What is the purpose of the package emacs24-common-non-dfsg?

Question

I tried to run C-h r from Emacs, but got error

Info file emacs does not exists

After googling i found the package emacs24-common-non-dfsg. What is the purpose of this package, and why would I want to install it?

I am Using Ubuntu 14.04.

Answer 1

You can use apt-cache show <package_name> to get the basic information about that package along with the description.

From apt-cache show emacs24-common-non-dfsg

Description-en: GNU Emacs common non-DFSG items, including the core documentation
 This package includes the core Emacs documentation: the Emacs Info
 pages, the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, and the Emacs Lisp Intro.
 .
 GNU Emacs is the extensible self-documenting text editor.  This
 package contains the architecture independent infrastructure that is
 not compliant with the Debian Free Software Guidelines.  In
 particular, this includes some of the GNU Emacs info pages, as they
 are covered under the GFDL, and specify invariant sections.  See
 http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_001 for more information.

This package is needed for Emacs Manual.

It is a non-free package i.e packages that do not meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines.