Bits from the PTS
Hi all, it's been a long time since the last status update about the PTS. So here it is. An interesting feature has been added to the PTS a few months ago. You can add custom information to the PTS web page. This feature has been documented in the developers-reference : http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/ch-resources.en.html#s-pts-web You can see how "static news" appears on the debian-cd page for example: http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-cd.html Concerning the figures, we have now over 3000 subscriptions from 1500 different emails on 1650 different source packages. Here's a dump of the relevant paragraphs of the documentation: This web interface has been designed like a portal for the development of packages: you can add custom content on your packages' pages. You can add "static information" (news items that are meant to stay available indefinitely) and news items in the "latest news" section. Static news items can be used to indicate: * the availability of a project hosted on Alioth for co-maintaining the package * a link to the upstream web site * a link to the upstream bug tracker * the existence of an IRC channel dedicated to the software * any other available resource that could be useful in the maintenance of the package Usual news items may be used to announce that: * beta packages are available for testing * final packages are expected for next week * the packaging is about to be redone from scratch * backports are available * the maintainer is on vacation (if they wish to publish this information) * a NMU is being worked on * something important will affect the package Both kinds of news are generated in a similar manner: you just have to send an email either to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The mail should indicate which package is concerned by having the name of the source package in a X-PTS-Package mail header or in a Package pseudo-header (like the BTS reports). If a URL is available in the X-PTS-Url mail header or in the Url pseudo-header, then the result is a link to that URL instead of a complete news item. Here are a few examples of valid mails used to generate news items in the PTS. The first one adds a link to the cvsweb interface of debian-cd in the "Static information" section: From: Raphael Hertzog <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Browse debian-cd CVS repository with cvsweb Package: debian-cd Url: http://cvs.debian.org/debian-cd/ The second one is an announcement sent to a mailing list which is also sent to the PTS so that it is published on the PTS web page of the package. Note the use of the BCC field to avoid answers sent to the PTS by mistake. From: Raphael Hertzog <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: debian-gtk-gnome@lists.debian.org Bcc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Galeon 2.0 backported for woody X-PTS-Package: galeon Hello gnomers! I'm glad to announce that galeon has been backported for woody. You'll find everything here: ... Think twice before adding a news item to the PTS because you won't be able to remove it later and you won't be able to edit it either. The only thing that you can do is send a second news item that will deprecate the information contained in the previous one. Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://www.ouaza.com Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com Earn money with free software: http://www.geniustrader.org pgpzxJ89aOLYN.pgp Description: PGP signature
News about the Package Tracking System
Hi folks, I just made an important change to PTS. Since the PTS email adresses have been available on the web, they start collecting a significant quantity of spam. As a first measure to avoid them I decided that any email sent directly to the PTS should be auto-approved. Auto-approval is easy, you just have to add an "X-PTS-Approved" header with a non-empty value. If you don't do that, you get a bounce (and the bounce explains you how to auto-approve your message). This change shouldn't affect too many people since the PTS is mostly used to receive information and not to send it. However if you were used to use the PTS for discussing with co-maintainers, you'll have to get used to add this header. Otherwise, the PTS continues its (slow) growth. Latest figures are : - 1274 source packages - monitored by 981 unique email adresses - totalizing 2044 subscriptions Currently I'm alone to manage the PTS and its evolution. I'd like this to change ... so I'm looking for people who are willing to help manage it. As a proof of interest, you only have to implement one (or more) of the items that still are on my TODO list ;-) Otherwise, applicants or future maintainers can also pick something to do and I may sponsor them or advocate them in return. So, what is there to do ? - Integrate the information from WNPP in the web interface (so that people can notice that the package is orphaned or looking for a new maintainer (O or RFA)) - Use a more elaborate anti-spam measure (whitelist with one-time confirmation for the first time, or something similar to that) - Check for the validity of the sender adress before sending a bounce (this is to reduce the volume of bounces that I receive because of the refused spams) That's what is the most important to me but you may of course have your own ideas about what needs to be added/done and I'll consider any patch. I can find many other things that would help (script to remove/disable/reenable a particular email address for example) but that's not priority one right now. So, you want to start hacking ? The sources are in the QA CVS : http://cvs.debian.org/pts/?cvsroot=qa (anonymous cvs access at :pserver:[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/cvs/qa, module pts) The working setup is installed in /org/packages.qa.debian.org/ on master.debian.org. Of course, I'll respond to questions concerning the code of the PTS. Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://www.ouaza.com Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpJJzV1pW7V6.pgp Description: PGP signature
Introducing Alioth: SourceForge for Debian
