Bug#411591: RFA: devscripts -- Scripts to make the life of a Debian Package maintainer easier

[Julian Gilbey <jdg@debian.org>]

Package: wnpp
Severity: normal

I request an adopter for the devscripts package.  I have had very
little time over recent months (years, even), and this package really
demands far more active maintenance than I am able to give it.

There are generally relatively few bugs but lots and lots of wishlist
requests.  With the prominence of the package, it is really important
that whoever takes it on is willing to do a significant amount of new
coding in bash and Perl, the two main languages used in the package.

If you are interested, please check out the BTS page
(http://bugs.debian.org/devscripts) to get some idea of the number and
range of current requests for features: some of these are quick, some
would require some major (re)coding.

The package is currently developed via an SVN repository on alioth,
and consists of numerous mostly-unrelated scripts, so could be easily
be managed by a small group of maintainers.

Thanks in advance!

   Julian

And in case you don't know already, the package description currently
reads:

 Contains the following scripts, dependencies/recommendations shown in
 brackets afterwards:
 .
  - annotate-output: run a command and prepend time and stream (O for stdout,
    E for stderr) for every line of output
  - archpath: print tla/Bazaar package names [tla | bazaar]
  - bts: a command-line tool for manipulating the BTS [www-browser,
    libwww-perl, mailx | mailutils]
  - checkbashisms: check whether a /bin/sh script contains any common
    bash-specific contructs
  - cvs-debi, cvs-debc: to call debi and debc from the CVS working directory
    after running cvs-debuild or cvs-buildpackage [cvs-buildpackage]
  - cvs-debrelease: to call debrelease from the CVS working directory
    after running cvs-debuild or cvs-buildpackage [cvs-buildpackage,
    dupload | dput, ssh]
  - cvs-debuild: run cvs-buildpackage using debuild (see below) as the
    package building program [cvs-buildpackage, fakeroot, lintian | linda,
    gnupg]
  - dd-list: given a list of packages, pretty-print it ordered by maintainer
  - debc: display the contents of just-built .debs
  - debchange/dch: automagically add entries to debian/changelog files [wget]
  - debclean: purge a Debian source tree [fakeroot]
  - debcommit: commit changes to cvs or svn, basing commit message on
    changelog [cvs | subversion]
  - debdiff: compare two versions of a Debian package to check for
    added and removed files [wdiff, patchutils]
  - debi: install a just-built package
  - debpkg: dpkg wrapper to be able to manage/test packages without su
  - debrelease: wrapper around dupload or dput [dupload | dput, ssh]
  - debsign, debrsign: sign a .changes/.dsc pair without needing any of
    the rest of the package to be present; can sign the pair remotely
    or fetch the pair from a remote machine for signing [gnupg,
    debian-keyring, ssh]
  - debuild: wrapper to build a package without having to su or worry
    about how to invoke dpkg to build using fakeroot.  Also deals
    with common environment problems, umask etc. [fakeroot,
    lintian | linda, gnupg]
  - deb-reversion: increases a binary package version number and repacks the
    archive
  - dget: downloads Debian source and binary packages [wget]
  - dpkg-depcheck, dpkg-genbuilddeps: determine the packages used during
    the build of a Debian package; useful for determining the Build-Depends
    control field needed [build-essential, strace]
  - dscverify: verify the integrity of a Debian package from the
    .changes or .dsc files [gnupg, debian-keyring, libdigest-md5-perl]
  - grep-excuses: grep the update_excuses.html file for your packages [wget]
  - mass-bug: mass-file bug reports [mailx | mailutils]
  - mergechanges: merge .changes files from a package built on different
    architectures
  - nmudiff: mail a diff of the current package against the previous version
    to the BTS to assist in tracking NMUs [patchutils, mutt]
  - plotchangelog: view a nice plot of the data in a changelog file
    [libtimedate-perl, gnuplot]
  - pts-subscribe: subscribe to the PTS for a limited period of time
    [mailx | mailutils, at]
  - rc-alert: list installed packages which have release-critical bugs [wget]
  - rmadison: remotely query the Debian archive database about packages [wget]
  - svnpath: print svn repository paths [subversion]
  - tagpending: shell script which runs from a Debian source tree and tags
    bugs that are to be closed in the latest changelog as pending.
    [wget]
  - uscan: scan upstream sites for new releases of packages [libwww-perl]
  - uupdate: integrate upstream changes into a source package [patch]
  - whodepends: check which maintainers' packages depend on a package
  - who-uploads [gnupg, debian-keyring, wget]: determine the most recent
    uploaders of a package to the Debian archive
  - wnpp-alert: list installed packages which are orphaned or up for
    adoption [wget]
 .
 Also included are a set of example mail filters for filtering mail
 from Debian mailing lists using exim, procmail, etc.