Comment 4 for bug 129575

I'm really not sure that changing the warning alone is sufficient. Regardless of the -y option, I would prefer that apt not ask for confirmation before downloading the repository source. There are several use cases that are improved by using the repository source, as follows:

1) A Ubuntu developer wishes to work on source maintained in a VCS in Debian. In this case, the use of the VCS version may not be correct at all, as there may be many changes to the source in the repositories that are not reflected in the VCS. This issue is compounded for Ubuntu derivatives, where neither the Debian nor Ubuntu VCS may be correct.

2) The downloader is interested in understanding how a feature is implemented, or reviewing the code for some other purpose. In this case, the use of the VCS is likely irrelevant, unless the downloader has some reason why they would prefer the VCS, happens to have the appropriate VCS tools installed, and needs to see the very latest code for some reason.

3) A Debian developer wishes to download Ubuntu source to review the specific changes made in more detail than is obvious from patches.ubuntu.com, when the Debian developer uses a VCS to manage the package. In this case, the warning is definitely not correct, as the specific changes in which the downloader is interested are certainly not in the VCS.

4) A new developer is interested in preparing a patch to be sent upstream for their pet feature, and the repositories carry the latest upstream version. In this case, a pointer to the VCS for the packaging is largely unimportant, as the developer is interested only in the upstream code. It may be that this person should visit the upstream VCS, but this may be daunting for beginners.

5) A user is required to recompile to enable some compile-time option as indicated in the documentation. Such user may well be an LTS user, and so the VCS maintained version may not be appropriate (especially if the package maintainer does not branch at each upload).

6) A user has encountered a behavioral change in the package, and wishes to understand the differences between two versions. For such a user, redirection to the VCS may require review of significantly more output (which may be less obvious to generate) than using versioned apt-get (e.g. apt-get source myfavoritepackage=5.3.6-3ubuntu14) and debdiff.

Contrariwise, I believe the only use case improved by stopping to ask is that an Ubuntu developer working on a package maintained in an Ubuntu VCS is notified that changes should be committed to the VCS rather than uploaded blindly.