Hi everyone, This message announces the birth of a new service: http://alioth.debian.org/ Alioth is a Sourceforge installation dedicated to Debian. Before going into details, I'd like to thank Roland Mas and Christian Bayle who packaged Sourceforge (and it's not something easy!). Special kudos to Roland Mas and Wichert Akkerman who worked together to set it up and to make some modifications for Debian (so that each Debian developer has his usual account mostly ready to use, for example). Project approval policy --- Alioth offers the same range of services than Sourceforge but only to projects which met certain criteria. Here are the guidelines we're going to follow when approving project submissions: We'll approve all those projects: - Free software or free documentation (as defined by the Debian Free Software Guidelines) authored by Debian developers, or free software/documentation where a Debian developer is heavily involved (part of the core team for example). The project request should ideally be done by a Debian developer. - Free documentation concerning Debian or any of its derivatives. We may also approve other projects on a case by case basis, for example: - Other projects (non-software, non-documentation) whose goal is to promote Debian. - Other projects (non-software, non-documentation) whose goal is to promote free software in general, if those initiatives are backed by Debian or by a group a Debian developers. - Any other project where you can convince the Alioth's administrators that it will help Debian achieve World Domination. What is it good for ? - Alioth has big advantages: - creating a project is easy and it offers you full control over many services - it is open to non-Debian developers and you can easily grant rights (for example CVS write access) to external contributors Thus Alioth is particularly suited for: - Debian specific software that could be used by third parties (who'd be able to easily contribute). I would give the "Debian menu system" as an example. - Documentation where many external contributors (authors, translators, reviewers) are typically involved. - Subprojects like DebianEdu where many contributors are not (yet) Debian developers, and where we want to federate/integrate projects which started without any links to Debian. But Alioth can still be used for projects/tasks of limited scope: for example comaintenance of packages can be done on Alioth (by using the CVS repository). How to use my Debian Developer account ? Your account already exists. You just have to change your password by following the instructions on this page: https://alioth.debian.org/account/lostpw.php (the URL will be mailed to your @debian.org email account). Very recent new developers may not have their account created at exactly the same time on Alioth as on other Debian servers, but the delay is worked on. How to use Alioth if I'm not an official developer ? Just click on the "New user via SSL" link and create your account from there. Your account name will include a "-guest" suffix, so that we can avoid namespace conflicts with "real" Debian developers. Apart from that limitation, your account is not crippled. Expectations We hope that this service will show that the Debian community is a very active part of the free software community. Hopefully it will also help us by letting more people contribute to Debian without going through the complete new maintainer system. It should also help collaborative package maintenance, thus increasing the general quality of Debian. Why "Alioth"? - Well, we had to pick a name. Lots of names were suggested, most of which were references to movies, books, cartoons or whatever. These references were not necessarily understood by people from all over the world (not everywhere can you watch the Simpsons or Goldorak on TV), and the names had not much significance apart from these references. The Alioth name was primarily chosen as a reference too, but this one is less bound to geographical origin of the users: it's the capital system for the Alliance of Independent Systems in the Frontier First Encounters game. I'm not saying everyone here played this game, but it's more likely that you have at least heard of it, whereas you probably have no clue who Actarus is unless you're French, male, and 23 to 30 years old. Oh, and as a bonus, Alioth is a real star, in the constellation of Ursa Major (as any Google search will tell you). We hope you'll enjoy this new service ! -- The Alioth administrators (Wichert Akkerman, Roland Mas, myself) pgp1bnfK9ja8x.pgp Description: PGP signature
PTS News & DebianEdu's future
Hello, first of all I'd like to give you some news about the Package Tracking System. Thanks to the work of Michael Bramer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, the DDTP (Debian Description Translation Project) has been interfaced with the PTS. On all pages of the PTS (http://packages.qa.debian.org/) there's one or two new links in the bottom left corner (in the box "Other links"). Check http://packages.qa.debian.org/debconf for example. Those links point to pages where you can see all available translations for the package. From there you can easily request a translation that you want to contribute. You may also request an existing translation for review. If you never jumped into the DDTP, this makes it easy for you to start ! For those who want to follow what happens in the DDTP about a precise source package, there's a new keyword that you can enable at subscription time : "ddtp". People who have enabled this keyword will automatically receive each translation concerning the package by mail. Latest PTS figures show 1463 subscriptions from 627 different email accounts on more than 1000 source packages. And it's getting better each day ! About 15% of the source packages have PTS subscribers ... I can only encourage the maintainers of the 85% remaining packages to recruit people to help them. That's it for the PTS. Now I'd like to say a few words about the DebianEdu subproject. Actually the project is more or less stalled. That's mainly my fault because I do not invest enough time into it ... that's why I'm looking for a volunteer who'd like to lead DebianEdu. What should a good leader do ? First of all he should show the example by packaging a few educational apps listed on wiki.debian.net/DebianEdu. After that he should pester the other volunteers to do the same and offer his help to direct the "future maintainers" so that they get sponsored. Another thing to do is to setup the web pages on www.debian.org itself like DebianJr or DebianMed. Last but not least he should stay in touch with other external projects so that we can share the efforts whereever it's possible. You're interested ? Please let me know ... either directly or on [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thank you for your attention ! -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://www.ouaza.com Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpDZgoaIL8N2.pgp Description: PGP signature
