On Mon, Jul 05, 1999 at 11:08:05AM -0500, Chris Lawrence wrote: > On Jul 05, Richard Stallman wrote: > > I have asked Debian to provide A main server that holds only the free > > software. This doesn't mean removing the non-free packages from ALL > > the main Debian servers, only from ONE or some of them. > > > > I have asked for the web pages to be separated, so that we can refer > > to the free part alone. This means removing the reference to non-free > > packages from PART of the Debian web pages, not from all. There would > > still be Debian web pages on Debian web servers which talk about the > > non-free packages, just as there are now. > > My understanding was that the archive split proposal only affects the > FTP and HTTP services for downloading packages. As such, it does > nothing to promote your goal of providing an interface to only the > free packages (it only changes the URLs of the non-free ones).
Exactly. I think your (rms) support of this proposal misses the point that most people don't download packages directly from the web/ftp site--there are tools that hide the actual location from the user. *Moving the packages from one url to another doesn't change how they appear to, or are accessed by, the end user.* There have been discussions on how to correct that, but it's an interface issue--_not_ a repository layout issue. If what you're after is a sanitized web site, that's a different proposal than Wichert's, which he has stated only refers to the package url's. Otherwise, mirroring only ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/main will get you the ftp site you're looking for without necessitating a lot of changes and work for _all_ of the other debian mirrors. Mike Stone
