Bug#762638: missing source: Configure
On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 11:58:09PM +0100, Dominic Hargreaves wrote: metaconfig is meant to be run according to this recipe: http://perl5.git.perl.org/metaconfig.git/blob/HEAD:/README it won't be a perfect match, as manual patching of the file is allowed (see the comments) and indeed we patch Configure in the Debian package. Yes, I figured that there is a metaconfig.git that is used to generate Configure. I observed that it is not included in the Debian archive or only in a very diverged form. So from a Debian archive point of view the source is not available. This is very similar to how we currently handle compressed javascript. Many javascript libraries are distributed under a BSD-ish license. The compressed javascript files most often include a reference for obtaining the source. Still it is generally not acceptable to not include their exact source in the source package. Even though we can and do patch Configure, for the modifications I would like to apply privately, it is not the preferred form for modification, because I would have to edit very many places that collapse to fewer places in metaconfig. We could certainly document this better (in README.source) but I am not convinced that this deserves RC severity. It's you who makes the call about what is RC in perl , but I still think that it should be RC as long as the perl source package does not contain the corresponding metaconfig source (even if it is not used during build). That can be as easy as adding a .orig-metaconfig.tar.bz2 to the source package. I argue that documenting how to regenerate Configure is not enough. The documentation is already there (albeit a bit non-obvious). What is missing is the source. Helmut -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-rc-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Bug#762638: missing source: Configure
On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 08:52:14AM +0200, Helmut Grohne wrote: On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 11:58:09PM +0100, Dominic Hargreaves wrote: metaconfig is meant to be run according to this recipe: http://perl5.git.perl.org/metaconfig.git/blob/HEAD:/README it won't be a perfect match, as manual patching of the file is allowed (see the comments) and indeed we patch Configure in the Debian package. Yes, I figured that there is a metaconfig.git that is used to generate Configure. I observed that it is not included in the Debian archive or only in a very diverged form. So from a Debian archive point of view the source is not available. This is very similar to how we currently handle compressed javascript. Many javascript libraries are distributed under a BSD-ish license. The compressed javascript files most often include a reference for obtaining the source. Still it is generally not acceptable to not include their exact source in the source package. Even though we can and do patch Configure, for the modifications I would like to apply privately, it is not the preferred form for modification, because I would have to edit very many places that collapse to fewer places in metaconfig. We could certainly document this better (in README.source) but I am not convinced that this deserves RC severity. It's you who makes the call about what is RC in perl , but I still think that it should be RC as long as the perl source package does not contain the corresponding metaconfig source (even if it is not used during build). That can be as easy as adding a .orig-metaconfig.tar.bz2 to the source package. I argue that documenting how to regenerate Configure is not enough. The documentation is already there (albeit a bit non-obvious). What is missing is the source. Yep, agree about all of this. I'll contact upstream in the first instance to find out a bit about why the metaconfig sources for the perl package are kept in a separate location. Cheers, Dominic. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-rc-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Bug#762638: missing source: Configure
Package: src:perl Version: 5.20.1-1 Severity: serious Justification: missing source User: helm...@debian.org Usertags: rebootstrap Dear perl maintainers, I approach you with a difficult matter. The Configure script distributed with the perl source package claims that it is being generated. Porting/pumpkin.pod claims that Configure can be re-created by invoking metaconfig -m. Indeed, there is a metaconfig binary in the dist package. Running it on the perl tree does create a Configure that remotely resembles the shipped Configure with a diff of about 18000 lines (75%). In the recreated Configure many tests are missing and perl won't build. It seems that perl's Configure cannot be recreated from Debian sources. These observations let me conclude that the perl package - in spirit - violates the DFSG by not providing the sources for Configure. I still hope that this conclusion is flawed and ask you to adjust the severity accordingly. Helmut -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-rc-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Bug#762638: missing source: Configure
[resending to the bug, sorry about the duplicate] On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 12:18:06AM +0200, Helmut Grohne wrote: I approach you with a difficult matter. The Configure script distributed with the perl source package claims that it is being generated. Porting/pumpkin.pod claims that Configure can be re-created by invoking metaconfig -m. Indeed, there is a metaconfig binary in the dist package. Running it on the perl tree does create a Configure that remotely resembles the shipped Configure with a diff of about 18000 lines (75%). In the recreated Configure many tests are missing and perl won't build. It seems that perl's Configure cannot be recreated from Debian sources. These observations let me conclude that the perl package - in spirit - violates the DFSG by not providing the sources for Configure. I still hope that this conclusion is flawed and ask you to adjust the severity accordingly. metaconfig is meant to be run according to this recipe: http://perl5.git.perl.org/metaconfig.git/blob/HEAD:/README it won't be a perfect match, as manual patching of the file is allowed (see the comments) and indeed we patch Configure in the Debian package. We could certainly document this better (in README.source) but I am not convinced that this deserves RC severity. Dominic. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-rc-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
