Re: Taking over orphaned biology packages
Hi,
On Mon, Apr 14, 2003 at 02:38:43PM -0500, Elizabeth Barham wrote:
> What all is involved in maintaining these packages or, for that
> matter, any debian package?
You can have a look at http://www.debian.org/devel
The Newmaintainer's Guide and the Debian Policy are must-reads if you
want to maintain packages. The Developer's Reference is highly
recommended and a must-read if you want to become a debian developer.
> I've not maintained a package before, which is why I ask. What all
> does one do when he or she becomes the maintainer of a package?
You care for bugs, either by fixing them yourself, seeking help from
other people/developers or forwarding them to the upstream authors.
You package new upstream version as they get released.
You update your package to current policy if policy gets revised.
You try to communicate with other developers at least as long as their
packages interoperate with yours somehow.
That's mostly it. As long as you are not a Debian Developer, you will
have to find a sponsor (i.e. a current Debian Developer) who can upload
packages into the archive for you. In this case, Andreas or I could
sponsor you.
But people should really only maintain packages if they think they'll
apply as a new debian developer in the future. Beware though, this
process might take some time (up to one year, even if you don't make any
mistakes)
Hope that helps,
Michael
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