Package Tracking System, part II (or Bits from QAG)
Hello, before speaking of the PTS, let me introduce the great page that Igor Genibel made for us : http://qa.debian.org/developer.php Please bookmark your personal page so that you can follow the state of your packages (that way you can't forget that you have bugs to fix .. put it as your homepage if you wish) ;-) The more curious will already have noticed that Igor's page links to the web interface of the Package Tracking System that I want to introduce with this mail. Web interface of the Package Tracking System What is it ? Well, take a random source package and go to : http://packages.qa.debian.org/ As you can see, the page gives an overview of the state of the package with several useful links. You'll find for example : - generic information (last version, maintainer, co-maintainers, ...) - testing information (updates_excuses content) - summary of available version in each distribution (including security updates and *-proposed-updates) - the debian-devel-changes mails announcing uploads - links to buildd web interface and other qa related stuff - and last but not least, a form to subscribe to the package (cf the usual PTS that you already know[1]) Everything is updated daily. What's next ? - The web interface is working but more things will come as soon as master is upgraded to stable (so that I can install the required scripts) : - the latest news will be updated in real time (instead of once a day) - you will be able to add your own items in latest news by sending a mail to a special email address - you will be able to add links and some documentation (NMU guidelines, upstream web site, ...) in a section "static information" with a simple mail Figures for the PTS --- I thought I'd give some figures for PTS (the mail subcription part) : - 611 source packages have at least one subscribers (less than 10% of the total number of sources packages) - 760 subscriptions by 257 different email address - that makes about 3 subscriptions/address but ... - the biggest user of the PTS has 54 subscriptions Those figures are not bad but there's much room for improvement. Now that you have a web form to subscribe to it, I'm sure you can convince people (upstream maintainer, bts contributor, other debian developers) to subscribe to your packages so that : - they can help you deal with difficult bug reports - someone is following the package while you're in vacation (or MIA because of real life issues) I also encourage you to find some co-maintainers. If you don't know what I'm speaking about, please read : http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/ch-pkgs.en.html#s-collaborative-maint Thank you for your attention, I hope you'll enjoy those new tools. Cheers, PS: QAG = Quality Assurance Group :-) [1] If you don't, please read : http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/ch-resources.en.html#s-pkg-tracking-system -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://www.ouaza.com Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpVS5XkgEAoZ.pgp Description: PGP signature
New subproject: DebianEdu
Hello, I'm proud to announce the birth of the DebianEdu subproject. This subproject aims to make Debian the best distribution available for educational use. I hope that being an official Debian subproject will let us federate many initiatives around education like the french Debian Education distribution[1] (in which I was involved). I know at least of SkoleLinux[2] in Norway. But I'm sure there are other less known efforts underway, I invite them to join. HOW TO JOIN You just have to subscribe to the debian-edu@lists.debian.org mailing list. You can do so by sending a mail with "confirm" in the subject to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or you can use the web form available here : http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe HOW TO HELP Many things can be done and needs to be done : - integrate in Debian some external Debian packages for education (we created some of these for the french Debian Education) - package non-packaged education related software - improve the existing software (adding i18n, adding more translations) - write good documentation - cooperate with the debian-installer effort to make sure we can have a good installer for people with limited computer skills - cooperate with other education-related projects (like Seul, Ofset, KdeEdu, ...) WEBSITE It's not yet integrated in the official www.debian.org website but it should (and will) be (volunteers can contact me :-)) : http://wiki.debian.net/DebianEdu Please relay that announce wherever you think it's worthwhile. Thanks, [1] http://logiciels-libres-cndp.ac-versailles.fr/ (french only) [2] http://developer.skolelinux.no/projectinfo.html.en -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://www.ouaza.com Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpJ5R8hw7cG5.pgp Description: PGP signature
First Bug Squashing Party for sarge
Hello, during the upcoming week-end (Aug 30 - Sep 2), we'll have our first bug squashing party for sarge. Why now ? Because we aim to a short release cycle for sarge and because release critical bugs are already too numerous. If you were unhappy with the long time woody took to came out, it's a good idea to help out this week-end (if you can't, then you should hack on debian-installer some weeks and you'll be forgiven). WHAT ? A bug squashing party is an occasion to correct as many release critical bugs as possible in all the packages of Debian. Correcting usually means: - writing patchs - making NMU HOW ? We usually meet on #debian-bugs on Openprojects (irc.debian.org), that's the place where you can ask any question about the bug squashing party during the week-end. The list of critical bugs is available at : http://bugs.debian.net/index.pmz?name=ALL If you decide to work an particular bug/package, then you should add a comment to it (using the "Add new comment" link and selecting the "BSP-2002-08" keyword) : some examples are "Preparing an NMU", "Creating