Re: BioCocoa

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 11:04:18AM -0700, Scott Christley a écrit :
>
> I am a developer for BioCocoa, which is an GNUstep framework for  
> bioinformatics, and I would like to have BioCocoa provided as a Debian  
> package.  My understanding is there is an existing package,  
> biococoa.app, but it is just a demo program and not the actual library, 
> which isn't very useful.

Hello Scott,

You can either start from scratch or from the `biococoa.app' package. We
maintain it in a Subversion repository. You can consult it on line or
check it out, as indicated on the upper left box of the tracking page of
the `biococoa.app' source package:

http://packages.qa.debian.org/b/biococoa.app.html

Binary packages are made from source packages by building the programs
in a temporary directory and moving the relevant files in a tree that
mimicks a typical Debian filesystem. Automated tools then take transform
this tree into the `.deb' packages that are typically installed by our
users.

The new maintainer's guide can guide you step by step to prepare a
simple package: http://www.debian.org/doc/maint-guide/

The Debian Policy is the authoritative reference to build packages that
are acceptable for inclusion in Debian. http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/

Lastly, our group policy documents our practices in the Debian Med
packaging team. http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/docs/policy.html


All of this can be quite long to read. While it is expecially essential
to have read and re-read the Debian Policy, you of course do not need to
wait to master it before trying to build a package. Do not hesitate to
ask more questions at any time.

Have a nice day,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Debian Med packaging team,
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan