains minified versions of > prettify.js, respond.js, and ZeroClipboard.js without source, along with > a compiled Flash binary (ZeroClipboard.swf). > > While this exclusion correctly purges non-free blobs, it highlights that > the "preferred form for modification" for the icons (the individual SVG > files or FontForge project) is missing from the upstream distribution. > As it stands, the source package only carries generated font binaries > and a combined SVG font file. > > This finding aligns with the goals of bug #1135180. Although the Fork > Awesome project is now archived and defunct, its SIL OFL-licensed SVG > assets remain a valid source for the icons. A sustainable path forward > would involve using a modern, Debian-native build toolchain—such as > python3-fontforge or node-webfont—to generate the font binaries > directly from these SVG sources during the package build. We can provide > guidance on structuring a compliant source package and are happy to > review any proposed changes to ensure they meet archive standards > before your next upload. > > -rt on behalf of the DFSG team Thanks Reinhard! I hadn't realised that ForkAwesome was archived, but so is FontAwesome 4.7.0. The fonts-fontawesome-free-legacy package is now in unstable - I built it from the SVG sources using Yadd and Roland Mas's Python script (copied from the node-fortawesome-fontawesome-free source package, which now builds version 7.x of FontAwesome from the SVG sources). ForkAwesome builds in a DFSG-free way using fontcustom (written by the ForkAwesome team, and found in Debian main). So the issue is only about the old 4.7.0 version of FontAwesome: do I understand the situation correctly that this is not considered DFSG-free in its current state, and so needs replacing throughout the archive (and not just in this one package)? If it needs replacing, ForkAwesome is probably a perfectly reasonable way to do so, as it is close to identical, but has an open source build system. It does not matter that the ForkAwesome project is dead. Also, as I noted, this is quite pervasive, as FontAwesome 4.7.0 fonts are included in hundreds of packages, though many of those will likely be resolved if a handful of generator packages (eg sphinx-rtd-theme) can be fixed. Best wishes, Julian
Bug#1135180: DFSG status of fonts-font-awesome (was: Re: Bug#902981: new upstream (5.1.0))
Julian, Thank you for taking the time to do this. This is the type of work that nobody gets excited about doing, but that needs to be done to maintain Debian’s purity. On Wednesday, May 13, 2026 2:27:00 PM Mountain Standard Time Julian Gilbey wrote: > affects 902981 src:aiodogstatsd src:ataqv src:bazel-bootstrap src:debci > src:ipywidgets src:kanboard src:node-webfont src:orthanc-dicomweb src:pagure > src:publican src:r-cran-shiny src:r-cran-visnetwork src:scaphandre > src:sphinx-rtd-theme src:igraph src:mdbook src:lcdf-typetools ataqv bepasty > bornagain-doc crmsh-doc debci dpdk-doc drbd-doc ford gerbera glances-doc > glbinding-doc hackrf-doc icecast2 janus-demos jupyterhub kanboard > libigraph-doc liblemonldap-ng-portal-perl mitmproxy mkdocs odoo-19 > openmpi-doc otrs2 pagure prewikka publican python-aiodogstatsd-doc > python-aioitertools-doc python-mintpy-doc python-qtawesome-common > python-sphinx-mdinclude-doc python3-ase python3-cylc > python3-django-hyperkitty python3-django-postorius > python3-djangorestframework python3-flask-bootstrap > python3-openstackdocstheme python3-xstatic-font-awesome r-cran-bookdown > r-cran-rmarkdown r-cran-shiny r-cran-visnetwork reform-desktop-full rust-doc > screenkey simple-whip-server sphinx-rtd-theme-common sreview-web swappy sympa > texlive-fonts-extra-links tulip webext-foxyproxy weechat-doc wims wims-lti > wsjtx-doc wsjtx-improved-doc thanks > > [Cc-ing debian-devel as there is a question about a mass bug filing at > the end of this email; please Cc the bug report in any replies.] > > On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 10:07:53PM +0200, Bastian Germann wrote: > > Please note that node-fortawesome-fontawesome-free builds the > > fortawesome v6 from source now. So there is a chance that we can update > > this package as well. > > Also, in #1135180, Bastian wrote: > > When you are dealing with the fonts-font-awesome package please consider all > > its reverse (build) dependencies. > > > > You should not make it hard on other package maintainers, i.e. please do not > > make them transition manually unnecessarily. > > Dear all readers of this bug report, > > [I have marked all of the packages in unstable which build-depend or > depend on fonts-font-awesome as "affected" by this bug, as this may > well affect you significantly.] > > I have just packaged fonts-font-awesome-legacy, containing DFSG-free > versions of Font Awesome 5 and 6, and it has been accepted into > unstable. I next intend to upgrade the fonts-font-awesome package > itself to version 7.x of the font. > > I was looking at including version 4.7.0 of FontAwesome in the legacy > package to support other packages which need this specific legacy > version, without requiring maintainers to make any major changes to > their packages except to (build-)depend on the legacy package rather > than the fonts-font-awesome package. But I've hit a major stumbling > block... > > To summarise most of the discussion in this bug report (#902981): > FontAwesome's build system became closed-source in version 5.x, so > Debian can't distribute it, and we have to stick with version 4.7.0. > Therefore fonts-font-awesome was downgraded from 5.1.0 back to 4.7.0. > > However, looking at the source package for fonts-font-awesome (which > is the upstream 4.7.0 version), I cannot find any evidence of a build > system. Nor do I find any source for the icons in the GitHub > repository or any build system there (looking at the 4.x branch). > Indeed, the Debian package simply copies the compiled fonts (TTF, OTF > and so on) into the appropriate directories under /usr. So it seems > that the package as-is is actually not DFSG-free in the same way that > the 5.x version isn't: there is no "source code". And 4.x is even > worse than 5.x: while the SVG sources are included in the GitHub > repository in version 5.1.0 upwards (first committed to the repository > in June 2018), they do not appear before that, so there is no hope of > making a DFSG-free build of FontAwesome 4.7.0. (The SVG sources are > embedded in the SVG font, but that is not the original source of the > icons.) > > My proposal is therefore the following: > > - FontAwesome 4.7.0 should be dropped from Debian completely. This is > a big deal, though; over 500 packages in testing ship > fontawesome-webfont.woff2 But if I've read the situation correctly, > that is the direction we should be heading in, though that's far > beyond my capacity to manage. See below for some further thoughts > on this. > > - fonts-font-awesome is upgraded to version 7.x of the upstream font, > in TTF and WOFF2 formats, using a home-grown DFSG-free build system > (courtesy of Roland Mas and Yadd, who wrote this for the > node-fortawesome-fontawesome-free package); this package will no > longer contain any other formats of the font, nor any CSS/LESS/JS > code. > > - fonts-font-awesome-legacy provides versions 5 and 6 of the font in > TTF and WOFF2 formats, aga
Bug#1135180: DFSG status of fonts-font-awesome (was: Re: Bug#902981: new upstream (5.1.0))
affects 902981 src:aiodogstatsd src:ataqv src:bazel-bootstrap src:debci src:ipywidgets src:kanboard src:node-webfont src:orthanc-dicomweb src:pagure src:publican src:r-cran-shiny src:r-cran-visnetwork src:scaphandre src:sphinx-rtd-theme src:igraph src:mdbook src:lcdf-typetools ataqv bepasty bornagain-doc crmsh-doc debci dpdk-doc drbd-doc ford gerbera glances-doc glbinding-doc hackrf-doc icecast2 janus-demos jupyterhub kanboard libigraph-doc liblemonldap-ng-portal-perl mitmproxy mkdocs odoo-19 openmpi-doc otrs2 pagure prewikka publican python-aiodogstatsd-doc python-aioitertools-doc python-mintpy-doc python-qtawesome-common python-sphinx-mdinclude-doc python3-ase python3-cylc python3-django-hyperkitty python3-django-postorius python3-djangorestframework python3-flask-bootstrap python3-openstackdocstheme python3-xstatic-font-awesome r-cran-bookdown r-cran-rmarkdown r-cran-shiny r-cran-visnetwork reform-desktop-full rust-doc screenkey simple-whip-server sphinx-rtd-theme-common sreview-web swappy sympa texlive-fonts-extra-links tulip webext-foxyproxy weechat-doc wims wims-lti wsjtx-doc wsjtx-improved-doc thanks [Cc-ing debian-devel as there is a question about a mass bug filing at the end of this email; please Cc the bug report in any replies.] On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 10:07:53PM +0200, Bastian Germann wrote: > Please note that node-fortawesome-fontawesome-free builds the > fortawesome v6 from source now. So there is a chance that we can update > this package as well. Also, in #1135180, Bastian wrote: > When you are dealing with the fonts-font-awesome package please consider all > its reverse (build) dependencies. > > You should not make it hard on other package maintainers, i.e. please do not > make them transition manually unnecessarily. Dear all readers of this bug report, [I have marked all of the packages in unstable which build-depend or depend on fonts-font-awesome as "affected" by this bug, as this may well affect you significantly.] I have just packaged fonts-font-awesome-legacy, containing DFSG-free versions of Font Awesome 5 and 6, and it has been accepted into unstable. I next intend to upgrade the fonts-font-awesome package itself to version 7.x of the font. I was looking at including version 4.7.0 of FontAwesome in the legacy package to support other packages which need this specific legacy version, without requiring maintainers to make any major changes to their packages except to (build-)depend on the legacy package rather than the fonts-font-awesome package. But I've hit a major stumbling block... To summarise most of the discussion in this bug report (#902981): FontAwesome's build system became closed-source in version 5.x, so Debian can't distribute it, and we have to stick with version 4.7.0. Therefore fonts-font-awesome was downgraded from 5.1.0 back to 4.7.0. However, looking at the source package for fonts-font-awesome (which is the upstream 4.7.0 version), I cannot find any evidence of a build system. Nor do I find any source for the icons in the GitHub repository or any build system there (looking at the 4.x branch). Indeed, the Debian package simply copies the compiled fonts (TTF, OTF and so on) into the appropriate directories under /usr. So it seems that the package as-is is actually not DFSG-free in the same way that the 5.x version isn't: there is no "source code". And 4.x is even worse than 5.x: while the SVG sources are included in the GitHub repository in version 5.1.0 upwards (first committed to the repository in June 2018), they do not appear before that, so there is no hope of making a DFSG-free build of FontAwesome 4.7.0. (The SVG sources are embedded in the SVG font, but that is not the original source of the icons.) My proposal is therefore the following: - FontAwesome 4.7.0 should be dropped from Debian completely. This is a big deal, though; over 500 packages in testing ship fontawesome-webfont.woff2 But if I've read the situation correctly, that is the direction we should be heading in, though that's far beyond my capacity to manage. See below for some further thoughts on this. - fonts-font-awesome is upgraded to version 7.x of the upstream font, in TTF and WOFF2 formats, using a home-grown DFSG-free build system (courtesy of Roland Mas and Yadd, who wrote this for the node-fortawesome-fontawesome-free package); this package will no longer contain any other formats of the font, nor any CSS/LESS/JS code. - fonts-font-awesome-legacy provides versions 5 and 6 of the font in TTF and WOFF2 formats, again built in a DFSG-free way. This will resolve the DFSG-free nature of this package. Old package file layout (fonts only): /usr/share/fonts/opentype/font-awesome/FontAwesome.otf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/font-awesome/fontawesome-webfont.ttf /usr/share/fonts-font-awesome/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.eot /usr/share/fonts-font-awesome/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.svg /usr/share/fonts-font-awesome/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.wo