a patch". This will let other people know that someone is taking care of it. When you have finished, you should update your comment (click on "Change comment") and give the status (usually either "Patch sent" or "NMU x.y-z.w uploaded to DELAYED/4-day"). Make sure to mark the comment as "done". You can change the keyword if you find one more appropriate. If you have assigned a bug or a package to you, but you finally can't fix it, just remove the comment (using the "Remove comment" link). If you have a fix but you're unable to upload the package because you're not a Debian maintainer, you can ask someone on #debian-bugs to do it for you. Before that make sure to send the patch to the BTS and to tag the bug with the "patch" keyword. Sometimes, release critical bugs do not deserve their release critical status. The severity may need to be lowered. You can do that if you have a consensus about it on #debian-bugs. ABOUT NMU During a BSP, Non Maintainer Upload rules are simplified. You can NMU any package without previous notice to the maintainer. Instead of uploading the package to incoming directly, you should however upload it to the DELAYED directory (read developers-reference[1] for more info about how to do that). Full patch of the NMU must still be sent to the BTS for the maintainer. At the same time, you should inform him of the time he has before your upload to the DELAYED directory will make its way into incoming itself. The loosened rules don't mean that you should forget common sense. Don't NMU a package without a bit of testing. Don't NMU if you know that the maintainer is active and will happily include the patch that you will send. OTHER NOTES This BSP can also be used to complete the transition to perl 5.8 by NMUing all binary perl modules that have not yet been updated by the end of the week. CONTACT If you want more information about this BSP, feel free to ask on debian-qa@lists.debian.org or on #debian-bugs. PS: The usual release critical bug list maintained by Wichert Akkerman is currently not working. It doesn't matter much, bugs.debian.net is enough. [1] http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/ch-resources.en.html#s-delayed-incoming -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/~raphael/ Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpADfudOcgcI.pgp Description: PGP signature
Updated developers-reference available
Hello, a new version of the developers-reference has been installed and is now available. The number of changes is so impressive that you may well read it completely (again). Some interesting changes are : - testing is documented - the Package Tracking System is documented - the new incoming is documented (and the delayed feature) - irc channels are documented - madison is documented - a completely new chapter is included, "Best Packaging Practices". The content is not yet very elaborated, it is waiting your enhancements and contributions. Check the comments in the source to see what should be done. - how to sponsor future maintainer - and many more updates ... You can find it here : http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/index.en.html If you find errors or things that should be clarified, feel free to prepare a patch and to send it to the BTS (package "developers-reference"). The source is available in the CVS : $ export CVSROOT=:pserver:[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/cvs/debian-doc $ cvs login [ empty password ] $ cvs co ddp/manuals.sgml/developers-reference Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/~raphael/ Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpzeJFmABA1a.pgp Description: PGP signature
Back to work !
Hello everybody, first I'd like to congratulate Bdale ! I also wish to thank Branden, it has been fun to be a competitor with you. I hope to see you again next year... :-) I also wish to thank everyone who voted for me. I'll try to honor your trust by managing the projects I proposed during the election. According to the official figures, 406 developers preferred me over "None of the above". That probably means that 406 developers thought that at least one of my projects is interesting. With a bit of luck, I should be able to find 406 / 17 =~ 23 volunters for each project... That should be enough to bring them all through the end. ;-) You understood... I'm looking for volunteers. Please contact me if you wish to lead one of the projects of my platform. If you just wanna help, you can also contact me ... i'll keep you in the loop to give you the opportunities to help. :-) In any case, the work will be done in a public manner so you'll all be able to follow and to discuss the projects. The list of projects is part of my platform : http://www.debian.org/vote/2002/platforms/raphael I past it here to remind you... I reformat it like a little form if you wanna reply to let me know where you wanna help. Please reply privately (and not to debian-devel) if you just wanna fill the form... 1. Organisation [ ] 1.1 Sourceforge for Debian developers [ ] 1.2 Ping the maintainers [ ] 1.3 Recruit people for adopting packages [ ] 1.4 Localization infrastructure [ ] 1.5 A second security team [ ] 1.6 Don't mix stable and unstable packages [ ] 1.7 More frequent freezes/releases [ ] 1.8 Extension for the Package Tracking System [ ] 1.9 CVS repository for debian directories 2. Communication (internal and external) [ ] 2.1 Debian Best Packaging Practices [ ] 2.2 Updated Debian Developer's Reference [ ] 2.3 Promote the idea of collaborative maintenance and backup maintainers [ ] 2.4 Create more debian-devel- lists [ ] 2.5 Advertise Debian's offers and needs to the free software actors [ ] 2.6 Get in touch with upstream developers [ ] 2.7 Promote Debian in business [ ] 2.8 Acknowledge and cooperate with distributions based on Debian I will use the results both to evaluate the popularity of the various projects and to keep your name to come back to you once it's time to do real work. :-) Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/~raphael/ Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpgn5Hj10QpB.pgp Description: PGP signature
Please test this woody cd image
Hello everybody, release is coming soon ... and we need a bit of feedback about a new feature we plan to use on CD1 of Debian woody for i386. This feature is the possibility to select a flavor to boot when you boot from CD1 (instead of booting from a different CD for each flavor). We have made a test image (thanks go to Chris Lawrence) : http://www.phy.olemiss.edu/debian-cd/ Please grab it, burn it, and try to boot on it (you can also install Debian with it if you want :-)). The same iso image is available from those sites : http://www.phy.olemiss.edu/debian-cd/woody-i386-1.raw http://people.debian.org/~hertzog/debian-cd/woody-isolinux.iso Note that this ISO is small enough to burn to a 5cm (3 inch) CD-R/RW, and contains enough packages to install a functional version of Debian. You can select the flavor to boot by typing one of the flavor name on the "boot:" prompt : idepci or linux (default) compact (with full scsi support) bf24 (installs with kernel 2.4 for machines with very recent hardware) vanilla (the old default kernel with all modules but the install lacks i18n) You can use F3 to see more information about the available flavors. If you have troubles booting the CD, please report your problems to debian-cd@lists.debian.org (reply-to set) and give information about your computer (cpu, age, bios name & version, ...). If you have troubles during the installation process, please report your problems to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cheers, PS: More info about this image can be found here : http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/2002/debian-cd-200204/msg00067.html -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/~raphael/ Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpWKDHSevTie.pgp Description: PGP signature
The Package Tracking System
Hello everybody, a new service is available : the package tracking system (PTS). It lets you subscribe to (source) packages in order to receive all the BTS mails sent concerning the source package. Additionnaly you'll get (as soon as the change is implemented in katie) "INSTALLED" messages letting you know that a new version of the package has been installed in the archive. You can (un)subscribe to a package by sending a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The possible commands are : subscribe subscribe unsubscribe unsubscribe which which quit thanks The which command returns the list of packages you're subscribed to. Once you're subscribed you get the mails sent to @packages.qa.debian.org. The mails sent have an header « X-Loop: @packages.qa.debian.org » that lets you easily filter it in a special mailbox if needed. I believe this service was one of the last missing piece to let easily more people work on the same package. The possible uses are all very interesting : * It can be used by "backup maintainers" to follow a package. I believe we should encourage all maintainers to look for backup maintainers who can help, do the work during vacation of the main maintainer, check that the package gets the attention it needs to have. * It can be used by upstream authors who wish to follow how their package is handled within Debian. Those who are using Debian can be of great help ... * It can be used by QA workers who decide to help a maintainer to clean his package. You can work with several QA workers, they all get the BTS changes and follow what new information is provided and so on. They get the patches sent to the BTS, and so on. * It can (and i'd like to say "should") be used by NMUers to follow the package during a complete week after they uploaded their NMU to see if they introduced any bugs ... * It can be used by sponsor to follow the work of their applicant (future maintainer). * It can be used by applicants to see how an experienced developer is managing bugs. * It can be used by people making their own debian derivated distro, they can actually follow the update (the katie update still has to happen though). This service now needs to be widely known so that all interested people can benefit from it. So i'm looking for volunteers who can update the concerned documentations : - Debian Developer's Reference - New Maintainer Guide (cf use for sponsors/sponsoree) - Debian QA web site Concerning the Debian Developers' Reference update, I suggest you take a look at http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2002/debian-qa-200201/msg00062.html I gave a few ideas on how to update it. I hope you'll all ask your best contributors (bug reporters who sent patches, upstream authors, other debian maintainers interested in the package, ...) to subscribe to your package with the PTS. The more people on each package, the better it will be ! For people interested in getting a new stable release as soon as possible, i suggest you subscribe to some base/standard packages that you know relatively well in order to help with the bug management (in particular for release critical bugs...). I hope you enjoy ! -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/~raphael/ Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgp4CDnqixfVE.pgp Description: PGP signature
We still need sponsors !
Hello, most of you know that there's a (more or less official) sponsorship system that lets official Debian developers help future maintainers by checking their package, by giving them advices, by uploading their packages into Debian. It was introduced when we had problem with the New Maintainer team. Those problems are solved today, but the sponsorship system continues and will probably continue as long as possible since it's one of the friendliest way to introduce the future maintainers into Debian. They can learn faster how to make high quality packages, they know sooner what we expect from them. But more sponsors are needed to keep it going ... So, dear co-developers, please join debian-mentors@lists.debian.org and respond to future maintainers, and sponsor those who are asking it. Also check out the sponsor page that is listing about 30 future maintainers who are looking for a sponsor : http://www.internatif.org/bortzmeyer/debian/sponsor/ Thanks, -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/~raphael/ Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpekkvVQit5s.pgp Description: PGP signature
Withdrawal of the General Resolution about IRC
[ Please respect the reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ]
Hello,
first I'd like to thank the few people who have been constructive and
tried to help instead of denigrating and nitpicking on minor points.
I've decided to withdraw the general resolution proposed 2 weeks ago
about IRC as communication channel.
Why ?
