The news are collected on http://wiki.debian.org/DeveloperNews
Feel free to contribute.
New archive for unofficial architectures
----------------------------------------
A new [9]host has been setup to host [10]archives of unofficial
architectures. It replaces gnuab.org and currently hosts the armel,
hurd-i386 (unreleased only), kfreebsd-i386 and kfreebsd-amd64
architecture.
Developers can look at the [11]build logs of their packages and check
their [12]status.
PTS web interface
-----------------
The [13]PTS web interface has gone through some changes:
* added RSS feeds for the "latest news" part of the PTS pages (by
zack)
* added hyperlinks to per package [14]svn-buildstat info (by luk and
kibi)
* added rendering of some new info: DM-Upload-Allowed field,
maintainer being in the [15]LowThresholdNmu wiki page, Homepage
field (by zack)
Different compression algorithms for debs
-----------------------------------------
The ability to compress binary packages with something else than gzip
(for example bzip2) has been in dpkg-dev and dpkg for a long time,
since 1.11 [16].
The way to add it to a package is to use the "-Z" switch of dpkg-deb.
Or "dh_builddeb -- -Z bzip2" from within debian/rules.
Unfortunately, both [17]lintian and [18]linda incorrectly report that
this should not be used.
Advanced package search prototype in experimental
-------------------------------------------------
Enrico Zini created [19]apt-xapian-index, a prototype indexer for a
system-wide [20]Xapian-based index of packages.
The index allows to perform very fast queries on package descriptions
and tags, and any package can install plugins to add extra information
to the index.
Also available is an extensive [21]tutorial on how to use the index.
[22]apt-xapian-index, currently in experimental, will be uploaded to
unstable as soon as some technical feedback is received, especially
with regards to the index structure and the plugin interface.
Changelog entries must describe changes
---------------------------------------
While reading changelogs (through debian-devel-changes@l.d.o), we
see too often bad changelog entries that describe the problem that they
fix without indicating how they fix it. In a changelog the important
bits are the description of the change and not only what lead you
to do the change. Hopefully some examples will make it clearer:
Bad:
* Fix lintian error.
Good:
* Fix spelling error (maintainance -> maintenance) in description
(detected by lintian).
Bad:
* Fix package building with new dpkg-shlibdeps.
Good:
* Pass LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/mypackage to dpkg-shlibdeps so that
the private libraries are properly found.
When you write changelog entries, have in mind that one must be able to
have a reasonably clear idea of what change you did without being
forced to read a debdiff between both versions.
Links
9. http://www.debian-ports.org/
10. http://ftp.debian-ports.org/
11. http://buildd.debian-ports.org/
12. http://buildd.debian-ports.org/status/
13. http://packages.qa.debian.org/
14. http://svnbuildstat.debian.net/
15. http://wiki.debian.org/LowThresholdNmu
16. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=34727
17. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=447257
18. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=452329
19. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/apt-xapian-index
20. http://www.xapian.org/
21. http://www.enricozini.org/2007/debtags/apt-xapian-index.html
22. http://packages.debian.org/experimental/apt-xapian-index
24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2007/11/msg00006.html
--
Raphaël Hertzog
Le best-seller français mis à jour pour Debian Etch :
http://www.ouaza.com/livre/admin-debian/
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature