On Thu, Apr 13, 2000 at 02:39:13PM +1000, skud@netizen.com.au wrote:
> General opinion (from the few Debian types I've spoken to) is that I
> should take over maintenance of dpkg-perl if I want to do anything of
> any significance to the code. However, I've never looked after a debian
> package before and know very little about them.
The Debian packaging system is fairly simple in its technical
aspects. If you have not yet done so, I recommend that you go to
http://www.debian.org/devel/ and read the following documents linked
on the left hand side: Debian Policy Manual, Developers' Reference,
New Maintainers' Guide, and Packaging Manual. Also, unless you have a
personal need for the granularity that writing one's own shell scripts
for packaging can bring, I suggest that you investigate the debhelper
package, and go through all of its man pages. If you don't mind the
abstraction layer, it can save you a lot of time. Finally, I suggest
that you check the bug tracking system (http://www.debian.org/Bugs/)
to see what ghosts you may be inheriting.
Note that the maintainer application section in the Developers'
Reference is outdated -- currently the new-maintainer process is
closed, though it is slowly being repaired. If you wish to upload
packages to the project you will need to be sponsored (i.e. have a
currently registered developer take your diffs and use them to build
and upload a signed package). If you do not require heavy assistance
with dpkg internals or with perl/dpkg interaction (and I suspect that
you won't), I can sponsor you and walk you through the packaging
process.
Unfortunately, I must admit up front that I probably won't be able
to review your actual code additions beyond checking for rm -rf /; my
perl skills are barely up to reading the current modules, minimalist
as they are, and almost certainly won't be enough to catch anything
that you'd miss. I also have no python skills whatsoever (see below).
If this bothers you or the project, someone else may have to sponsor
you.
> I've emailed debian-qa (who are listed as the current maintainer, which
> means it's orphaned as far as I know) and asked them if they're cool
> with me working on it, but I figured it would be worthwhile posting here
> and asking for some help.
There are two caveats that become immediately visible to me upon
inspection. The first is that dpkg-perl is flagged Essential, so
other packages can make use of it without declaring an explicit
dependencies. This means that you'll need to be very careful about
changing any interface currently in use or introducing an interface
point that you are planning to change later, as you run the risk of
breaking an unknown number of packages. The second is that dpkg-perl
isn't an independent package; it's part of dpkg-scriptlib which
contains both dpkg-perl and dpkg-python. Thus if you become the
maintainer for dpkg-perl, you also become the maintainer for
dpkg-python. This may not be something that you wish to do.
Also, if you don't yet have one, you will need to create a GPG
key. Ideally, you'd find some way to get together with a current
Debian developer and have him verify your identity and sign that key
(Craig, you live anywhere near Melbourne? Do you read this list?).
More likely, we'll have to make do with a signed photoid or two and
trust that the Netizen mail servers haven't been compromised ;)
--
Zed Pobre <zed@debian.org> a.k.a. Zed Pobre <zed@resonant.org>
PGP key and fingerprint available on finger; encrypted mail welcomed.
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