Advice in 3 packages
Hello mentors and everyone,
I'm currently learning to package software for Debian
so I'm making some packages just to learn this art ;)
I've currently packaged three pieces of software:
httplog 2.1-1 logfile rollover program for webservers
liblog4sh-shell 1.2.4-1 a logging library for the shell
gruler 0.6-1 Screen ruler tool for GNOME
The three are lintian-clean (haven't tried linda with them
yet) and to get there I had to fix a whole bunch of issues
since I've just starting packaging 4 days ago.
This message is a bit long (130 lines) since I'm requesting
help/comments with issues in the 3 packages.
I'm not looking for an sponsor with this packages at this very
moment. I'd love some mentor and peer advice on how to improve
this packages according to best practices in Debian.
You'll find the 3 files composing the source package as well
as the .deb binary here:
http://gnrfan.org/debian/packages/
So If some of you could please take a look at them and comment
here I'd be more than happy.
I'll try to list briefly what comments/doubts/issues I have with
this packages.
log4sh
------
This piece of software is a shell script library (made of shell functions
and shell definitions) you can source in your shell script to use advanced
logging features such as those found with log4j, log4perl, log4cpp and
similar libraries. I've filed an ITP bug for this. Will provide patch
once I'm happy with the resulting package.
Upstream author says nothing (in his docs) about deploying this library
system wide. What I did for Debian was install it at /usr/lib/log4sh/
so any shell script that needs to source this would go something like
this:
LOG4SH="/usr/lib/log4sh/log4sh"
if [ -r $LOG4SH ]; then
. $LOG4SH
fi
I adapted the examples and test to use this new system-wide location and
everything works fine. I made a README.Debian file describing this
Debian-specific
situation. I'm plan to e-mail upstream author ragarding what he thiks about
system wide deployments and how this could be better handed by the software
itself.
The name I choosed for the packages is: liblog4sh-shell. I guess it correctly
reflects it's a library for the shell and it's name is "log4sh". Is this right?
Could someone point to some part of Policy related to this?
I haven't yet written a manpage for this package, plan to do so. The
upstream tarball
includes some HTML docs (one big HTML page and a CSS style file) and
I've just installed
it to /usr/share/doc/liblog4sh-shell by adding them to the debian/docs file.
Should this be placed in /usr/shar/doc/<package>/html being the index
file named
'index.html' (it's called log4sh.html now) ????
I tried to do the this by messing a bit with debian/<package.doc-base
but didn't got it
to work. Need some help on how to do this.
I've been modifying a bit te upstream Makefile (is this the
recommended way to go?) and
it works for me, only it issues some errors in the 'make build'
(nothing gets built everything
gets just copied) I'm for now ignoring since the debian package build
doesn't break.
gruler
------
It's a screen ruler for GNOME, quite new app, looks like the author is
rapidly improving
it and publishing a version every couple of weeks. Didn't have much
issues regarding this
app. Wrote a nice (I guess) manpage for it since the upstream package
had none. Haven't
found yet some GNOME specific policy. Please someone point me to it if
it exists. Somewherein Allioth?
Oh! With this package I added an entry in the Debian menu. The icon
i'm using is the original
.png. Haven't yet converted it to XPM (so this package wasn't
lintian-clean then) since I looked
at some other packages and many are using PNG icons as well and mine
was displayed nicely in
the Debian menu without problems. Should I use the XPM icon? What's
the best way to add it?
The source is called 'gruler', the upstream author refers to the
package a couple of times
as "gRuler" but in other parts he calls it "Gnome Screen Ruler". Since
there is a kruler
in Debian I guess gruler makes sense. Shoud i rename the package to
'gnome-screen-ruler'??
httplog
-------
Main problem I have with this package is it's license: Free Software
License. Haven't yet
realized if this is a custom license from the upstream author or
something else but quite
little known. The relevant parts are here:
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1. You may make copies of the Software.
2. You may prepare derivative works based on the Software, provided the
following conditions are met:
i) All modifications to the Software must be prominently declared in
the same file as the modification, and must include the date of the
modification and the person who made the modification.
3. You have the right to make available to the public copies of the Software
or derivative works of the Software, provided the following conditions
are met:
i) Copies in any form must retain all copyright notices, all notices
that refer to this License, and must include this License, without
modification.
ii) The name of any Copyright Owner may not be used to endorse or
promote products either containing, or derived from the Software.
This means the package would go in 'contrib' or 'non-free'?? What
special considerations
do I need to take in that case. I also used "Section: admin" in
debian/control since other p
ackages that rotate logs (logrotate) are there. Should section be "web"?
The references to the homepages with the upstream tarballs are not
accurate in any
of the three packages. I hadn't the exact info in the moment but I'm
fixing now.
I haven't fully checked the english with ispell or some other tool yet, I'll be
refining that once all other technical details are fine.
Thanks a lot in advance,
Antonio Ognio
Lima-Peru.
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