This is a request for FESCo to bless xwax [1] for inclusion in Fedora even though it is provides partial functionality from external bits that are not redistributable in Fedora.
From my post [2] to packaging@lists.fedoraproject.org:
I would love to package xwax for Fedora
xwax reads special timecoded vinyls/CDs for the purpose of DJing and playing audio files from your computer.
My concern is it might not pass this part of the Packaging Guidelines
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Packages_which_are_not_useful_without_external_bits
It starts the decoding process in a separate thread and uses
vorbis-tools flac
but also
mpg123 faad (AAC) ffmpeg
Now it will work without those last 3, it will compile and run fine, just if a user tries to play a file that would require one of those decoders it will just generate an error to stdout/stderr saying
/usr/libexec/xwax-import: line 41: exec: ffmpeg: not found
or something similar.
( http://cupcakecarnival.net/gallery/main.php/v/Computers/Screenshots/Screenshot-xwax.png.html )
but it will keep running fine. So in that sense I think it is still useful without the external bits because it still works with free codecs.
The only other small concern that I'm aware of is that it's a GUI application, but it has no .desktop file and I don't think it should because the program is setup entirely from command line flags. There is no way to configure it after it is started. If you run the command line with no options (without setting the sound card to read from for example) it will not start and tell you to read the help ( -h)
Does xwax meet Fedora's guidelines?
If so please bless it here so that when I submit the spec file to Bugzilla for review I can point at this for any reviewer that has concerns about it's acceptance in Fedora.
If not are there any changes that could be made to xwax in order to allow it in Fedora? For example a patch that removed support for the non-redistributable functionality? The MakeFile does not currently have an option to disable certain decoders.
FESCo is ok with this package going in (of course it must pass review and meet guidelines).
You should also strongly consider fixing the error handling (so it pops up a "I'm sorry, I can't handle that without additional codecs", or the like).
Awesome news. Thank you for your quick response. I will look into error handling regarding the codecs issue.
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