[bug#34449] [PATCH] gnu: Add trydiffoscope.

[Julien Lepiller <julien@lepiller.eu>]

Le 12 février 2019 21:37:42 GMT+01:00, Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> a écrit :
>On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 12:16:42AM -0800, Vagrant Cascadian wrote:
>> On 2019-02-12, Julien Lepiller wrote:
>> >>+    (synopsis "Compare files and archives in depth")
>
>This synopsis doesn't make clear that this is a client for a remote
>service. Can you rewrite it?
>
>> >>+    (description
>> >>+     "This is a minimal diffoscope client that connects to the
>> >>service:
>
>Also, I think it's better to replace "diffoscope client" with something
>like "client for the remote diffoscope service located at [...]" since
>diffoscope is not inherently a client-service tool. Also it would be
>great to mention the full diffoscope package :)
>
>Can you send an updated patch?
>
>> > Iiuc, this is a client to connect to a service that runs diffoscope
>> > for you. But we already have diffoscope, so what's the point?
>> 
>> Yes, that's the jist of it.  The main advantage is that it has a much
>> smaller dependency chain locally.
>> 
>> I find it useful on some of the not-particularly-fast ARM systems
>I've
>> been running GNU Guix, where storage may be limited or slow, and
>> substitutes may not be available as often, and build times
>> are... remarkable.
>
>Yes, and diffoscope runs can also be really expensive. It's nice to
>offload them.
>
>Also, if the service makes statements about whether submissions are
>logged or made public, can you put that in the package description?
>
>> > Also this looks like saass to me, so I think we should refrain from
>> > adding it to guix.
>> 
>> It is essentially SaaSS.  The server-side is at least licensed under
>the
>> AGPL, if that mitigates concerns somewhat.
>> 
>> I'm not sure it supports it out of the box yet, but I suspect
>upstream
>> would be amenable to patches to make it easy for people to run their
>own
>> "diffoscope" services.
>> 
>> 
>> > What do you think?
>
>We can have SaaSS in Guix. There are already some packages that are
>SaaSS. So I think this package is okay.
>
>It's "extra okay" in my opinion since the service is AGPL, part of
>Debian, and we have a package for the tool in question.
>
>Guix is developed under the Free System Distribution Guidelines, which
>don't mention remote services or SaaSS at all:
>
>https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.en.html
>
>And some discussion on the subject of services in the context of free
>software that largely reflect how we handle SaaSS in Guix:
>
>https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/network-services-arent-free-or-nonfree.en.html

Thanks for the links!