[Debian-astro-maintainers] astropy-iers-data_0.2023.10.23.00.29.54-1_amd64.changes REJECTED

[Ole Streicher]

Hi Thorsten,

Am 29.10.23 um 20:00 schrieb Thorsten Alteholz:
> I am not sure that it makes sense to include datafiles in this
> package that are already outdated, when the package hits the mirrors
> for the first time. Wouldn't it be better to add some cron-foo that
> automatically fetches current data? (of course this also means the
> package has to move to contrib, but this should be done anyway)

This package is an upcoming dependency of python3-astropy, which is one 
of the central packages in Debian Astro. Moving it to contrib would 
imply moving a large part of Debian Astro to contrib, which is certainly 
not a good idea.

The package is a separation from the core Astropy package, i.e. in the 
past it was updated only with Astropy updates. This was considered too 
rare, which lead to the separation. The current upstream update cycle is 
weekly; but this is not really required to work for the package. Having 
this updated for stable just before the freeze, and then (via backports, 
or, if the changes are considered "important", even by filing an 
appropriate Debian bug and fixing this by updating the package) only if 
really needed, is most probably sufficient.

Having a manual or automated update procedure may be a good idea, but 
IMO this should be implemented upstream and not by Debian.

Why would you consider the package as "contrib"? IMO it follows the 
guidelines of Debian main by being self-consistent and DFSG compliant.

Best

Ole