On Wed, Apr 05, 2006 at 03:58:25PM +0200, Frank Küster wrote: > Hi, > > I don't know whether this is a wording bug or actually a feature. > > ,---- Policy 12.5 > | Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its copyright > | and distribution license in the file /usr/share/doc/package/copyright. > | This file must neither be compressed nor be a symbolic link. > `---- > > It is common practice that /usr/share/doc/<package>/ is a symlink to > /usr/share/doc/<other_package>/ if <package> Depends: <other_package>. > Therefore I don't see why the copyright file couldn't be a symlink to > /usr/share/doc/<other_package>/copyright. > > As I understand it, the intention is to prevent constructions like > copyright -> README when the information is also there, or to some other > arbitrary file, or similar things. > > But for source packages that create multiple binary packages, there's > usually only one copyright file, anyway, but it may not always be a good > choice to make the complete /usr/share/doc/<package>/ directory a > symlink. > > Should I create a patch for the wording that allows symlinks to other > copyright files from the same source package?
Please don't. That would probably break packages.debian.org which will not be able to get the copyright file anymore. I have never quite agreed with the allowance for symlinks to directory in the first place. There are three major short-comings: 1) The .deb file does not carry the copyright files, which is a bit problematic since users can download the .deb from the net and unpack it with 'ar x'. Displaying the copyright file of a .deb is made a much harder task. This affect packages.debian.org. 2) This force a same version dependency which is quite rigid and might cause problems (e.g. circular dependencies). 3) Reverting to a directory require maintainer scripts support because dpkg will not replace a symlink by a directory. Cheers, -- Bill. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Imagine a large red swirl here. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
