Re: ungarbled and properly wrapped (was: Re: GR: Ban LLM contributions from Debian)

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,