Re: I would like to submit a package to debian-med

Hi all,

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly.

Really apreciate it.

On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 8:48 AM, Andreas Tille <andreas@an3as.eu> wrote:

Hi,

On Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 08:35:32PM +0100, Emilien Klein wrote:
> > My name is Jorge Soares and I have taken on the task to package a piece
> > of software written by the Pathogen Informatics team at the Sanger
> > Institute.

It would be really good to have a strong contact to the Sanger
Institute. We just have package developed there but we would love to
make the coverage even more complete.

I would love to make this bridge stronger.

What exactly do you have in mind? A physical person here at Sanger or a contact?

The Sanger Institute is composed of several independent faculties I fall under one of these.

But it would be very interesting for someone to have more of a central role in packaging Sangers mature code for Debian.

> > I am using pduilber to automate as much as possible the package creation.
> > I have what I assume to be a source debian package with me:
> > snp-sites_0.1-1.debian.tar.gz
> > snp-sites_0.1-1.dsc
> > snp-sites_0.1.orig.tar.gz

I guess you are talking about

https://github.com/sanger-pathogens/snp_sites

right?

Exactly.

If my suspicion is true the first helpful thing would be to add
tags to this repository which would enable us to create a proper watch
file observing new upstream versions of this software.

I will do a little digging for how to achieve this. If you have any suggestions, they are very welcome.

> > This source bpackage has been built against jessie (testing)
> > I the three fake environments set up (unstable,testing, stable) in my
> > debian machine.
> > I also have a precise environment set up.

That's a good precondition to start with. I'm not sure what you mean by
"fake environments" - probably you are using pbuilder for creating the
packages?

Correct. I have never really built a debian package before and I was told pbuilder would the easiest way to do it.

I essentially created chroots for the three debian environments (sid, jessie and wheezy) and I have also created one for ubuntu precise.

I have stipped out all the git structure from snp_sites, installed it in my debian stable release and created a package out of that instalation against the above environments.

> > I am unsure what to do next in order to get this package into debian.

You probably did the most straightforward step to approach this by
sending an e-mail to this list. :-)

Cool!

> > I also would like for this package to be part of the med-debian
> > metapackage.

That's very easy: Once the package is inside Debian we just a one liner
to the metapackage information and all things will be done automatically
(including adding it to our tasks page[2]). It can be even before it is
uploaded to Debian added to the tasks page[2] if it is just in our Vcs.
I assume you prefer using Git (since the software itself is in Git).
We will happily help you to do this.

My initial procedure was, as I said above, to strip away all git related stuff and build the package as simply as possible.

I also had a look at gitbuilder procedures, but didn't follow this line as I was advised to keep it simple.

> > Can you shed some light on all this?
>
>
> Thanks for getting in touch. In my reply, I'm assuming you are not a Debian
> Developer or Debian Maintainer yet.

Emilien, correct, I am not a DD nor a DM yet.

>
> As explained on [0], your next step would be to join the Debian Med team on
> Alioth and then to request access the source code repository.

I will have a read through and will sort this out.

I realised that [0] was lacking an explicite link to our team policy[3]
and thus I just added this link to the according paragraph since it is
written with the attempt to guide newcomers straight into the workflow
we are using. Another method is my Mentoring of the Month[4] where I
offer direct help to newcomers and try to answer any question they might
have.

I am going through these documents and even if not for this package, I would be quite keen to go through the mentoring of the month method later in February.

Possibly after the Stonehaven meet up which I am attending.

> One you've uploaded your source package, we can have a look at it and
> provide feedback/suggestions.
> At some point, assuming that everything is in a good enough shape, one of
> the Debian Developers on the team will be able to upload your package to
> Unstable, which will then find it's way into the Testing/Stable repos of
> Debian, and Ubuntu (as you mention precise).
>

This sounds great. Thanks Emilien.

> Please also do subscribe to the Debian Med mailing list [1].
>

That's done already.

> Let us know if you need help joining the team, or when the package is ready
> for review.

> +Emilien

Yes, Emilian has given a nice summary of all the steps.

We would be happy to welcome you in the team

Thank you both for all of this.

I feel trully welcome in the team.

Kind regards,

Jorge