#use wml::debian::weeklynews::header PAGENAME="October 6th, 1999" SUMMARY="Free ssh; crippling bugs in unstable."

<p>
<b>Welcome</b> to Debian Weekly News, a newsletter for the Debian developer
community. This is a very short issue of DWN; my apologies for not covering
more of what's been happening.
</p>

<p>
<b>A free version of ssh has been found.</b> It 
<a href="../../../../Lists-Archives/debian-devel-9909/msg02346.html">turns
out</a> that an early version of the program was free
software. OpenBSD has been working on updating that version, and it is hoped
they have produced a usable substitute for the current, non-free ssh. If so,
it will of course quickly be packaged for Debian.
</p>

<p>
<b>It's been quite a week for crippling bugs in unstable.</b>
<ul>
<li>First was a package uploaded with a mispelled "Priority" control line. This
seemingly minor mistake was not caught before the package was put on the ftp
sites, and it made apt 
<a href="../../../../Lists-Archives/debian-user-9909/msg03737.html">refuse to
install anything at all</a>. Though the problem was soon fixed, it
left behind questions about why dinstall doesn't do checks to detect this
type of problems, and why apt was so fragile. Apt at least, has been 
<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/46265">fixed</a>
so this won't happen again, and hopefully dinstall will be fixed as well.
<li>Next was a broken menu package that
<a href="mail#1">consumed all memory</a> each time anything that used menu was
installed. It also has been <a href="mail#2">fixed</a>, though it may be a day
before the fix reaches all the mirrors.
</ul>
</p>

<p>
Stephane Bortzmeyer 
<a href="../../../../Lists-Archives/debian-devel-9909/msg02331.html">posted</a>
a <b>Debian SGML/XML HOWTO</b>. "<i>The HOWTO is task-oriented: you will see
what Debian packages you will need for various tasks, and how to use them.</i>"
</p>

<p>
As usual, a new edition of 
<a
href="http://www2.osk.3web.ne.jp/~shishamo/debian/trans/djwn/wn100299.html">Debian
JP</a> news is available.
</p>

<p>
<b>New packages</b> in Debian this week include the following 31 and
  <a href="http://master.debian.org/~tausq/newpkgs-19991004.html">43 more</a>:
<p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/interpreters/aleph.html">aleph</a>: The Aleph programming language - runtime
  (<a href="/Packages/unstable/interpreters/aleph-dev.html">dev</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/doc/aleph-doc.html">doc</a>)
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/admin/apt-move.html">apt-move</a>: Move cache of Debian packages into a mirror hierarchy
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/admin/apt-zip.html">apt-zip</a>: Update a non-networked computer using apt and a removable media
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/interpreters/expect5.31.html">expect</a>: A program that "talks" to other programs.
   (<a href="/Packages/unstable/devel/expect5.31-dev.html">dev</a>)
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/sound/gamix.html">gamix</a>: Another graphical mixer for ALSA (4 days new)
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/electronics/geda-utils.html">geda-utils</a>: GNU EDA -- Electronics design software -- utilities 
   (<a href="/Packages/unstable/electronics/geda-gsymcheck.html">symbol checker</a>)
<li>Linux Kernel 2.2 
  (<a href="/Packages/unstable/devel/kernel-source-2.2.12.html">source</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/doc/kernel-doc-2.2.12.html">doc</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/devel/kernel-headers-2.2.12.html">headers</a>,
   chrp,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/base/kernel-image-2.2.12-i386.html">i386</a>,
   pmac,
   prep,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/devel/kernel-patch-2.2.12-i386.html">patch-i386</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/devel/kernel-patch-2.2.12-powerpc.html">patch-powerpc</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/devel/kernel-patch-2.2.12-sparc.html">patch-sparc</a>)
<li><a href="/Packages/unstable/x11/libcqcam-dev.html">libcqcam-dev</a>: Color QuickCam (PC/Parallel) control library
<li>Netscape version 4.7 (base packages pull in what you need)
  (<a href="/Packages/unstable/web/netscape-base-47.html">base</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/netscape-java-47.html">java</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/netscape-smotif-47.html">smotif bin</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/communicator-base-47.html">communicator-base</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/communicator-nethelp-47.html">communicator online help</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/communicator-smotif-47.html">communication smotif bin</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/communicator-spellchk-47.html">communicator spell check</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/navigator-base-47.html">navigator-base</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/navigator-nethelp-47.html">navigator online help</a>,
   <a href="/Packages/unstable/web/navigator-smotif-47.html">navigator smotif bin</a>)
</ul>
</p>

<p>
Thanks to Randolph Chung and Katsura Yoshio for
<a href="../../contributing">contributing</a>.
</p>

#use wml::debian::weeklynews::footer