Debian bug report logs - #1505
setterm is missing

Package: miscutils; Reported by: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>; 33 days old.

Message received at debian-bugs:


From magenta.com!moth Fri Sep 29 15:17:53 1995
Return-Path: <moth@magenta.com>
Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0synkf-0001ceC; Fri, 29 Sep 95 15:17 PDT
Received: from magenta.com by pixar.com with SMTP id AA23975
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for debian-bugs-pipe@mongo.pixar.com); Fri, 29 Sep 1995 15:17:33 -0700
Received: (moth@localhost) by magenta.com (8.6.12/8.6.4) id SAA25759; Fri, 29 Sep 1995 18:12:54 -0400
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 18:12:54 -0400
Message-Id: <199509292212.SAA25759@magenta.com>
From: Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>
Reply-To: Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>
To: bruce@Pixar.com, debian-bugs@Pixar.com
In-Reply-To: <m0syj4X-000EyVC@mongo.pixar.com> (message from Bruce Perens on Fri, 29 Sep 1995 10:18:05 -0700)
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing

For what it's worth:

I've been pretty strung out lately (illness, deadlines, lack of
sleep).  Please take anything I mailed out yesterday with at least a
grain of salt.  [Not that you shouldn't in any event, but especially
for Sep 28 95].

Sorry about that.

-- 
Raul

Acknowledgement sent to Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>:
Extra info received and forwarded. Full text available.
Information forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com:
Bug#1505; Package miscutils. Full text available.

Message received at debian-bugs:


From pixar.com!bruce Fri Sep 29 10:18:23 1995
Return-Path: <bruce@pixar.com>
Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0syj4o-0003EoC; Fri, 29 Sep 95 10:18 PDT
Received: from mongo.pixar.com by pixar.com with SMTP id AA09760
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for bruce@mongo.pixar.com); Fri, 29 Sep 1995 10:18:03 -0700
Received: by mongo.pixar.com (Smail3.1.28.1 #15)
	id m0syj4X-000EyVC; Fri, 29 Sep 95 10:18 PDT
Message-Id: <m0syj4X-000EyVC@mongo.pixar.com>
To: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Cc: bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens), debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:00:35 PDT."
             <199509291500.QAA24725@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl> 
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 10:18:05 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>

Hm. There seems to be some confusion about who the author is.

Unfortunately, we can't be _too_ careful about copyrights. For the
CD-ROM distributiors, there is a significant risk of getting sued (and
losing the lawsuit) if we haven't verified that we have the right to
distribute these programs. The publicity would not be pretty. As a
fledgeling CD-ROM distributor myself, I have an incentive to get this
stuff right. I can't presently afford to get sued.

As to the program existing in Slackware, etc., for countless distributions,
perhaps they got individual permission from the author, or perhaps they
overlooked the problem or they don't care. We choose to operate differently.

I do know that there are some very sloppy CD-ROM manufacturers out there.
I'm not saying who they are. They are definitely selling things that they
have no legal right to sell.

	Thanks

	Bruce

Acknowledgement sent to Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>:
Extra info received and forwarded. Full text available.
Information forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com:
Bug#1505; Package miscutils. Full text available.

Message received at debian-bugs:


From i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl!marekm Fri Sep 29 08:00:56 1995
Return-Path: <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0sygvo-0006JEC; Fri, 29 Sep 95 08:00 PDT
Received: from i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl by pixar.com with SMTP id AA03367
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for bruce@mongo.pixar.com); Fri, 29 Sep 1995 08:00:32 -0700
Received: (from marekm@localhost) by i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl (8.6.12/8.6.9) id QAA24725; Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:00:37 +0100
From: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Message-Id: <199509291500.QAA24725@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing
To: bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens)
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:00:35 +0100 (MET)
Cc: debian-bugs@Pixar.com
In-Reply-To: <m0syPXf-000Gf3C@mongo.pixar.com> from "Bruce Perens" at Sep 28, 95 01:26:51 pm
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 815       

Bruce Perens:
> I think there was a copyright problem with "setterm" that caused us to
> remove it from the distribution a long time ago. If I recall correctly,
> it didn't allow distribution for a fee, which is of course essential to
> our CD-ROM redistributors.

Hmm, setterm is distributed on countless Slackware CD-ROMs at least...
Aren't we too paranoid about copyrights?

Now that I have read the source, it says that the "conditions of use,
modification and redistribution are contained in the file COPYRIGHT that
forms part of this distribution" but I can't find this file anywhere.

Has anyone tried to contact the author (Gordon Irlam gordoni@cs.ua.oz.au)
about this?  From a quick test using EXPN it seems that his e-mail address
is probably still valid even though setterm was written in 1990...

Marek

Acknowledgement sent to Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>:
Extra info received and forwarded. Full text available.
Information forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com:
Bug#1505; Package miscutils. Full text available.

Message received at debian-bugs:


From magenta.com!moth Thu Sep 28 15:21:21 1995
Return-Path: <moth@magenta.com>
Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0syRKT-000GS3C; Thu, 28 Sep 95 15:21 PDT
Received: from magenta.com by pixar.com with SMTP id AA24569
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for debian-bugs-pipe@mongo.pixar.com); Thu, 28 Sep 1995 15:21:00 -0700
Received: (moth@localhost) by magenta.com (8.6.12/8.6.4) id SAA17854; Thu, 28 Sep 1995 18:16:19 -0400
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 18:16:19 -0400
Message-Id: <199509282216.SAA17854@magenta.com>
From: Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>
Reply-To: Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>
To: cdr@sme.siemens.com, debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Cc: bruce@Pixar.com, marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl
In-Reply-To: <9509282119.AA07191@cons.mountain> (message from CD Rasmussen on Thu, 28 Sep 1995 17:19:03 -0400)
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing

Costa D Rasmussen:
   I wish we had setterm.  I noticed it was missing and thought I must
   be ignorant about how to do without it.

   What's the drill here?  Do we need to lobby the author, write a clone?

setterm was written by Ted Ts'o.  He thought it was such a trivial
program that it didn't need a copyright.

As of today, he knows that the lack of a copyright is a distribution
problem.  I don't know for sure, but I think he plans on releasing it
with a redistributable copyright.

-- 
Raul

Acknowledgement sent to Raul Miller <moth@magenta.com>:
Extra info received and forwarded. Full text available.
Information forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com:
Bug#1505; Package miscutils. Full text available.

Message received at debian-bugs:


From pixar.com!bruce Thu Sep 28 14:29:00 1995
Return-Path: <bruce@pixar.com>
Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0syQVn-000BIEC; Thu, 28 Sep 95 14:28 PDT
Received: from mongo.pixar.com by pixar.com with SMTP id AA21710
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for bruce@mongo.pixar.com); Thu, 28 Sep 1995 14:28:41 -0700
Received: by mongo.pixar.com (Smail3.1.28.1 #15)
	id m0syQUy-000GKkC; Thu, 28 Sep 95 14:28 PDT
Message-Id: <m0syQUy-000GKkC@mongo.pixar.com>
X-Mailer: exmh version 1.6.2 7/18/95
To: cdr@sme.siemens.com
Cc: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>, debian-bugs@Pixar.com,
        Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 28 Sep 1995 17:19:03 PDT."
             <9509282119.AA07191@cons.mountain> 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 14:28:08 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>


cdr@sme.siemens.com said:
> What's the drill here?  Do we need to lobby the author, write a clone?

First, research the current copyright status and confirm it with the author.
Then, if you have to, lobby the author. Only if that fails, write something
better and GPL it.

	Bruce

--
-- Attention Radio Amateurs: For information on "Linux for Hams",
-- read the WWW page http://www.hams.com/LinuxForHams, 
-- or e-mail the word "help" to info@hams.com


Acknowledgement sent to Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>:
Extra info received and forwarded. Full text available.
Information forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com:
Bug#1505; Package miscutils. Full text available.

Message received at debian-bugs:


From sme.siemens.com!cdr Thu Sep 28 14:20:04 1995
Return-Path: <cdr@sme.siemens.com>
Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0syQN9-000B19C; Thu, 28 Sep 95 14:20 PDT
Received: from scr.siemens.com by pixar.com with SMTP id AA21420
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for debian-bugs-pipe@mongo.pixar.com); Thu, 28 Sep 1995 14:19:45 -0700
Received: from cons.mountain ([129.73.58.158]) by scr.siemens.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with SMTP id RAA05336; Thu, 28 Sep 1995 17:19:04 -0400
Received: from localhost by cons.mountain (4.1/SMI-4.1)
	id AA07191; Thu, 28 Sep 95 17:19:04 EDT
Message-Id: <9509282119.AA07191@cons.mountain>
To: Bruce Perens <bruce@pixar.com>, debian-bugs@pixar.com
Cc: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Reply-To: cdr@sme.siemens.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 28 Sep 1995 13:26:51 PDT."
             <m0syPXf-000Gf3C@mongo.pixar.com> 
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 17:19:03 -0400
From: CD Rasmussen <cdr@sme.siemens.com>

I wish we had setterm.  I noticed it was missing and thought I must be
ignorant about how to do without it.

What's the drill here?  Do we need to lobby the author, write a clone?

Costa

Acknowledgement sent to cdr@sme.siemens.com:
Extra info received and forwarded. Full text available.
Information forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com:
Bug#1505; Package miscutils. Full text available.

Message received at debian-bugs:


From pixar.com!bruce Thu Sep 28 13:33:24 1995
Return-Path: <bruce@pixar.com>
Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0syPdz-000GirC; Thu, 28 Sep 95 13:33 PDT
Received: from mongo.pixar.com by pixar.com with SMTP id AA18168
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for debian-bugs-pipe@mongo.pixar.com); Thu, 28 Sep 1995 13:33:04 -0700
Received: by mongo.pixar.com (Smail3.1.28.1 #15)
	id m0syPXf-000Gf3C; Thu, 28 Sep 95 13:26 PDT
Message-Id: <m0syPXf-000Gf3C@mongo.pixar.com>
X-Mailer: exmh version 1.6.2 7/18/95
To: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>,
        debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Cc: bruce@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1505: setterm is missing 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 28 Sep 1995 20:37:50 PDT."
             <199509281937.UAA20951@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl> 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 13:26:51 -0700
From: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>

I think there was a copyright problem with "setterm" that caused us to
remove it from the distribution a long time ago. If I recall correctly,
it didn't allow distribution for a fee, which is of course essential to
our CD-ROM redistributors.

Several of the programs in util-linux had ambiguous or pernicious copyright
status at that time.

	Thanks

	Bruce

marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl said:
> Package: miscutils

> I can't find the setterm program (distributed as part of util-linux) 
> anywhere in the distribution (the output from "grep setterm Contents" 
> is empty, and this program is not on my freshly installed, fairly 
> complete Debian system at home).

> It is not currently part of any package, but I think it might be part 
> of the "miscutils" package (or some other package - the decision is 
> not up to me).  This is the program used to set various terminal 
> attributes, including some specific to Linux console, like screen 
> blanking timeout. Not an essential package, but a sometimes useful 
> one.

> If there a program which is part of the distribution and does the 
> same thing but has a different name, please ignore this report (I am 
> new to Debian - previously using Slackware for over a year now, but 
> it has become too messy and difficult to upgrade, so I installed 
> Debian just for fun after I got a new hard drive).

> Marek

> 

--
-- Attention Radio Amateurs: For information on "Linux for Hams",
-- read the WWW page http://www.hams.com/LinuxForHams, 
-- or e-mail the word "help" to info@hams.com


Acknowledgement sent to Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>:
Extra info received and forwarded. Full text available.
Information forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com:
Bug#1505; Package miscutils. Full text available.

Message received at debian-bugs:


From i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl!marekm Thu Sep 28 12:38:09 1995
Return-Path: <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp
	(Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0syOmX-000GBiC; Thu, 28 Sep 95 12:38 PDT
Received: from i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl by pixar.com with SMTP id AA15538
  (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for debian-bugs-pipe@mongo.pixar.com); Thu, 28 Sep 1995 12:37:44 -0700
Received: (from marekm@localhost) by i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl (8.6.12/8.6.9) id UAA20951 for debian-bugs@pixar.com; Thu, 28 Sep 1995 20:37:51 +0100
From: Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Message-Id: <199509281937.UAA20951@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>
Subject: setterm is missing
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 20:37:50 +0100 (MET)
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 927       

Package: miscutils

I can't find the setterm program (distributed as part of util-linux)
anywhere in the distribution (the output from "grep setterm Contents"
is empty, and this program is not on my freshly installed, fairly
complete Debian system at home).

It is not currently part of any package, but I think it might be part
of the "miscutils" package (or some other package - the decision is not
up to me).  This is the program used to set various terminal attributes,
including some specific to Linux console, like screen blanking timeout.
Not an essential package, but a sometimes useful one.

If there a program which is part of the distribution and does the same
thing but has a different name, please ignore this report (I am new to
Debian - previously using Slackware for over a year now, but it has
become too messy and difficult to upgrade, so I installed Debian just
for fun after I got a new hard drive).

Marek

Acknowledgement sent to Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Full text available.
Report forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com:
Bug#1505; Package miscutils. Full text available.
Ian Jackson / iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk, with the debian-bugs tracking mechanism
This page last modified 07:43:01 GMT Wed 01 Nov