Hello fellow cookers, :-)
The cooker list is a place to discuss the latest cooker distribution,
while this can allow developpers to interact closely with Mandrake users,
it also means that there may be users screaming to get things fixed,
discussing what to do with broken packages, and developpers working typing
like monkeys to get this fixed.
Hence, we (Geoffrey Lee, Guillaume Cottenceau) have decided on the idea of
the "Cooker-FAQ" which will be available:
(1) when you first register on cooker
(2) once a month on the cooker list
(3) visit the faq page on http://www.linux-mandrake.com
Just some general reminder of what you should do, and shouldn't.
--Geoffrey Lee, Guillaume Cottenceau
Here is the Cooker-FAQ:
*** Cooker-FAQ ***
Hello Cookers,
Cooker is the development version of the Linux-Mandrake distribution of
GNU/Linux, whose official producer and publisher is MandrakeSoft, Inc.
MandrakeSoft homepage: http://www.mandrakesoft.com
Linux-Mandrake: http://www.linux-mandrake.com
Cooker homepage: http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/cookerdevel.php3
The purpose of Cooker is to improve the distribution by permitting a
better interaction between the development team and the users of
Linux-Mandrake, both for debugging and adding new features.
This is a FAQ, sent out automatically once a month on the Cooker list to
give users a periodic reminder that they are subscribed to the Cooker
list, and what it is, and general common sense in using this list.
It's no use sending emails screaming that something's broken while the
maintainers try to reproduce the problem but in vain.
[ REPORT A BUG ]
If you find a bug, make sure that you are up to date with Cooker for the
relevant packages, and make sure it's reproducible! If not, then it will
be impossible to debug. Also, please investigate if this problem has
already been reported on the mailing-list recently.
Good bug report etiquette states that you need to be precise in bug
reporting. Putting "Package XYZ is broken!" without giving a clear
description is not wise. Give the failing package's name, a brief
description of the problem, and some revelant info about your host, and
anything that we need to do to reproduce the problem on our boxes. Also
provide whatever other information that you may think is useful,
including, but not limited to configuration files of the package.
[ UPLOAD A FIX ]
Usually the fixes are very short: a problem in the specfile or a short
patch in the sources. Sending the diff on the list will be enough.
Additionally, CC the message to the maintainer of the package so that he
will be much more quickly informed of the fix. It is good to include a
short description of what you fixed, even though the change should already
be present in the changelog.
[ ANONYMOUS UPLOAD ]
You can upload fixes or new packages to: ftp.linux-mandrake.com/incoming
But when you do so, please *ALWAYS* send an email to the current
maintainer of the package (if this is a new package, send your email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]), or else your changes will never see the light!
[ SUGGESTIONS FOR MANDRAKE COOKER ]
Just send an email, and tell what you think needs to be changed to make it
work better, and why you want to see it changed, and see what other users
think about it.
[ CONTRIBS/NEW RPMS ]
If you made a fix for a contrib RPM, then please send the diff in the
list, and CC it to Lenny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Alternatively you can
upload the package via ftp.
If you find a really cool RPM, and you would like it to go into the
Mandrake distribution, you can package it and upload it via ftp, and send
a mail to Cooker. CC the mail to Lenny and let him know where he can find
it.
Grabbing a source RPM from freshmeat is OK, but please remember to remove
things like the Vendor: tag, etc in the specfile. However, please don't
delete the previous changelog entries, we have to keep the credits.
To all the persons compiling RPM's: it is highly recommended that you
check out the MDK-RPM howto which is available on:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/howtos/mdk-rpm/
Also please note that Mandrakesoft only accepts source RPM's as we do
sanity checking. If you are paranoid, you may sign the package with PGP.
Remember to send your public key.
PGP is available on the Mandrake crypto ftp site. You may find the package
on ftp://ftp.sunet.se/Linux/distributions/mandrake-crypto.
[ RELEASE CYCLES ]
Please keep in touch with the list, to know when we are in freeze. Please
don't forget that "freeze" means: we do NOT upgrade a package's version
except if this clearly fixes an important problem, so don't keep asking us
to upgrade the packages when you know we are in freeze. However, spec
diffs and patch files which fix specific problems in an existing packages
is OK. Note that the contribs section is not affected by the freeze. It
concerns the main distribution only.
When we are in freeze, you will be able to download ISO's of beta
versions, so that we have a common testing platform. If you have time and
a nice bandwidth, this is the moment to try it out and report the
problems!
[ UNSUBSCRIBING/CHANGE OF EMAIL ]
You may unsubscribe at:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/cookerdevel.php3.
Alternatively send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject
UNSUB cooker with no body.
If you are changing email, it's probably best to just unsubscribe and
resubscribe.
[ AUTHORS ]
If you have any suggestion about this FAQ, or if you found a problem:
Geoffrey Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Guillaume Cottenceau <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
This is under the GNU Free documentation License.
You can find the license here: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
*** END *** Cooker-FAQ ***
--
Guillaume Cottenceau -- Distribution Developer for MandrakeSoft
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/~gc/
