Re: Package Pool Proposal
On Sun, Nov 21, 1999 at 11:13:16PM -0800, Guy Maor wrote:
>
> A database exists that records for each package:
> - what versions are available.
> - what version (if any) are in each distribution (stable, unstable, frozen).
> - what the sections and priorities are.
> - maintainer overrides.
> - when and by whom the package was uploaded.
> - changes file for the upload
> - rest of package and dsc info.
> - any piece of data I can think of that somebody might need
> when creating a distribution
>
> The Packages.gz and Sources.gz are built from this database alone.
> The database is editable from a web-page by maintainers/ftpmasters
> (not every field by everybody of course). All changes to the archive
> are made through the database. The change is then reflected in the
> next day's archive run.
>
Including dependency information in the database is probably a good idea.
New packages that don't have all dependencies met could sit in the pool,
but couldn't be added to a distribution until its dependencies are met.
This would probably lead to the occasional problem so an easy mechanism
to override it would be needed.
If the dependency information included a mechanism for getting a list
of packages that provide a virtual package, the database would provide most
of the information needed for creating the package web pages dynamically.
Adding the long and short description to the database is the only other
thing needed (the upstream changelog and copyright file could be taken
care of separately). Of course, you may already intend to include this
info ('rest of package info' is a bit vague).
A wishlist item would be to include the URL for the upstream homepage.
We get many requests to have this added to the web pages.
--
James (Jay) Treacy
treacy@debian.org
Reply to: