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Debian Weekly News - July 6th, 1999



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Debian Weekly News 
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/current/issue/
Debian Weekly News - July 6th, 1999
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Welcome to Debian Weekly News, a newsletter for the Debian developer
community.

Perl 5.005 is here. To handle the transition to this new version,
[8]perl is now a versioned package -- perl 5.004 can be installed
alongside the newer version during the transition. All packages that
currently depend on perl need to be changed to depend on perl5, and
anyone who maintains such a package has been sent a notice about this
(here's a [9]sample). There is also a new [10]perl policy which
packages should follow. However, until all packages that depend on
perl are updated, [11]unstable is in an inconsistent state and should
only be followed by the very brave.

With the new policy requiring the use of the FHS, the question of how
to move from /usr/doc to /usr/share/doc has come up (again). Simply
symlinking the two isn't good enough, because dpkg won't deal with it
well. [12]One idea that has come up a few times is to make
/usr/doc/package be a link to /usr/share/doc/package.

A new mailing list named debian-release has been [13]created, for
coordination between people involved in release management. "The
debian-release mailing list is an *action* list." -- it's not meant
for general discussion. Speaking of releases, the [14]release-critical
bug list is being posted again each week. The latest version lists a
whopping 222 release critical bugs. Also, Richard Braakman posted
about his [15]plans for release management. Some of the packages with
release critical bugs will soon be marked for removal.

Jason Gunthorpe [16]posted a "Negative Summary of the Split Proposal".
This is an excellent summary of arguments against the proposed move of
non-free and contrib. His larger aim, besides defeating the proposal,
is to make these summaries, both pro and con, a regular part of the
voting process. The split proposal hasn't gone to vote yet, but we do
have one vote in progress: The logo swap vote closes on July 7th. If
you haven't voted yet, get a ballot [17]here.

There was an [18]long argument between Per Abrahamsen and others about
Debian developers' relationships with upstream authors. Per thinks
that developers often act as "middlemen" who get in the way more often
than not between users and authors. He also dislikes the
debian-specific modifications made to XEmacs. Of course, many
developers disagreed and gave counterexamples of good relationships
with upstream. Adam Di Carlo posted an [19]excellent list of things
Debian developers should do to ensure such good relations with their
packages' authors.

Here is a [20]summary of what's happening on the Debian-JP project.

New packages added this week include the following and [21]31 more:
  * [22]clanbomber: Bomberman like game
  * [23]debauch: A malloc debugger
  * [24]diskless: Generate NFS file structure for diskless boot.
  * [25]gphoto: Universal application for digital cameras
  * [26]pingus: Free Lemmings(tm) clone
  * [27]vivid: A Teeny Tiny Text Editor
  * [28]wipe: Secure file deletion
  * [29]xanim-modules:Installer for xanim binary-only modules
    
Thanks to Christian Meder and Katsura S. Yoshio for [30]contributing.
  _________________________________________________________________

To receive this newsletter weekly in your mailbox, [31]subscribe to
the debian-news mailing list.

[32]Back issues of this newsletter are available.
Debian Weekly News is edited by [33]Joey Hess.
  _________________________________________________________________

References
8. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-devel-9907/msg00016.html
9. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-dpkg-9907/msg00001.html
10. http://pandora.debian.org/~hertzog/perl-policy.html/
11. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-devel-9907/msg00260.html
12. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-policy-9907/msg00003.html
13. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-devel-announce-9907/msg00000.html
14. http://master.debian.org/~wakkerma/bugs/
15. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-devel-9907/msg00217.html
16. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-vote-9906/msg00235.html
17. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-devel-announce-9907/msg00001.html
18. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-devel-9907/msg00045.html
19. http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-devel-9907/msg00087.html
20. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/1999/26/mail#1
21. http://master.debian.org/~tausq/newpkgs.html
22. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/games/clanbomber.html
23. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/devel/debauch.html
24. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/misc/diskless.html
25. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/graphics/gphoto.html
26. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/games/pingus.html
27. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/editors/vivid.html
28. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/utils/wipe.html
29. http://www.debian.org/Packages/unstable/contrib/graphics/xanim-modules.html
30. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing
31. http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe
32. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/
33. mailto:joeyh@debian.org

-- 
see shy jo


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