Re: pending interval-3.0.0 release

[Olaf Till]

On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 10:27:08PM +0200, Oliver Heimlich wrote:
> The GPL FAQ is an interesting read on that topic.  According to the FAQ
> it suffices to put links to the external repository, see
> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#SourceAndBinaryOnDifferentSites
> and https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#SourceInCVS

But we don't distribute a binary, but something which is meant to be a
source package. If the latter contains ('external') binary files
without their sources (or with uncertain means to convert the sources
to the binaries), this may not be noticed by the user, leaving him to
believe that he already has everything to build from source.

Treating this in the regular way would mean not to include the
'external' binary files into our source package, but to have them as a
build dependency. So the user has to install them, and thus can find
out, if he wants to, if he is able to build them from source.

If, for convenience, we include external files into the source
package, we may 'mask' difficulties in getting their source or in
building them from source. So I think we should include them in the
form of their source and, if necessary, provide access to their build
mechanism.

Package releases can, additionally to these sources, contain files
pre-built from them, thus avoiding a complicated build procedure.

Olaf

-- 
public key id EAFE0591, e.g. on x-hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net

signature.asc
Description: Digital signature