Re: versioned dependency on base-files

Jonas Smedegaard <[email protected]> Fri, 29 May 2026 20:34:17 +0200
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.general
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Quoting Jonathan Carter (2026-05-29 20:21:48)
> On 2026/05/29 20:12, Antonio Terceiro wrote:
> >> I guess that when taking advantage of that by shrinking
> >> debian/copyright files to only reference some of those texts,
> >> that we should then declare a versioned dependency on
> >> base-files >= 14.1, right?
> > 
> > While we can and probably should remove license text in favor of the
> > licenses included in base-files, I would say that introducing such
> > versioned dependency (or tracking it the future to eventually remove) is
> > not useful use of developer time. There is no functional dependency
> > between the packages, it's only "look over there for the full text",
> > inside free-form text. No upgrade will ever require that dependency to
> > work properly.
> > 
> > As long as the upload that makes this reference comes after base-files
> > actually contains the license, I would advocate us to *not* recommend
> > such versioned dependency, or even to advise against it.
> 
> I agree with everything said in this thread so far. It strictly speaking 
> seems like a "right" way to do it, but on the other hand it also seems 
> like an unnecessary constraint, and another thing to keep in mind when 
> backporting.
> 
> As an aside, would it be possible to add these license texts to stable 
> (base files version 13) as well? Then at least anyone with an up to date 
> stable or newer will have those files.

My thinking is that *not* declaring a versioned dependency is perfectly
fine *except* if the package is backported, where it may cause a
license violation for those licenses that require the verbatim text to
be included.

I am fine not caring about backporters accidentally creating such
policy-violations - less work for me as a maintainer :-D

And yes, updating base-files in stable reduces that risk of legal
issues, so would be helpful, I think.

 - Jonas

-- 
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