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Re: New use of task files (Was: Proposal :))



Il giorno Tue, 9 Oct 2007 07:58:30 +0200 (CEST)
Andreas Tille <tillea@rki.de> ha scritto:

> [Some interested CDD-Ians in CC because this in principle should go to
>   the debian-custom list but I'm afraid it would miss some people in
>   Debian-Med that are deeply involved.  I'll post a summary there once
>   discussion is settled down.]
> 
> Hi,

Hi Andreas,

> over night I had another idea how we could get a better grip on automatically
> observing software that is not yet packaged in Debian but on our todo list.
> Currently the source of the debian-med meta packages contains so called task
> files as input for cdd-dev tools:
> 
>     http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/cdd/projects/med/trunk/debian-med/tasks/

We should standardize in some way the "Why" field, if we want to keep it
in our online pages (well, we could take and show it as-is, but it would be
better to organize everything).

> It contains Dependencies from packages.  The cdd-dev tools verify that
> these Dependencies can be fullfilled in Debian main and if not these are
> turned into Suggests.

I don't understand, sorry. Do you mean that, for example, the "bio" task is
just a meta-package to apt-get install that throws in everything? Good :)

> So if any package that is listed in the task file is not (yet) available at
> the Debian-Mirror it is just suggested in the Meta package.  What would be
> the effect if we (intentionally) put not yet existing packages into the task
> files:
> 
>    1. For inofficial packages (that might be anywhere on an apt-get able
>       archive in the net and exists in the users sources.list:
>        The package is installed if the user enables suggests, even if
>        it is not in official Debian.
>       -> positive
>    2. For not yet existing packages that are ITP/RFP ed as WNPP bug:
>        Once the WNPP bug will be closed the package is automatically
>        drawn in without changing the meta package.
>       -> very positive because debian-med developers will not forget
>          to include the new package (which unfortunately happened in
>          the past - shame on me)
>    3. For software that is not packaged at all:
>        Nothing will happen (at least to my knowledge)
>       -> no harm done

This analysis seems reasonable to me. I don't know cdd-dev tools, but from how
you described them, they should work like you listed.

> 
> ...
> 
>    1. The cdd-dev tools could install these files into say:
>         /usr/share/cdd/${CDD}/tasks   (in our case CDD=med)
>       of a the general ${CDD}-config package.  This would enable
>       tools like David's online tools to parse these directly
>       instead of using the apt-get interface which might give
>       some gain of spead but more importantly some extra information
>       like ...

I think that the APT interface is better. I mean, at least for packages already
in Debian. APT gives versions in various distributions (see apt-cache policy),
maintainer, uploader, short/long descriptions, homepage, ... . Everything that
we should _NOT_ add to the tasks file. Keep it simple ;).

>    2. Add some extra information that is ignored by the meta package
>       building process but is interesting for our work:
>        - WNPP bug number (if exists)
>        - URL of homepage / download
>        - License
>        - Short description
>        - Long description
>        - Remarks like: Actively developed, complex software,
>          dead upstream, etc.
>        - ...

This for not-yet-in-mirror packages, right?

> Kind regards
>           Andreas.

Kindly,
David

P.S.: you know I'm at university now. I won't have connectivity for all the
week, only on weekends. Maybe I'll have an ADSL in Palermo, but I don't know if
and when. I'm sorry I've slowed down the website growth :(

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