Please don't take my mails as definitive answers, I'm just one of many Debian contributors.
On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 11:06 AM, Markus Hitter wrote: > Packaging is out of the scope of Debian? That's an unexpected response. :-) You asked about automated packaging, which isn't something we do in Debian right now AFAIK. > If I knew where to start, which commands to try, I could tell about what > isn't working. Instead I can't find a clear path on how to make a > package, much less on how to automate this. For example, Debian and > Ubuntu instructions differ drastically. Ubuntu uses "bzr" for > everything, Debian seems to mainly using "dch", "debuild", "quilt" and > "dput". Try maint-guide: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/update.en.html#inspectnewupstream http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/update.en.html#newupstream bzr is a version control system like git, it is mostly irrelevant to the packaging part, Ubuntu just use it to store and version-control their packaging and upstream code. They use everything (except maybe quilt) that Debian does. Maybe these graphs can help you understand some parts of the processes: http://mysite.verizon.net/kevin.mark/debian-package.png http://mysite.verizon.net/kevin.mark/newdebian2.png > I feared such an opinion. Packagers apparently think in releases only, That certainly isn't true since packaging generally necessitates becoming a software developer who contributes upstream and commits to version control systems. > volunteer driven software development no longer does such things. Personally I think that is a bad idea and is detrimental to the health of the Free Software community. > Every commit improves the status As a gross generalisation; the experience of Debian and other Linux distributions says that this isn't true, regressions happen, often. > That said, trying to "train" users is considered a big no-go, we live in > an iPhone world now. If users are required to build from sources (which > is currently the case for GNUstep because packages are vintage), you've > already lost, because they won't even become users, much less > developers. Personally I'm glad I live in the world of Debian, copyleft and Free Software instead of in the iPhone world where user freedom is frowned upon :) I can see your point about the progression from the public to a GNUStep user to a GNUStep contributor though. > Which trouble? I see only "needs maintainer" multiple times. Lets see: http://packages.qa.debian.org/m/meta-gnustep.html The metapackage isn't in testing because a couple of games have been removed from testing and the team doesn't appear to have time to delete a couple of lines in the control file and re-upload. http://release.debian.org/migration/testing.pl?package=meta-gnustep http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?which=pkg&data=gnustep-games&sev-inc=critical&sev-inc=grave&sev-inc=serious gnumail and gnustep-back have unfixed release-critical bugs: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=gnustep-back&archive=no&pend-exc=pending-fixed&pend-exc=fixed&pend-exc=done&sev-inc=critical&sev-inc=grave&sev-inc=serious http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=gnumail&archive=no&pend-exc=pending-fixed&pend-exc=fixed&pend-exc=done&sev-inc=critical&sev-inc=grave&sev-inc=serious There are several bugs that haven't been forwarded upstream: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?which=maint&data=pkg-gnustep-maintainers%40lists.alioth.debian.org&archive=no&raw=yes&bug-rev=yes&pend-exc=fixed&pend-exc=done There are some unfixed build failures on GNU/Hurd: https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=pkg-gnustep-maintainers%40lists.alioth.debian.org&comaint=yes&compact=yes There are numerous lintian complaints that are unfixed: http://lintian.debian.org/full/[email protected] There are a number of packages to update, bugs to fix and patches to merge from Ubuntu: http://udd.debian.org/dmd/[email protected] > And that packaging is indeed a rocket science. ;-) Packaging is definitely not rocket science or even hard, it is just a lot of work and a lot of things to think about. -- bye, pabs http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/caktje6gbk8hub1asvwr3xd9ukk6rjvmuozr4t-9b3b58y2g...@mail.gmail.com
