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Re: Contributing - Where to start



Le 24/04/2013 16:38, Felipe FV a écrit :

> I really would appreciate some help on how things work at Java
> development here. Where could I start?

Hi Felipe,

Thank you for offering your help. I was in your position some time ago
and I struggled a bit to get started. There is a lot of documentation to
read as pointed out by Paul Wise, a lot of concepts to understand, and a
lot of tools to learn. It can quickly become discouraging, so here is my
quick howto:


Part I - Install your development environment

1. Download the minimal ISO for installing Debian:


http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.7/amd64/iso-cd/debian-6.0.7-amd64-netinst.iso

2. Install it (on a spare box, or in a virtual machine)

3. Upgrade to the testing distribution

   Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and replace stable with testing
   Run:
       apt-get update
       apt-get dist-upgrade

4. Upgrade to the unstable distribution (same procedure)

5. Install the development tools:

    apt-get install build-essential svn-buildpackage git-buildpackage quilt

6. Edit ~/.profile and add your name and your email:

   export MAIL=johndoe@example.org
   export DEBFULLNAME="John Doe"

7. Create the file ~/.quiltrc and add:

   QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches
   QUILT_NO_DIFF_INDEX=1
   QUILT_NO_DIFF_TIMESTAMPS=1
   QUILT_REFRESH_ARGS="-p ab"

8. Create a GPG key (see http://keyring.debian.org/creating-key.html)

9. Register your account on http://mentors.debian.net, and add your GPG key

10. Create an account on http://alioth.debian.org, and upload your SSH
public key there.

11. Join the pkg-java project on alioth


Part II - Update a package

To get used to the tools I suggest doing minor changes to existing
packages. A good example is to fix a broken debian/watch file. This is
the file that reports the latest upstream version available.

1. Display the list of Java packages:


http://udd.debian.org/dmd.cgi?email1=pkg-java-maintainers%40lists.alioth.debian.org#tabs-versions

Every package with "error" in the 'upstream' column has a broken watch file.

2. Click on the name of the package, this brings you to the PTS page.
Let's pick the aether package for example:

   http://packages.qa.debian.org/a/aether.html

You'll see the message:

   "Someone wrote an updated debian/watch file you may want to include
in the package."

Great! Now let's fix this.

3. Checkout the package with:

   debcheckout --auth aether

4. Replace the debian/watch file by the one linked on the PTS page

5. Check that the new watch file is working properly with:

   uscan --report --verbose

6. Update the debian/changelog file with:

   dch --team

7. Commit your changes (with svn commit or git commit, git push)

8. Install the package dependencies:

   apt-get build-deps aether

9. Rebuild the package:

   dpkg-buildpackage

10. Upload the updated package to mentors.debian.net:

   dput mentors ../aether_1.13.1-3_amd64.changes

11. Wait for the upload confirmation by mail. The package will show up
on https://mentors.debian.net/packages/my

12. Send a RFS (request for sponsorship) mail to this list and get a
sponsor to upload the package to the official archive. The mentors site
provides a ready to use template for the RFS.

13. Celebrate your first package update! :)


The next step is to make a more substantial update to a package. I would
suggest upgrading a library to a more recent version, fixing bugs or
Lintian warnings.

Hope this helps!


Emmanuel Bourg


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