Because the most concerned people (Wichert as #debian-devel's channel
founder and Branden as an operator) didn't want to participate in the
discussion, not even respond to simple questions that would have let us
continue the work.
That's all. Since they didn't want to discuss it, I didn't see the
point of continuing the discussion about IRC.
The withdrawal doesn't mean that the expressed problem doesn't exist any
more, it's just that I believe that the proposed GR is not good enough to
respond to the concerns I raised. It was too much IRC centric.
I believe that we should come up with a set of guidelines (approved by
Debian) to be used on all (external[1]) communication channels dedicated to
Debian (that is probably relatively similar to the list of channels that
have Debian in their name). Those guidelines would be split in two parts :
- guidelines for channels dedicated to Debian's development
- guidelines for channels dedicated to Debian's use/support
Of course, Debian would have no way to enforce those guidelines, but at
least it would be a good way to check if the people running the
corresponding channel share Debian's {goals,concerns,point of view}.
Unfortunately I don't have time to work on such a proposition, but I'd
like that someone volunteers for it. I would probably even help.
Cheers,
[1] Just for the people who think that #debian-devel (and the other #debian-*
channels) (a channel owned by a debian developer, mentionned in the
welcome mail sent by James Troup to new developers, accessible at
irc.debian.org, with more than a hundred debian developers in it, and
where things like the birth of a new Debian release happen) is neither
official nor representative of Debian.
--
Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/~raphael/
Le bouche à oreille du Net : http://www.beetell.com
Naviguer sans se fatiguer à chercher : http://www.deenoo.com
Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com
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New french speaking list for the development of Debian
Hi, as you may have noticed, a new french speaking list has been created to host discussions about the development of Debian. Its name is [EMAIL PROTECTED] I invite all french speaking developers to join the list. Non developers are welcomed too (like debian-devel), they can contribute to the development of Debian within their possibilities. Wannabe developers can find some help in french (much like debian-mentors for english speaking people). Some discussions may be held in parallel of debian-devel, other interesting discussions may happen on debian-devel-french only. In any case, when something is of interest for a wider audience, an english summary might be posted to debian-devel (crossposting is not possible since 2 different languages are used). You can subscribe to the list using the web form : http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe.en.html Or you can use the mail bot, just send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "subscribe" as subject. See you soon on debian-devel-french ! -- Raphaël Hertzog -+- http://strasbourg.linuxfr.org/~raphael/ Le bouche à oreille du Net : http://www.beetell.com Naviguer sans se fatiguer à chercher : http://www.deenoo.com Formation Linux et logiciel libre : http://www.logidee.com pgpdJ5uRpmbAJ.pgp Description: PGP signature
Looking for speakers for the First Debian Meeting
Hi, we're looking for speakers for the First Debian Meeting that will be held during the Libre Software Meeting [1] at Bordeaux (France) from the 5th to the 9th of July 2000. The speakers may benefit from a financial help if they can't afford the trip. Feel free to propose yourself for any subject that you think is worth a conference/a debate/a coding party between Debian developers and between the Debian community in general. Conferences will (of course) be in english. Some ideas : - non-interactive install with debconf (Joey?) - release goal for Debian woody (hopefully potato will be out at that time) - quality assurance issue - future of the boot floppies - package pools (=> presentation by anthony and a coding party to finish it ?) - Debian and its relation with the Free Software Community in general - Possible improvements of Debian wrt newbie We already have some sponsors to help us invite Debian developers, but we'll need much more, so if you're a potential sponsor who could put up the money for this kind of action, feel free to contact us. I've set a reply-to, please respect it. If you don't want to reply in public, please reply to Thierry Laronde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> who is the main coordinator of the Debian related part of this event at the moment. You can however keep me in copy if you wish .. Thanks for your help ! [1] http://lsm.abul.org -- Raphaël Hertzog -=- http://tux.u-strasbg.fr/~raphael/ CDs Debian : http://tux.u-strasbg.fr/~raphael/debian/#cd Formations Linux et logiciels libres : http://www.logidee.com
First European Debian Meeting
Dear Debian developers, The french-speaking Debian developers and the Libre Software Meeting organizers urge everybody who'd like to take part in the First European [1] Debian Meeting to join us. The meeting takes place in Bordeaux (France), from July 5th to July 9th 2000, it will benefit from the infrastructure put in place for the Libre Software Meeting (Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre). This way, the meetings, debates and work sessions will use at no charge the ENSERB facilities, on the campus of the University of Bordeaux. The developers will find there a great amount of conveniences for a really low cost (accomodation in student's halls of residence, etc...). The goal is to allow all the interested developers and the advanced users of the Debian distribution to meet in the real life, and to review the most important questions about the future of the Debian project, the new features of the distribution, as well as the news of the Free Software in general, via meetings, work groups and/or coding parties. In order to achieve this goal, it is urgently needed to build a precise work programme for the meeting, matching the concerns of the developers and the users. Thus we suggest to the interested developers (and to every volunteer wishing to help) to subscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for discussing the issues (to subscribe, just send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the Subject: subscribe lsm). The Debian related messages will be tagged [Debian]. If you don't want to subscribe but you'd still like to propose a subject for a conference/work session, or if you want to propose yourself as speaker, please take contact with Thierry Laronde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. At the moment, the European Debian Meeting is brought to you by : - Raphael Hertzog - Thierry Laronde - Olivier Berger (contact with the LSM / APRIL member) - ...and you, if you want to help ! The participants in the European Debian Meeting will have the opportunity, at the same time, to meet developers of numerous others Free projects, and even to take part in work sessions about others themes (you can find the programme here : http://lsm.abul.org/program/topics_en.html --- resp. topics_fr.html) More about the Libre Software Meeting (Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre) here : http://lsm.abul.org/lsm_en.html (in english) http://lsm.abul.org/lsm_fr.html (in french) Regards, [1] It's called the Debian European Meeting, but this doesn't mean that we don't want any non-European Debian developers. Developers from America, Asia, Africa and Oceania are welcomed too ! -- Raphaël Hertzog -=- http://tux.u-strasbg.fr/~raphael/ CDs Debian : http://tux.u-strasbg.fr/~raphael/debian/#cd Formations Linux et logiciels libres : http://www.logidee.com
Quality Charter for Debian Maintainers
[ ObPrivate: I want to reach ALL developers, please don't respond to -private but on -devel or by private mail ] [ Reply to set to debian-devel ] Hi everybody, you can find on http://qa.debian.org/maintainer.html what I called a "Quality Charter" for the maintainers. It is a short & concrete list of what a *good* maintainer is expected to do. :-) I think that it is mainly common sense but you can disagree. You can even discuss about completing or modifying this text, it doesn't matter because the goal of my mail is not discussing this text ... I simply want to remind you (you the Debian maintainers) of your job and responsibilities, if you can't assume your packages completely (and this is perfectly comprehensible since many of us are very busy) then please orphan the packages that you can't manage. Other developers with more time will take them over, there is absolutely no point keeping your package if you don't respond to bug reports and/or if you don't fix them. So consider this mail as a « call to orphan packages ». If you don't know how to orphan a package, read the web page mentionned above. If you have problem keeping up with one of your package but you don't want to orphan it, then please consider asking help. Someone may help you to maintain the package. How to ask for help is explained in the web page mentionned above (even if this looks a bit silly, it's good to be able to check in a single place what work can be done for Debian and who needs help). Consider this as the beginning of the work for Debian's quality. This is very important since when people adopt packages, they tend to fix many bugs (look at Ben's work with shadow !) that wouldn't have been fixed if they couldn't adopt it. Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog -=- http://tux.u-strasbg.fr/~raphael/ CDs Debian : http://tux.u-strasbg.fr/~raphael/debian/#cd
New Debian Quality Assurance !
[ Reply-to set to debian-devel ] Hi, I'm proud to announce you the birth of the new Debian QA website : http://qa.debian.org This web site will list tasks that everybody can do to improve Debian. It has been designed so that your work will never be lost since the QA committee will take care that your job will be integrated in a way or another. Everything you need to know is described on the web site. If you wanted to help Debian but you didn't know how, help the Debian QA effort ! New task can only be created by a member of the QA committee (myself, Tortsten Landschoff and Christian Kurz). If you want to suggest some tasks (related to one of your package for example), feel free to send them to us. We will feed the task list from now on. The only thing you have to do is to subscribe to debian-qa and to visit regulary the web site to select a task to do. :-) If you have any question, feel free to ask. Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog -=- http://tux.u-strasbg.fr/~raphael/ CDs Debian : http://tux.u-strasbg.fr/~raphael/debian/#cd
[INFO] About the perl upgrade
[ Reply-to set to debian-devel ] Hello everybody, the perl upgrade is almost finished now. The list of packages that have not yet been updated is below for your information. They are either waiting in Incoming to be installed or will be uploaded RSN (I hope). Two of them are NEW, this does mean that some people added a dependency to perl on their packages. I can't understand how this can happen, everybody that does read debian-devel-announce should be aware of the perl upgrade in potato ... something should be done to insure that all developers do read debian-devel-announce. We should insist on that in the Developers Reference I think. Anyway, if you don't have installed one of the package listed below you can safely restart using apt-get dist-upgrade. Please not also that libmd5-perl is not updated as it has been replaced by libdigest-md5-perl. Alias has also been replaced by libalias-perl. Alias and libmd5-perl will be removed from the FTP archive. dns-browse 1.6-3 Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pen~a <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ifmail 2.14tx8.10-2 Marco d'Itri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> libdbd-msql-perl 1.2017-1 Ben Gertzfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> libdbd-mysql-perl 1.2017-1 Ben Gertzfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> onshore-timesheet 2.1.0.beta.3-3 Adam Di Carlo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> onshore-timesheet-el 2.1.0.beta.3-3 Adam Di Carlo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pilot-manager 1.106-2 Darren Stalder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> shtool 1.4.4-1 Gopal Narayanan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> tcpquota 1.6.15-5 Turbo Fredriksson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wdg-html-validator 1.0-4 Jaldhar H. Vyas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cheers, -- Hertzog Raphaël >> 0C4CABF1 >> http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~rhertzog/
