Re: [directory-discuss] Directory import project: what are the keys?

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira]

Good question.

I don't participate in the import project, and I don't understand how
could it work "for FSD to consider its own package FSD page as canonical
reference to that package" (because for me FSD is already a reference,
one of various that I use to check if said package is free/libre).

For technical specification on how the importer deals with homepage
URLs, see [1].

For those who contribute directly to the FSD (not through importers),
here is the advice we currently have concerning the package's homepage
URL ([2]):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(required) Put the url for the project homepage here. If the project is
a GNU project (see below), then the address must be in this format:
http://gnu.org/software/projectname.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

As for the importer software, like any human-made thing, it can present
errors sometimes, including errors of evaluation.

If you are packaging something, and the package specification allows for
URLs to be inserted, remember that the user would like to contact the
project responsible directly, so it makes sense to reference the true
homepage, not the page on FSD, nor from any free/libre system
distribution. Although I personally see an issue in regards to non-free
software being forced to the website visitors/guests/clients, but this
is a matter of educating the website owners and designers of that
package's homepage ([3][4][5][6]).

Also, as a side note, if your free/libre system distribution has to
change something in the original package's released source files, and
the package specification allows you to set revisions, please make it
so, this helps the user identify that they should perhaps consult/check
the system distribution's support resources before contacting the
original project directly with things that might not be of
responsibility of these.

If however, you are checking to see if there is already an evaluation of
a particular package, and you find that the FSD has an evaluation on
hold due to a freedom issue, but a free/libre system distribution
happens to consider the package as free/libre, then it can be a sign of
a confusion somewhere --- which is better resolved by discussions
through the FSD's discuss/development resources and the distro's.

[1]
<https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/directory.git/tree/export.py#n261>
... and beyond. Note that by going some lines before, one can see that
the "Homepage" fields of each binary package of a given source package
are put in a `homepages' list, and the `homepage' variable is currently
being set to the very first (0-indexed) element of that list, otherwise,
if the list is empty, it's set to nothing ('') --- strangely, unless I
misunderstood how Python works, which is probably the case because I'm
not a programmer. ;) Lastly, the "XXX:"-prefixed comments evidence that
this could be improved.

[2] <https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Workflow/Entry>.

[3] 
<https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/the-surreptitious-assault-on-privacy-security-and-freedom/>.

[4] 
<https://media.libreplanet.org/u/zakkai/m/javascript-if-you-love-it-set-it-free-54ab/>.

[5] <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html>.

[6] 
<http://audio-video.gnu.org/video/2015-10-24--rms--free-software-and-your-freedom--seagl--speech.ogv>.

David Seaward <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I don't have time to volunteer for the import project, but I am curious
> to know how it fits into the world of packaging and distros. I
> occasionally use FSD page names as a key (aka primary key) for
> free/libre packages, and I wanted to check if this actually makes any
> sense.
>
> Does FSF/FSD consider an FSD page to be the canonical reference for
> that package. Rather than, say, the Guix or Debian package page. (Which
> isn't to say it could get out of date.)
>
> Of course the **ultimate** point of reference remains wikidata.org, for
> example https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7609 :)
>
> Regards,
> David

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