Re: [GNU-linux-libre] Violations of GPL in GuixSD packaging design

[ng0]

address@hidden (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> Joshua Gay <address@hidden> skribis:
>
--snip--
>>> Thank you much. I could now unpack the sources. And I could verify that
>>> patched wicd sources are on the GuixSD substitute distribution website.
>>
>> I believe that all resources (binaries, sources, and documentation) are
>> all on the same Web site, however, that things are spread out across
>> differet parts of that site  (www.gnu.org, hydra.gnu.org, etc), correct?
>
> On a default installation, the ‘guix’ sub-commands download everything
> from hydra.gnu.org (including source), unless --no-substitutes is
> passed.
>
> I guess an important difference from a distro like Debian is that, while
> probably most users get binaries and source from hydra.gnu.org, users
> can ignore it (--no-substitutes) or choose a different server
> (--substitute-urls).  But in any case, they are still using the very
> same Guix.
>
> This makes it more difficult to reason about “distribution”, because
> distribution is orthogonal.
>
> Again, Guix is essentially a Gentoo-like source distro, and what it
> distributes above all is recipes, not binaries.  Tricky!

While I agree, as a gentoo user and packager I have to point out
that gentoo also ships licenses in own, separate files, see
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/portage/package.license
"Licenses are stored in /usr/portage/licenses/." But the package
definition (ebuild) only carries the LICENSE variable, for
example LICENSE="GPL-3".
So Guix could do something equal and ship the complete license
texts, or do it on demand (on demand, for example: -> user
installs package with $licenses 1+2, guix pulls copy of $licenses
1+2 and saves them in a system accessible location)?

If this short reply holds information incorrect on Guix due to
not having looked into this part of Guix yet and only the
packaging part, please correct me.

--snip--
>
>>> - the other matter has to be observed that the License itself was not
>>>   delivered with the substitutes (object or executable form) of the
>>>   packages I have tried, and I have already searched for License in some
>>>   of them, such as in aria2, wicd, pulseaudio...
>>
>> I believe that the license is in the source and the source is being
>> provided from the same place (gnu.org) as the binary (which is also
>> hosted on gnu.org), but, it could be that doing this in a way that makes
>> it easier for downstream recipients to pass along binaries might be
>> sensible.
>
> Unlike several distros, we do not copy ‘COPYING’ and similar files in
> the share/doc directory of binaries.  We do provide licensing
> information as part of the recipes, though, and this information is
> accessible using the ‘guix’ command (and of course the license is in the
> source, as you note.)
>
> WDYT?  Are there ways this could be improved?
>
> Thank you!
>
> Ludo’.
>

-- 
ng0