[New maintainer] Working for Debian and becoming a registered Debian developer
[ Large crosspost to start the discussion, please reply to debian-devel only. Simply respect the reply-to. ] Hello everybody, you may or not be aware that getting a Debian developer is quite long. I want to propose a solution to facilitate the integration of new Debian developers. It's quite simple. In order to fully learn how Debian works, the best solution is : - to adopt orphaned packages and correct their bugs - that your work should be checked by an official developer (I'll call it the sponsor). Of course, as long you're not a registered Debian developers you cannot upload your packages. The soluton is that the sponsor will upload the package you'll do. The official maintainer will be [EMAIL PROTECTED] After all when you correct bugs on orphaned packages, you're doing Quality Assurance. This does also allow you to get new bugs in your mailbox. You just need to subscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You would be allowed to open/close/set the severity/forward the bugs since all debian-qa members can do it on debian-qa packages. If the sponsor finds that you've done a good job with the package, he will explain that to the new maintainer team in the hope that your application will be processed faster. And when you'll be official Debian developper, you'll be able to change the Maintainer field to your name. I'll propose myself to be a sponsor. We'll need more sponsor ... any volunteers ? Hopefully several people from debian-qa will accept to be sponsor like me ... All the future Debian developers interested should also reply ... Any input appreciated ! Cheers, -- Hertzog Raphaël >> 0C4CABF1 >> http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~rhertzog/
Perl upgrade : part 2
[ Reply-to set to debian-perl, please respect it ] Hi everybody, the new perl is now in potato for about two weeks (in some days) and as expected not all maintainers did make the correct changes. All the maintainers who did not yet correct their packages must be aware that bugs with severity important will be filled in some days. And the maintainers who don't have corrected packages by this time and who didn't contact me (or debian-perl) to explain me/us that they'll need some more time may NOT be recontacted before NMUs can be launched (with the number of packages to correct and the time it takes to contact each developer individually, it would be a big pain considering that they have already been contacted about this specific issue). So if you expect that your packages will not be updated and that you don't want any NMU, then please respond to this message ... As usually, if you have a problem, please ask and if you know that your package will not be updated please ask for an NMU right now instead of waiting ... And for more information, please read the Debian perl policy available here : http://pandora.debian.org/~hertzog/ Cheers, -- Hertzog Raphaël >> 0C4CABF1 >> http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~rhertzog/
[Warning] perl-5.005 is in the archive
Hello, two persons already complained about perl-5.005 causing troubles on their system. That's perfectly normal, if you install perl-5.005 with tools like apt or dselect all packages depending on "perl" will get removed [1]. All those packages will need to be updated, their maintainers are already aware of this, so they will upload corrected packages rapidly I hope. You really should use apt-get upgrade (and NOT dist-upgrade) until the transition has been completed. However you can safely install the new perl-5.004 (he doesn't conflict with perl) and still have a working system. For the people who really want to be on the bleeding edge and who absolutely want to install perl-5.005 right now, they should download perl-5.005 and perl-5.005-base and install them by hand with : dpkg --force-conflicts -i perl-5.005-base_5.005.03.deb dpkg -i perl-5.005_5.005.03.deb But take care, some of your scripts may well not work anymore until some perl modules get recompiled. And apt may well be unhappy with the status of your installation ... The developers who need to recompile binary perl modules for perl-5.005 will have to install perl-5.005 this way. If you want to know more about this upgrade you can read this mail from Darren Stalder (the perl maintainer) : http://pandora.debian.org/~hertzog/new_perl.txt And you could also read the new perl policy : http://pandora.debian.org/~hertzog/perl-policy.html/ If you have some questions, or if you want help concerning this perl upgrade, you can respond to this mail by respecting the reply-to set to [EMAIL PROTECTED] And for the maintainers of perl modules/scripts, please update your packages rapidly or ask for a NMU on debian-perl. Thanks in advance, Raphaël [1] The correct dependency is "perl5" now. -- Hertzog Raphaël >> 0C4CABF1 >> http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~rhertzog/
[NEW] the debian-perl mailing-list
Hi developers, the debian-perl mailing-list has been created. The persons who maintain perl module packages are invited to join this list. Other people interested in Perl in general can also subscribe of course. The main purpose of this list will be to coordinate the work between the different maintainers. One possible goal would also be to write a perl sub-policy. Furthermore this list will be used to manage the transition to perl5.005. Cheers, PS: Followups on debian-devel according to the reply-to header, thanks. -- Hertzog Raphaël >> 0C4CABF1 >> http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~rhertzog/
