Re: Good communication with upstream is good idea
* Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org> [080720 14:57]:
> I think we should encourage packager to contact upstream with simple
> "hello!" message and he (or myself) should be part of active upstream ML.
>
> After all, we all are human. Friendly "hello" always helps people.
>
> I know this is not something we need to have as policy but as a part of
> best practice document, it is good to mention. For Debian, "Developers
> Reference". If I miss it in "Developers Reference", I am sorry.
Developers' Reference has only
http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/developer-duties.html#upstream-coordination
but I guess saying hello is already implied in the title "Coordination with
upstream developers".
The New Maintainers' Guide has in the list of things to do when
packaging the first program:
"you should contact program's author(s) to check if they agree with
packaging it. It is important to be able to consult with author(s) about
the program in case of any program specific problems, so don't try to
package unmaintained pieces of software."
I think I saw it also in some instructions on how to ITP something but
I no longer find it.
But saying helo is not always easy. First of all one has to be able to
contact upstream (I once adopted a package where all email addresses of
upstream in the software and on the website there was none. Only behind
a link to another project was the mailinglist also for this package).
And then formulating such a mail is always a bit complicated. Not
everyone knows that package maintainers in Debian are really about
source modifications and saying helo can easily result in being offered
the upstream maintainer hat.
Hochachtungsvoll,
Bernhard R. Link
--
"Never contain programs so few bugs, as when no debugging tools are available!"
Niklaus Wirth
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