apt-get source changes for packages maintained in VCS

[Scott Kitterman]

I recently filed https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/129575 and 
after some IRC discussion we agreed that his recent apt-get source changes 
needed some broader discussion.

As an example, I used apt-get source to download the source for pyspf (a 
package I help maintain in Debian) and get the following warning:

WARNING: 'pyspf' is maintained in the 'Svn' version control system at:
svn://svn.debian.org/python-modules/packages/pyspf/trunk/
Are you sure you want to continue [yN]?

In my opinion there are two things wrong here:

First, pyspf is not maintained in the Debian Python Modules Team svn.  The 
Debian packaging for it is maintained there.  The actual Python module is 
maintained on Sourceforge, so as written, it is incorrect.  Similarly, if I 
am considering an Ubuntu revision for a package, the Debian SVN is not the 
source for code that I'm patching, the Ubuntu source repository is.

I can understand the desire to inform developers that there is a VCS (I think 
that's sensible), but it is at most tangential to many use cases.  

Which brings me to my second issue:

Stopping and asking the user for confirmation is really overkill in this case.  
The purpose of apt-get source is to get source from a repository.  The fact 
that there may be other versions accessible elsewhere may or may not be of 
interest to the user.

What we agreed (as I understand it) in our IRC discussion was that I would 
suggest an alternate wording for the notice and that he would change apt to 
only stop and ask the question for packages maintained on Launchpad as an 
interim.

I'd sugggest this just be printed as a notice of some kind, like:

NOTICE: The packaging information for PACKAGE is maintained in VCS version 
control system at:

without stopping the download.  I think the asking the user are they sure they 
want to download the source when that's exactly what they've said they want 
to do would be a mistake period, but it's better limited to packages 
maintained on Launchpad than as a general rule.

Comments?

Scott K