[Pkg-javascript-devel] JavaScript policy?

[François-Régis]

Le 26/03/2014 22:30, Ben Finney a écrit :
> Emilien Klein <emilien+debian at klein.st> writes:
> 
>> The current policy is made using the assumption that minified == compiled.
>> For my information: Has this ever clearly and definitively been
>> established?
> 
> I'm not understanding your question. What assumption are you describing?
> 
> Equating “minified” with “compiled” is not, AFAICT, an assumption; it is
> describing different aspects of the same process.

It's really not the same process as compiling build a specific
arch/processor binarys where minifyind build all arch files.

>> I agree that we shouldn't be redistributing *compiled* software that
>> we can't guarantee hasn't been fiddled with.
> 
> Would you agree that we should not be shipping non-source forms of works
> that we can't guarantee have not been fiddled with?

The question is not shipping non-source, it's should we keep pristine
orig tarballs even if they include minified versions of sources present
in tarball. It doesn't mean we provide non source code in any form.

> One of the guarantees to Debian recipients is that they have full
> freedom to change the behaviour of the software; that entails having the
> corresponding source form of the work.

What we talk about is providing any piece of source code but include in
orig tarball also the upstream minified version, which will not included
as is in binary package.

> so, whether you call the process of generating an executable work
> “compiling” does not matter. What matters is that a non-source form of
> the work is generated and we distribute it; the Social Contract requires
> us to ensure that the resulting non-source form corresponds to the
> source form of the same work.

What we distribute is binary package and source package will allways
include source files even if it includes minified versions.

>> Minified files is a practice in the JavaScript developer community to
>> provider smaller files (mainly for performance reasons), but they
>> remain JavaScript scripts, only harder for a human to read.
> 
> In other words, they are not the source form of the work.

Exactly, they can't be considered as sources, one again, the question is
should we provide them in orig tarball (providing rhey have sources
files beside)?


>> To help make this situation clearer, can somebody point us to (1) the
>> exact part of the DFSG or policy that we're using to base our "exclude
>> minified files from orig tarball" policy and (2) where discussions
>> have been led with folks outside of our team (e.g. -devel) about the
>> undistributable character of minified files in upstream tarballs?
> 
> DFSG §2: The work must be accompanied by its source code. A minified
> file is not the source form of the work, so we must provide, in the
> source package, the source form of the exact same work.

All clear, this discusion is only about if we have the source code.

Regards,

-- 
François-Régis