On 03/07/2023 16:41, Demi Marie Obenour wrote:
Would it be possible to ensure that Node packages contain only actual source code, as in “the preferred form for making modifications” (quote from GNU GPL, I forget which version)?
The simple answer is maybe in principle but in practice it's very hard as numerous previous threads will tell you.
The tar balls from the npmjs registry which constitute the released versions of node packages frequently contain such things often without the original source or any of the tooling to build from it.
The alternative is packaging from the upstream git but even then, and even if it is well maintained with version tags, there are often huge dependency chains to get all the tools needed to actually do the builds.
Tom