[Pkg-samba-maint] [ANNOUNCE] Samba 3.2.0 Available for Download

[Steve Langasek]

On Wed, Jul 02, 2008 at 07:28:50AM +0200, Christian Perrier wrote:
> > This is the first stable release of Samba 3.2.0.

> OK, now we have to make the decision: shall we provide it in lenny?

> I was initially against that (too close to the release, follow release
> managers' wish to not bump upstream versions too close from the
> release, etc.) but upstream insisted for us to use 3.2 in our next
> stable release.

> Steve seemed also in favour of providing 3.2 *if we can*.

> So, I'm now more inclined to say "let's go for it".

> The only blocker I see are licensing reasons. GPLv3 and programs that
> build against libsmbclient.

> I have not investigated this yet because I think that Steve would be
> more efficient than me on this..:-)

Here's the original list of packages I found in Debian that depended on
libsmbclient and appeared to be licensed GPL v2 only according to
debian/copyright:

gnome-cups-manager
mplayer
smbc
smbnetfs

And then, of course, we have kdebase.

Jelmer pointed out back then that smbc is listed upstream as having an "or
later" license.

I've inspected the gnome-cups-manager source, and all references to the GPL
in the upstream source actually have the "or later" boilerplate.

A second look at mplayer shows debian/copyright currently quotes the "or
later" boilerplate, so I'm willing to assume this is applicable to the whole
work.

The current version of smbnetfs in the archive also lists "or any later
version".

That leaves only kdebase to resolve.

I've heard from Simo Sorce, the member of the Samba Team who's responsible
for samba packaging at Red Hat, that they consider the license issue
resolved and that the next version of Fedora will include samba 3.2 only,
with KDE linked against it.

Can the KDE team confirm that this is accurate, and whether the relicensing
of kdebase applies to the 3.5.9 version currently in lenny, or if it only
applies to KDE 4 versions?

I think either way we should try to push forward with samba 3.2 for lenny;
it's just a question of whether we also have to invest time into getting a
GPLv2 libsmbclient package ready.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org