On 31 May 2024, at 00:05, Kip Warner <k...@thevertigo.com> wrote: > > On Thu, 2024-05-30 at 23:20 +0100, Bruce Horrocks wrote: >> I'd be able to maintain a Context PPA but there already seems to be >> one: >> <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/context> > > I think that's just the source used in Ubuntu. This is called a "source > package" in the Debian parlance: > > https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html
Ah yes. I was thinking that launchpad.net was a Debian PPA but I see now that it is Ubuntu only, albeit users of other distros can install from it if they know the 'magic' command line trickery. > But if you click the "Other versions of 'context' in untrusted > archives" at the bottom of the page it will show you PPAs. There > appears to be three, all of which are ancient. Of the three, the "ConTeXt daily builds" owned by Adam Reviczky seems to be up-to-date, just not listed in date order so it's not as obvious as it might be. If I understand the odd naming convention correctly, he has updated Ubuntu versions 18.04, 20.04, 22.04, 23.04 and 24.04 with the version of Context current as at 2024-05-29. So presumably Ubuntu users of those versions can get the latest Context by running an 'apt install context' command? > Just so you know, Ubuntu source packages are just Debian source > packages, but often with some downstream patches. The Debian source > package is what ends up in endless distros. > > Probably most lay users who use ConTeXt outside of building from a > tarball or putting somewhere outside of the FHS are using some Debian > distro derivative's package via: > > $ sudo apt install context > > Unless the Debian package is updated, usually downstream derivative > distros won't update their own. For that reason if you want to affect > the most change for the most users it's best to do so here: > > https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/context According to <https://packages.debian.org/experimental/context> Debian 'experimental' is up-to-date with ConTeXT as of 2024-04-01. This is for the experimental release of course, but it does mean that the package is being maintained. Just that the release schedule of Debian is so slow. :-( Or put another way, I don't think the issues we're seeing are due to lack of maintainer effort but rather a result of the way Debian does releases. > Over a hundred distros just recycle the above source package and its > resulting binaries. > > Usually Debian is slow to update their packages, depending on who is > assigned as package maintainer. Because of that, this is part of the > reason why PPAs are popular because they shorten the time for lay users > to try the new version without having to fiddle with paths, tarballs, > etc. > > Once you have a PPA up, to build binary packages the builder does the > same as the ones used by the Debian project. You upload a Debian source > package and it will then go and build and test the resulting binary > packages. After that it injects them into the APT repository (which is > all a PPA is). I'm not sure there is a need to do any more than Adam Reviczky is already doing. When I find a bit of time I'll install a Ubuntu 24.04 into a VM and see what version of Context is installed, likewise Debian. — Bruce Horrocks Hampshire, UK ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror) archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________
