Difficult Packaging Practices
>>>>> "Adrian" == Adrian Bunk <bunk@debian.org> writes:
Adrian> It is a problem for people making their first contributions
Adrian> to Debian to get them into unstable. The problem here is
Adrian> lack of sponsors willing to do proper reviews and then
Adrian> uploads. Usually the package in question is already using
Adrian> dh.
My experience is consistent with the above.
I can't send links because most of my conversations with people getting
started contributing to Debian have been that: actual conversations
with lungs compressing air to blow out mouths.
Unfortunately, I've found that it's often a combination of factors.
The one first cited is the difficulty finding a sponsor.
But in at least some cases it's more complex than that.
for example in one case someone was talking about finding a sponsor. I
said that I didn't normally sponsor packages I couldn't adequately test,
so that limited what I'd sponsor, but if the contributor could find
something within that set I'd sponsor it.
He came up with something.
Then he said but really the hard part there was not the sponsorship, but
the dependency problem
Apparently upstream had forked some library already in Debian and you
had to use the fork for the package to work.
I think it's a combination of a lot of things. We have high standards,
a lot of complexity, and you have to get most or all of that right to
contribute. You have to have a package that meets our standards. You
have to have a copyright file that meets our standards. You have to be
able to figure out our processes. You have to be willing to follow our
processes. And you eventually have to deal with the PGP mess.
If you don't find value in the things where we have high standards,
Debian doesn't make a lot of sense.
If you just want to get upstream's idea of their package onto a system
with their release schedule and their recommended dependency versions,
there are better ways than getting a package into Debian.
--Sam
Reply to: