gem2deb ready for general use, please help repackage everything!

[Lucas Nussbaum <lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net>]

Hi,

In case you skipped the whole discussion about gem2deb:
  We now have a new tool to manage ruby packages in Debian. It is much
  easier to use than the previous ruby-pkg-tools package. It comes with
  several features:
   + the process is partially automated.
   + it generates packages for both ruby 1.8 and ruby 1.9.1.
   + it makes it easy to run the test suites.
  generating a basic Debian source package for a gem named 'foo' is as
  simple as:
  apt-get install gem2deb ; gem2deb foo
  (of course, the gem needs customization to make it suitable for Debian
  integration. But after some training, that customization doesn't take
  more than 5 or 10 minutes for most gems).

gem2deb is now ready for general use, and the next step is to repackage
all ruby software using it. We have a page to track the progress:
http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/wheezy/
http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/wheezy/details.html
And the packages are available from git (see
http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Ruby/RubyInWheezy#Using_Git )

A good way to work is to try to repackage a ruby application, and
re-package all its dependencies in the process. (it's better not to rely
on libfoo-ruby packages, as it will require another upload to clean the
dependency).

If you need to introduce transitional package, use:
  gen-ruby-trans-pkgs oldsrcpackagename
to get debian/control snippets.

Please try hard to enable test suites. If there's a reason why it's not
possible, document it in debian/changelog and in NeedsPackaging at the
root of the team's git repo.

Don't hesitate to work on packages even if you are not the main
maintainer for them currently. As long as they stay in the team, you are
not stealing anyone's package, you are just making their life easier.

I'll try to react quickly to sponsorship requests, but please send them
to debian-ruby@. I'm not the only DD able to sponsor packages here
(hint!). Also, even if you can't upload packages, it's really helpful if
you review packages when others send RFS.

- Lucas