RFS: xerces -- or -- request for NMU
I am interested in possibly co-maintaining the xerces packages or in
taking them over. Ivo Timmermans, the current maintainer of the
xerces packages, indicated on [1]debian-devel that he is "looking for
people interested in working on the xerces packages, as a comaintainer
or maybe to take it over entirely."
1. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/debian-devel-200402/msg01047.html
There hasn't been any activity relating to that post on the
debian-devel list. (There are no other messages in the February or
March archives with the word "xerces" in their subject lines.)
In [2]Bug 225305, I submitted a patch for libxml-xerces-perl to bring
it up to the latest upstream version. In response to my comments to
this bug report (prior to submitting the patch), Ivo Timmermans
replied, "Go ahead and do an NMU." Of course, I can't do that because
I'm not (yet, I hope) a DD.
2. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=225305
My patch in Bug 225305 requires a change to the xerces23 package as
well. In [3]Bug 234230, I have submitted a patch to the xerces23
source package that would allow the config.status file leftover from
building xerces to be installed in /usr/lib/xerces23. The
config.status file is needed in order to build libxml-xerces-perl
which needs to know how xerces was configured. The config.status
file, though text, is definitely architecture-dependent since it
encapsulates the output of running "configure", which is why I figured
it would go in /usr/lib/xerces23 rather than /usr/share/xerces23. I
discuss this in the bug report.
3. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=234230
Both patches are suitable for NMUs. They follow the policy of not
making any gratuitous changes. In other words, the packages built by
applying my patch and following the procedure outlined in the bug
report do have one lintian warning (an executable header file), but so
do the existing packages. I explicitly did not fix the problem
(though it is easy to fix) because I was considering this to be fodder
for an NMU rather than a new packaging job.
If I were to assist with maintenance or take over as maintainer of the
xerces packages, I would plan to fix this problem and also to create a
xerces24 package for the latest upstream Xerces-C package. (At
present, the latest version of Xerces perl is not compatible with the
latest version of Xerces-C. There's no reason, however, that one
can't have more than one version of the runtime libraries installed
even though only one version of the Xerces-C development packages can
be installed.)
I am definitely interested in becoming a Debian developer and getting
onto the new maintainer track. I have not yet gotten by GPG key
signed by a developer, but I have made contact and intend to pursue
the key signing a bit more aggressively. I am relatively new to
Debian, but I have been running Linux since 1992 and have been
reasonably active in the Open Source community since the late 80's,
submitting small to medium patches to a wide range of packages. I am
also capable of [4]following the convention of embedding references in
my email, which indicates that I am able to observe and mimic
prevailing habits. :-) I have read the policy, social contract,
developer's reference, and various other materials, and I have close
to 20 years of programming and system administration experience under
my belt. Luckily, I'm also very patient and don't expect any special
treatment on the basis of these stated qualifications. :-)
4. This message
I've been lurking on this list long enough to realize that requesting
a sponsor for an NMU is somewhat unusual, so I'd welcome advice about
how to proceed. Although I have not spoken with Ivo Timmermans about
this in the last couple of weeks, I did discuss this some with him
including stating my intentions to post here. See [5]Bug 232474
(defunct, superseded by Bug 234230) for details, though keep in mind
that this message includes some rambling as I come to the conclusions
asserted in Bug 234230.
I believe that my patches here are sufficiently simple that someone
with the inclination should be able to decide to do an NMU with very
little time or effort. If you're willing to sponsor me as a
comaintainer of the packages, I'd like to know that too. We would, of
course, have to coordinate with Ivo. Thanks for your time.
--
Jay Berkenbilt <ejb@ql.org>
http://www.ql.org/q/
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