Re: Release is currently inflexible...was Re: Upcoming Debian Releases
> Now, let's try to set up something constructive for this old
> packaging problem: (assuming it's a critical bug since it slows down a
> lot the other ports)
Do people feel that this is important enough to hold up the next
release? This is the general criteria I've been using to decide
which problems are "critical" (hence the "*" on my page).
> I propose the following:
>
> 1/ ask every package maintainer (by personnal email) to change all their
> packages to new package format _AS SOON AS POSSIBLE_.
Since this has been out for quite some time, I don't think it would
be unwarrented to file actual bug reports. Maintainers have had
plenty of time to do it on their own.
I'm sure a couple of my packages aren't in the new format simply
bacuse they're static. I've upgraded the packaging only on packages
I've submitted since the policy change. To be honest, I can't
remember which have the new and which have the old format.
> 2/ Set up a dead-line after which it will be possible for other
> developpers to take over packages and repackage them.
This seems fair, but if you're giving responsibility back to the
original maintainer after the repackaging, you have to make sure
he gets the changes. It would be easy to upload it to master only
to have it overwritten by a later upload from the maintainer using
the older version.
> 3/ Call for volunteers for repackaging.
A small script to do some of the grunt work would be nice, too. The
perl "rename" script was invaluable!
mkdir debian
rename 's|.|/|' debian.*
Then a quick sed script over the rules file. Something like...
mv debian/rules /tmp/debrules
sed -e 's|debian.|debian/|g' /tmp/debrules >debian/rules
chmod 755 debian/rules
After that, I don't know how easy it could be automated. The
reformatting of the changes file and using "dpkg-genchanges" might
have to be done by hand, though I suppose a script might be able
to give some hints...
mv debian/rules /tmp/debrules
perl -e '$f=0; while (<>) { $f=1 if /^binary:/; if ($f && !$_) \
{ print "#\tdpkg-genchanges ...\n#\tsecondline\n#\tetc.\n"; $f=0 }; \
print $_; }' /tmp/debrules >debian/rules
chmod 755 debian/rules
(Note: These scripts were written on the fly and not tested! :-)
By the way, if giving hints, I strongly recommend doing a
chmod -R go=rX debian/tmp
near the end of the rules. This fixes almost all permission problems.
> 4/ Organise who will repackage what.
>
> This should also have a good side effect:
>
> - We'll be able to check which developpers dropped the projet.
> Some developpers don't reply to email, haven't uploaded for months and
> some of their packages have dozains of bugs.
Yup.
Brian
( bcwhite@verisim.com )
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