Fedora Board Meeting Recap 2009-02-03

[inode0]

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 12:13 AM, Tom spot Callaway <tcallawa at redhat.com> wrote:
> On 2009-02-05 at 22:59:41 -0500, inode0 <inode0 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The packaging guidelines are not clear to me about whether cowsay is
>> or isn't code. They also aren't clear to me about whether OVM is or
>> isn't code. Judging from the FESCO minutes I would hazard a guess that
>> it wasn't entirely clear to them as a body either. Is it clear to
>> board members whether cowsay and/or OVM are code or content?
>
> Well, lets start with this:
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#Code_Vs_Content
>
> Ultimately, there are two arbiters as to whether something is Code or
> Content, FESCo and Fedora Legal.
>
> The unspoken rules that I use (which I should probably write down are):
>
> A) Does this thing need to be executed to be functional? If yes, it is
> code. If not, goto B. (Catches non-compiled code)
> B) Does this thing need to be compiled to be functional? If yes, it is
> code. If not, goto B. (Catches anything which is only useful when
> compiled, datasets in functions, etc)

If not, goto C?

> C) Is it useful in a standalone state? If yes, it is probably content.
> Look further and make recommendation to FESCo if it is at all unclear.
> If no, it may still be content, but we may not want it in Fedora.
>
> As to cowsay, it falls out of that logic path at A, it is clearly an
> executable script, thus, code.

Thanks Tom. May I ask two follow-up questions to clarify less obvious cases?

1. Assume perl is free software but is not distributed by Fedora. Is
cowsay still considered code under these guidelines or do we goto C?

2. Assume perl is non-free software available to run on Fedora from a
3rd party. Is cowsay still considered code under these guidelines or
do we goto C?

The answers to these questions will clarify things greatly for me in
the general case (and I'll stop picking on cowsay). There seem to be
reasonable arguments both ways and I don't intend to argue it should
be one way or the other. I just want to know which way it is now.

Thanks,
John