Re: [ELPA] new package: tramp-docker

[Payas Relekar]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>   > > Does Docker provide an easy way to verify that you have avoided such
>   > > dependencies?  A way to make sure to avoid including them?
>
>   > As I said, I don't see any such option, but I am not an Docker expert.
>
> We need to find out the situation before we make more than the tiniest
> incidental mention of these containers.  Otherwise we risk sliding
> into a trap that would require drastic measures to get out of.

Docker is a platform that provides few services:
1. A uniform container format (Now separated into OCI standard)
2. A way to build and run these containers (docker daemon)
3. A global (and optionally local) container registry (akin to apt-get)

Out of these, #1 is already standardised and fully open.
#2 is not exclusive to docker, and there are multiple ways to acheive
this thanks to #1 being open. e.g. I use Nix (Similar to GNU Guix) to
build containers without relying on any proprietory software.

#3 is where things start getting fuzzy as docker the platform does not
provide any way to ensure containers only include free software. That
being said, as mentioned earlier, docker itself is not necessary to
build these containers.

Coming back to the package at hand (tramp-docker), it provides a way to
access these containers from within Emacs via TRAMP. It is no different
than using regular TRAMP where SSHing into another proprietory system is
exactly same as SSHing into free system, and there is quite possibly no
way to ensure otherwise.

As such, the name docker only signifies what has become de-facto calling
convention for OCI containers, but otherwise as long as we avoid linking
to docker the service, we are in the clear.

--