Documentation for new maintainers

[Raphael Hertzog <rhertzog@hrnet.fr>]

Hello everybody,

as we speak about new-maintainers problems, I think a document
intented for them could be helpful. I'll write something as soon as
I can. 

Here's the summary and some ideas I wrote down. Feel free to propose
addendums. And I you wish to write one of those paragraphs, go on
and send it to me. :-) 

<sect>I'm not (yet) a Debian developer...
 <sect1>but I sent my request X weeks ago, what should I do ? 
  -- somebody of the new maintainer team should write a paragraph
 <sect1>even so, can I help ?
  -- wnpp -- correcting bugs -- helping on some developments (apt, install
     process/boot-flopies) -- resolving problems that are discussed on 
     -devel -- documentation
    
<sect>Packaging advices
 <sect1>What tools are needed ?
  -- speak of dpkg*, debhelper, dh_make, debmake, devscripts, etc.
 <sect1>How can I check my work ?
  -- lintian
 <sect1>How to upload my packages ?
  -- with dupload / warning don't upload new package during freeze
 <sect1>What is "maintaining a package" ?
  <sect2>Uploading new upstream versions
   -- explain how to manage this (apply old patches to the new
      orig.tar.gz, simply copy the debian directory...)
  <sect2>Correcting bugs
   -- the BTS
  <sect2>Keeping it policy compliant
   -- reading policy, updating Standards-Version

<sect>Inside Debian
 <sect1>Who is responsible of what ?
  -- look a the web page
 <sect1>Which mailing-lists should I absolutely read ?
  -- -private (no choice), -devel-announce, -devel, -announce may be
     a good idea, -mentors (at least for the beginning)
 <sect1>What to do if I have a good idea for Debian ?
  -- submit it to -devel, work on it, submit it to -policy if it's
     about policy...
 <sect1>What about the Debian Constitution ?
  -- ??

Cheers,
-- 
Hertzog Raphaël ¤ 0C4CABF1 ¤ http://www.mygale.org/~hra/