Bug#400817: xephem conflicts with x11-common in sid, becomes uninstallable
On Tue, 28 Nov 2006, Steve Langasek wrote: On Tue, Nov 28, 2006 at 02:30:32PM -0800, Alvaro Martinez Echevarria wrote: The last version of x11-common in sid (1:7.1.0-7) includes an explicit conflict for xephem (with no version), so this extremely useful astronomy package becomes uninstallable. A relatively quick would be appreciated (recompilation?). Regards, Sorry, but xephem hasn't been included in Debian since woody. From http://ftp-master.debian.org/removals.txt: I couldn't help but notice that the package had not been updated for a very long time, but since the new version upstream was never closed, I always assumed it was due to the maintainers's lack of time. [Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 13:51:27 -0400] [ftpmaster: James Troup] Removed the following packages from unstable: xephem | 3.5-2 | alpha, arm, s390, sparc xephem |3.5.2-1 | source, hppa, i386, ia64, m68k, mips, powerpc Closed bugs: 270695 --- Reason --- RoM; license problems. So this bug won't be fixed in Debian. Well, let's think about this a little bit. According to what I read in 270695, there's a problem with one specific catalog, which is derived from the Yale catalog for which it is not clear if redistribution of modifications is allowed. But there's a yale package in the system containing the original data. So, big deal: I volunteer to write a small program that will generate YBS.edb in xephem format from the contents of the original yale catalog, hence getting around the licensing problems. Would that be acceptable? Javi, what do you think? (incidentally, I know Javi from school many years ago :). Thanks, -- Álvaro Martínez Echevarría ame AT acm.org ``Pero yo que he sentido una vez en mis manos temblar la alegría / ya no podré morir nunca. / Pero yo que he tocado una vez las agudas agujas del pino / ya no podré morir nunca''. [José Hierro, El muerto]
Bug#400817: xephem conflicts with x11-common in sid, becomes uninstallable
2006/11/30, Alvaro Martinez Echevarria [EMAIL PROTECTED]: --- Reason --- RoM; license problems. So this bug won't be fixed in Debian. Well, let's think about this a little bit. According to what I read in 270695, there's a problem with one specific catalog, which is derived from the Yale catalog for which it is not clear if redistribution of modifications is allowed. It is clear that redistribution of modifications is *not* allowed. We have no evidence to the contrary. But there's a yale package in the system containing the original data. True, I separated star catalogs which did not have a free license to non-free a while back. This includes yale (http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/yale). You will find a good introduction on the attempts to separate non-free data at Kevin McCarthy's page: http://people.debian.org/~kmccarty/ (starplot upstream and Debian maintainer) which produced the 'startdata-common' package (http://packages.debian.org/unstable/science/stardata-common) We have been very quiet on this issues, but you can also find some more information browsing the 'startdata-common' information (Mailing list: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/stardata-common-devel/, CVS: http://alioth.debian.org/plugins/scmcvs/cvsweb.php/stardata-common/?cvsroot=stardata-common) although the work there is stalled there. AFAIK, currently only Starplot uses the gliese or yale packages, in such a way that, if they are installed before the package they will get converted to Starplot's format. So, big deal: I volunteer to write a small program that will generate YBS.edb in xephem format from the contents of the original yale catalog, hence getting around the licensing problems. Would that be acceptable? Javi, what do you think? (incidentally, I know Javi from school many years ago :). Writting a script similar to the one used by Starplot should not be too difficult and is entirely acceptable. If implemented that would mean that xephem could be re-introduced into Debian. The question would remain, however, if Xephem could work *without* that catalog (or with a DFSG-free one, such as Hipparcos). I.e. if xephem needs to be installed with yale and have a stardata catalogue then it would have to be moved over to contrib (as it would Depend: on non-free stuff), if it can work standalone (without installing non-free stuff or by converting a DFSG stardata catalogue ) it could be kept in main. Consequently, if xephem was converted to be able to use also the Hipparcos catalogue (or any other free catalogue) it could be kept in main. BTW, this is what I did for Openuniverse, although I have not (yet) made the Hipparcos data set a separate package complying with the policy implemented in 'stardata-common'. HTH Javier signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Bug#400817: xephem conflicts with x11-common in sid, becomes uninstallable
Package: xephem Version: 3.5.2-1 Severity: grave The last version of x11-common in sid (1:7.1.0-7) includes an explicit conflict for xephem (with no version), so this extremely useful astronomy package becomes uninstallable. A relatively quick would be appreciated (recompilation?). Regards, -- Álvaro Martínez Echevarría ame AT acm.org ``Pero yo que he sentido una vez en mis manos temblar la alegría / ya no podré morir nunca. / Pero yo que he tocado una vez las agudas agujas del pino / ya no podré morir nunca''. [José Hierro, El muerto]
