Re: First version of "How Software Producers ..."
Aaron Isotton said:
> Hi,
>
> the very first version of "How Software Producers Can Distribute Their
> Products Directly in .deb Format" is available at
>
> http://www.isotton.com/debian/docs/distribute-deb.xml
> http://www.isotton.com/debian/docs/distribute-deb.html
Good stuff. =)
> It isn't finished yet, and some of the most important parts are still
> only in my head. However, here a few things:
>
> - I'm no native English speaker. Please point out any typos, errors
> or badly written sentences. I'm glad if you do so. (No, I haven't
> ispelled it yet).
I just ran it through aspell, and have attached the diff below.
> - I've never set up a debian development environment on a non-debian
> machine. Are there any documents I could read about that?
It might be a bit of an over-the-top solution, but Debian can be run in
a chroot environment.
http://people.debian.org/~walters/chroot.html
A source tree can be prepared for Debian on any platform of course, but
to actually build the packages they either need to upload the source
package to a Debian system to build, or 'partially Debianize' their
current system by installing dpkg and friends.
> - I've never set up a debian repository. Where can I read more about
> that?
Have a look at some of the unofficial Debian repositories listed on the
site www.apt-get.org; while it may not be documented anywhere, the
structure is pretty easy to follow and you should be able to lay out
some guidelines.
Again, just using Colin's web page as an example:
http://people.debian.org/~walters/
He has the apt sources.list lines for the four different Debian
mini-repositories he keeps; it is hopefully fairly clear about how the
directories are laid out.
Then use dpkg-scanpackages (from dpkg-dev) to make the Packages file(s)
and compress them with gzip to produce the Packages.gz file(s) for apt.
See the dpkg-scanpackages(8) man page for more info.
> - Should I encourage the use of non-free, or is it better not to have
> non-free packages in Debian at all?
Danger, Will Robinson: holy war approaching!
Do not encourage either. Users are free to make their own choice.
You've already briefly explained in the document what non-free is; you
can provide a link to more information. The holy wars have been covered
in DWN.
The patch for your distribute-deb.xml file ...
--- distribute-deb.xml.orig Wed Dec 18 07:48:07 2002
+++ distribute-deb.xml Thu Dec 19 08:17:13 2002
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@
can then <link
linkend="distributing-packages-yourself">distribute it
yourself</link> or <link linkend="adding-packages-to-debian">add
- it to debian</link>, or both.</para>
+ it to Debian</link>, or both.</para>
<para>If you decide to <link
linkend="adding-packages-to-debian">add your packages to
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@
file to install the binary package, and the .orig.tar.gz and
.diff.gz files to install the source of the package.</para>
- <para>Whether you distribute your files on CDROM, online or on
+ <para>Whether you distribute your files on CD-ROM, online or on
punch cards is your problem, but if your package is open source,
<emphasis>do</emphasis> provide the source code, i.e. the
<filename>.orig.tar.gz</filename> and
@@ -203,10 +203,10 @@
standardized ways, and that there are no conflicts among them
(and many other things).</para>
- <para>Every package which is in Debian is autmatically added to
+ <para>Every package which is in Debian is automatically added to
the package list, and all users can easily install and
uninstall it using the Debian package tools. Moreover, it
- will autmatically be compiled for all different Debian
+ will automatically be compiled for all different Debian
platforms (IA32, IA64, Sparc and many others) if that is
possible, and it will be added to the Debian Bug Tracking
System (BTS), which makes it easy for everybody to report bugs
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@
<para>All this might seem only a detail, but it isn't. Strictly
speaking, the <emphasis>non-free</emphasis> and the
<emphasis>contrib</emphasis> section are not parts of Debian;
- they are just a service from Debian ttreo the users who need
+ they are just a service from Debian to the users who need
such packages. In fact, Debian users (especially the ones
involved with the Debian Project) tend to prefer packages from
<emphasis>main</emphasis> to the others; if they can choose
Oh, and don't make fun of punch cards. ;)
Andrew.
--
Andrew Shugg <andrew@neep.com.au> http://www.neep.com.au/
"Just remember, Mr Fawlty, there's always someone worse off than yourself."
"Is there? Well I'd like to meet him. I could do with a good laugh."
Reply to: