D037 - The package writer refuses to invent

Status: decided Date: 2026-09-26

selfish_pkg::write::Builder computes every entry it can derive and refuses to build when a required entry is neither computed nor supplied, naming each missing one. A computed entry cannot also be supplied. Every region left blank is reported in Built::gaps.

Why: a package that is wrong is acted on by the hardware rather than rejected, and discovering a hole from an install that did not work says nothing about which byte was wrong. Two sources for one entry is how a digest table stops matching what it describes.

Rejected:

• Filling unknown entries with zeros or copies from real packages: invented content.
• Letting a supplied entry override a computed one: silent mismatch between digests and data.