On Thu, 23 Jul 2026 13:12, Marc Haber <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
On Thu, Jul 23, 2026 at 11:07:43AM +0200, Joost van Baal-Ilić wrote:
The scope of this GR is (non-exhaustive):
- Debian source packages
- Official Debian project software, such as lintian
- Debian web resources
- Documentation and translations added by Debian contributors
- Official communication from Debian
It does not include:
- Upstream projects using LLMs for development
- AI-related software
I need clarification for that.
Does this mean, that
(1)
I still have to manually grep trough the sources of a package I maintain
to manually create debian/copyright files instead of uploading the
source package to an LLM asking for a debian/copyright file (and of
course sampling whether the output makes sense)?
Yes, how every package so far has been created. If we can't trust
contributors to write a proper d/copyright file by themselves we might
aswell give up on the NEW queue. Part of Debians' trust is that we
precisely document every source file shipped by the package.
(2)
I can use all LLMs I want to create a program like the Linux Kernel, or
some other tool that might be useful, put it under a DFSG-free license,
but need to hand-write my debian/ directory if I decide to make that
program available in Debian?
Yes.
The older among us might remember a GR that was titled "Editorial
Changes" and sounded sensible and well-meaning, but once accepted by
the Project, caused us to have a huge discussion about "what is
software" and that delayed a release by a year (if I remember
correctly). I should have rated that proposal below NOTA back then, so
I have made a rule for me to not vote for a GR until I have understood
the possible consequences.
This GR has a WAY bigger blast radius than the Editoral Changes from 20
years ago. It could kill Debian.
Debian has been around for over 30 years, I highly doubt that a
(possible) restriction on LLMs (around ~5 years) will change that.
best,
--
Matthias Geiger <werdahias>
Debian Developer -- KiCad Contributor
GPG: ECBEDBB607B9B2BE
