Re: compiling packages
On Mon, Feb 26, 2001 at 10:20:57AM +1100, Brian May wrote:
> Finally, if I compile new packages (without changes to the source),
> should I upload the binary-only packages to Debian?
There is no strict policy on this, but if the packages are not one of the
base (important, essential) packages or of the tool chain (gcc, gdb), it's
okay to upload those. Please test if at least the basic functionality is
there, and the installation works at least on your system (it can be useful
to upload even if a force-depends is necessary, or other small bugs are
there).
If you do a lot of packages, let us know so no effort is duplicated.
If you want to do work on the base packages or the tool chain, contact me
before you start your work.
If you want to work on X, contact me. I will probably discourage you,
because I spent so much time on it already, and know what is to be done,
that it would be not useful for someone else to start from scratch.
(There are exceptions, though, and if you have a lot of time at hands and
already know X well, it makes perfectly sense for you to do the remaining
steps).
> What if changes to the source code are required?
The official word is that only packages from unmodified source must be
uploaded. We already break that for dpkg. In practice, it would stall our
efforts enormously if we would wait for every little fix to be incorporated
in the package by the maintainer, and even doing NMUs is a lot of work, and
costs time spread over several days, which is difficult to organize in most
peoples life.
So if the patch is small and clear, and there is a reasonable chance it will
be accepted and incorporated upstream/in the Debian package, or at least a
different solution be found, I don't mind to see the upload and the bug
report at the same day. However, it is not good if we have a package
compiled from modified source, and there is no way for someone else to find
out what exactly was modified. We should also reupload a newer version or a
NMU for such packages before we actually release (which is too far in the
future to worry about now).
For heavily modified packages, we have a staging area at alpha.gnu.org,
where we can do whatever we want. Contact me if you feel the need to put
something there. Often, it will not be necessary.
Thanks,
Marcus
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org brinkmd@debian.org
Marcus Brinkmann GNU http://www.gnu.org marcus@gnu.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de
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