RFS: python-rarfile/2.6-1 [ITP] -- RAR archive reader module for Python

[Hugo Lefeuvre]

Dear mentors,

I am looking for a sponsor for my package "python-rarfile"

* Package name : python-rarfile
* Version : 2.6-1
* Upstream Author : Marko Kreen <***@gmail.com>
* URL : https://github.com/markokr/rarfile
* Closes bug : #680085
* Programming language : Python
* License : ISC
* Section : python

It builds the python-rarfile package, which provides an RAR archive
reader module for Python. More informations can be obtained from the
following URLs:

Debian-mentors:
http://mentors.debian.net/package/python-rarfile

Pypi webpage:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/rarfile

The package is also available in DPMT's repository.

http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/python-modules/packages/python-rarfile/trunk/

Alternatively, one can download the package with dget using this command:

dget -x http://mentors.debian.net/debian/pool/main/p/python-rarfile/python-rarfile_2.6-1.dsc

It will be the first release of this package.

Regards,
Hugo

[Paul Wise]

Post by Hugo Lefeuvre
It builds the python-rarfile package, which provides an RAR archive
reader module for Python. More informations can be obtained from the

I don't intend to sponsor this but here are some comments:

It looks like upstream is using the unrar command-line utility. The
unrar that supports recent RAR files is non-free and the FLOSS version
of that only supports old RAR files. Please ask upstream to switch to
the unar (no this is not a typo) command-line utility instead, which
is both FLOSS and supports recent RAR files. I would say this package
should not enter Debian without that, otherwise it will encourage
users to use non-free software.

None of the comments in debian/rules are needed.

You have chosen a different license for debian/* than what the
upstream code uses. I suggest using the same license as upstream.
--
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise

[Hugo Lefeuvre]

Hi Paul,

Post by Paul Wise
It looks like upstream is using the unrar command-line utility. The
unrar that supports recent RAR files is non-free and the FLOSS version
of that only supports old RAR files. Please ask upstream to switch to
the unar (no this is not a typo) command-line utility instead, which
is both FLOSS and supports recent RAR files. I would say this package
should not enter Debian without that, otherwise it will encourage
users to use non-free software.

Thank you for your review. I dont knew that unRAR wasn't a free
software. I'll ask the Upstream to switch. But, if it's not too
difficult, I'll try to do it alone first; unRAR and unar seems to have
the same functionalities. :)

Post by Paul Wise
You have chosen a different license for debian/* than what the
upstream code uses. I suggest using the same license as upstream.

I'll read the full ICL license before I use it in this package, but, yes
I can switch from GPL2+ to an other free license.

Regards,
Hugo

[Hugo Lefeuvre]

Hi,

After some messages with the upstream, we managed to use bsdtar[0] as
uncompressing software. unar was too limited to use it in the package,
and the other solutions we found were not free.

The only problem is that bsdtar have problems with some password
protected archives. So, we decided to use unrar-free for password
protected archives.

These changes are available in rarfile's Git repository[1] and will be
offical released in the next version. So, for the moment, it will be
necessary to use the following commands to get the .orig tarball that
I've used to build the package:

git clone https://github.com/markokr/rarfile.git python-rarfile-2.6
tar -zcvf python-rarfile_2.6.orig.tar.gz python-rarfile-2.6

In short, the package is now free, and seems to be clean. It builds without
errors/warnings and Lintian seems to be happy.

Regards,
Hugo

PS: I've applied the changes on PAPT's repository.

[0] https://packages.debian.org/jessie/bdstar
[1] https://github.com/markokr/rarfile