Re: Fwd: Re: Bug#763275: ITP: opencfu -- A C++ program to count cell colonies (CFUs) on agar plates by processing digital pictures
- To: Quentin Geissmann <qgeissmann@gmail.com>
- Cc: Debian Med Project List <debian-med@lists.debian.org>
- Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Bug#763275: ITP: opencfu -- A C++ program to count cell colonies (CFUs) on agar plates by processing digital pictures
- From: Andreas Tille <tille@debian.org>
- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 10:30:03 +0200
- Message-id: <[🔎] 20140929083003.GA4404@an3as.eu>
- In-reply-to: <54287131.6070502@gmail.com>
- References: <trinity-c74d433d-55ff-4108-a7c7-0e95957a8283-1411935455302@3capp-gmx-bs31> <54287131.6070502@gmail.com>
Hi Quentin,
thanks for your ITP which is in fact interesting for Debian Med. I hope
Steffen warned you that I do only open discussion and feel private mails
as a waste of resources for other team members - in this case they would
miss your interesting ITP. So I'll answer on our public mailing list
and I hope you don't mind to much of the violating of netiquette - I
have not seen any private content and ITPs are public anyway.
On Sun, Sep 28, 2014 at 09:36:01PM +0100, Quentin Geissmann wrote:
> Dear Andreas,
>
> Steffen advised me to contact you in order to get some help with
> debian packaging of opencfu (http://opencfu.sourceforge.net/).
> I am at the point where I have a makefile that automatically
> generates a debian package, which I then succeed to install, but I
> am not quite sure about what to do next…
I'd recommend joining the Debian Med team and read our team policy[1]
which gives some useful hints also to packaging documentation. As
Steffen also mentioned you could join "Mentoring of the Month"[2] where
I'm teaching newcomers how to properly package bio-medical software
for Debian.
> A reproducible example can be done by cloning
> https://github.com/qgeissmann/OpenCFU/tree/devel.
>
> Then, by installing dependencies with |# apt-get install
> build-essential automake autoconf libopencv-dev libgtkmm-2.4-dev|.
>
> And running |autoreconf -i && ./configure && make && make deb|
> The last make recipe creates a temporary dir with the package files.
> The original debian packaging files are in
> |packagingScripts/debian|.
I had a look into this. This is not really how packaging works even if
it results in probably usable (but not distributable) Debian packages.
Not distributable is specifically for a zero-byte debian/copyright file
but there are more issues.
Usually you start with a source tarball (see the packaging guide we have
linked from Debian Med policy[1]). The canonical way to create a Debian
package is to download the tarball, add a debian/ dir and then you build
the package. The `autoreconf -i && ./configure && make` steps are done
at package build time (usually triggere by dh) and not before.
> My understanding is that I am almost there, but I don’t really know
> 1) if my package is correct 2) what to do next.
I tend to disagree that you are almost there but I'm very optimistic
that we will be able to bring you there. :-) I'd recommend to register
on alioth.debian.org to get commit permission to the Debian Med
repository where the packaging code is maintained. Usually it is not a
good idea to keep the packaging code in the same archive as the source
(the reasons were frequently discussed - feel free to ask if you want me
to be more verbose about this.)
> ps. Do not hesitate to send pull requests directly if you feel like
> modifying the package
I would insist in maintaining the packaging code at git.debian.org to
enable all members of Debian Med team to work on the packaging.
> pps. I can also upload whatever file you would like, if it is simpler
As far as I can see you have set a release tag[3] which is good. You
need to write a proper debian/watch file to fetch the resulting tarball
and detect new versions. This should be pretty simple if you are using
the package_template (see policy[1]).
> ———— Forwarded Message ————
>
> Hi Quentin, I am too swamped with too many things to be of direct
> help, I am afraid. Andreas Tille kindly initiated his “Mentoring of
> the Month” project for Debian Med
> https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMed/MoM and I just suggest you contact
> Andreas tille@debian.org <http://mailto:tille@debian.org>
I wished Steffen would have used mailto:debian-med@lists.debian.org
instead of my e-mail address. Hi should know that I prefer open
discussion ... :-)
> The package is a published scientific software
> (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0054072).
You can specify this in a debian/upstream/metadata file (see also
package_template).
Your software is actually really interesting for Debian Med and I admit
I'm keen to include it. But for a real release we can not diverge from
the formalisms of Debian Policy in general and I also would like to be
strict in using the well established workflow in the Debian Med team.
Kind regards
Andreas.
[1] http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/docs/policy.html
[2] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMed/MoM
[3] https://github.com/qgeissmann/OpenCFU/releases
--
http://fam-tille.de
Reply to: