Quoting Jonathan Carter (2026-05-29 20:21:48) > On 2026/05/29 20:12, Antonio Terceiro wrote: > >> I guess that when taking advantage of that by shrinking > >> debian/copyright files to only reference some of those texts, > >> that we should then declare a versioned dependency on > >> base-files >= 14.1, right? > > > > While we can and probably should remove license text in favor of the > > licenses included in base-files, I would say that introducing such > > versioned dependency (or tracking it the future to eventually remove) is > > not useful use of developer time. There is no functional dependency > > between the packages, it's only "look over there for the full text", > > inside free-form text. No upgrade will ever require that dependency to > > work properly. > > > > As long as the upload that makes this reference comes after base-files > > actually contains the license, I would advocate us to *not* recommend > > such versioned dependency, or even to advise against it. > > I agree with everything said in this thread so far. It strictly speaking > seems like a "right" way to do it, but on the other hand it also seems > like an unnecessary constraint, and another thing to keep in mind when > backporting. > > As an aside, would it be possible to add these license texts to stable > (base files version 13) as well? Then at least anyone with an up to date > stable or newer will have those files.
My thinking is that *not* declaring a versioned dependency is perfectly fine *except* if the package is backported, where it may cause a license violation for those licenses that require the verbatim text to be included. I am fine not caring about backporters accidentally creating such policy-violations - less work for me as a maintainer :-D And yes, updating base-files in stable reduces that risk of legal issues, so would be helpful, I think. - Jonas -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ * Sponsorship: https://ko-fi.com/drjones [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private
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