Hi Sandro, I started my question from pure engineering background and interest, as I like to understand the situation.
Your answer triggered 2 questions/observations: - ratio of #packages / #packagers - what is KDE? Answering the last: for me KDE is Qt, Frameworks and Plasma. Krita, etc. I'd exclude from it. But only Qt, Frameworks and Plasma consists of 300+ packages (I counted using https://kdesrc-build.kde.org/ ) and next indeed the ratio #packages / #packagers compared to other packages could show the effort involved for KDE compared to other packages. Give the above ratio for KDE I wonder if/how further automation could help to reduce manual effort. Another alternative I could see is to change upstream to release Debian packages straight away. But I guess this idea is not new. Regards, Luc Op ma 24 feb. 2020 om 00:40 schreef Sandro Knauß <he...@debian.org>: > Hey, > > > > While I am studying Debian packaging I like to understand why KDE > > > packaging needs so much effort. For example the LibreOffice > package > > > seems almost instantly available as soon as an up-stream release > > > became > > > available. Does LibreOffice need less Debian packaging effort? > > > > > > Well, it depends. On one side I think kde stuff is composed of many > > > more > > > source packages. > > > > Yes, having only one source package helps for testbuilding and > > -installing massively. > > > > > On the other side Rene, the LO maintainer, has been doing a > wonderful > > > job > > > in keeping it up to date. Now that this does not means we in the > Qt/KDE > > > > Which also involves following upstream and doing packaging changes as > > they are needed so I can just prepare an upload when it's time to do so > > (actcually in many cases for final releases days in advance and at'ed > > for the release time.) and by following every alpha,beta,rc etc. > > Well please don't forget KDE has much more software to package, that have > very > different needs and dependency chains. E.g. calligra a complete office > suite > (like libreoffice), Kontact an email client (like thunderbird), krita a > image > manipulation program (gimp),... > That's why it is not fair to compare on application against something more > than 100 applications and the KDE team is round about 5 core people. So > the > maintainer/package ratio inside the KDE team is not great. > Packaging KDE stuff is NOT harder than other packaging, but it is about > the > amount to package and the people doing this work that makes it slow. > > hefee -- Luc Castermans mailto:luc.casterm...@gmail.com
