Re: distributing source

David Kaufman writes:
 > Gerrit Pape maintains "unofficial" Debian packages of djb software here:
 > http://smarden.org/pape/Debian/
 > 
 > and also an educational page (with historical mailing list archive links) as
 > to why they are, and must remain, unofficial as far as the Debian
 > socio-political structure is concerned...
 > http://smarden.org/pape/Debian/unofficial/why.html

Debian's treatment of qmail is one of the reasons why I despise Debian 
politics even though I still run it.  If I were wealthy, I would
create a "Debian+" distribution with the tagline "All the software,
none of the bullshit," which would merge non-free and non-us into
base.

But ... there's no reason why you can't install the qmail files in the 
FHS places, and include a shell script which creates the symlinks
necessary for djb compatibility.  In the postinst script, you ask them
if they want symlinks and make the default be djb compatibility.  Like 
this:

   The author of qmail wants qmail installed the same way no
   matter who has installed it, no matter where they have installed it.
   Unfortunately, this means putting files in places which violate the
   FHS.  You can comply with the FHS or with djb's compatibility
   requirements, but not both.

   Install djb-compatible symlinks (Y/n)?

Because the default is yes, you are abiding by djb's restrictions.
Because the package has files only in FHS-compliant places, you are
abiding by Debian's restrictions.

You'd do something like this:

ln -s /etc/qmail/control /var/qmail/control
ln -s /etc/qmail/users /var/qmail/users
mkdir /var/qmail/bin
ln -s /usr/sbin/qmail-queue /var/qmail/bin/
ln -s /usr/sbin/qmail-smtpd /var/qmail/bin/
ln -s /usr/bin/qmail-inject /var/qmail/bin/
ln -s /usr/bin/mailsubj /var/qmail/bin/
.
.
.
.


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