Re: Ubuntu-to-Debian packaging
On Wednesday 05 December 2007 04:27:28 C.J. Adams-Collier wrote:
> Thank you for taking the time to respond Cesare,
No problem at all.
> I asked for your input not for your association with a particular group,
> but because of your first-hand experience with the subject matter.
OK, it would have been better to clarify it, I understood this to be a thread
on new Ubuntu packages being imported to Debian and since I've done some
myself I thought it was one of those.
> Do you feel that it is appropriate to copy someone else's changelog
> entry verbatim without giving credit to the original author?
I guess you refer to mono-addins, for which I prepared an SRU in Ubuntu, using
the patches provided by Mirco?
Yes, I partly used his changelog because, quite frankly, what was the point of
changing it? Its the author's changelog and for him it reflected best the
content of the change, beside it ties with the history of the package. For
those not familiar with our SRU, we apply the changes in the development
version (in this case from the new Debian version) to solve a problem in our
stable release. If you look at the bug report this should be clearer to you:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mono-addins/+bug/149485
In summary, I made the (evidently wrong) assumption that it was clear that
this was a backport of an issue already fixed in Debian.
So, in retrospect, yes, it would have been clearer to quote the source in the
changelog, something that I won't forget in the future.
> Do you think that doing so is similar to plagiarism? Can you understand why
> the author who performed the work might feel violated?
Quite frankly, no. I have seen patches or even packages from me (not talking
about a changelog entry) who have not been recognised in any way. I certainly
don't feel plagiated (I would have appreciated it obviously); again, we are
not talking here about a new fix, its a fix backported to an old release.
Personally, I have always strived to recognised the work done by others (just
as an example look at the changelog of rutilt which is one of my packages
being imported to Debian):
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rutilt
Feel free to browse all the patches I have applied:
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/~norsetto/?field.searchtext=&orderby=-importance&search=Search&field.status%3Alist=FIXRELEASED&assignee_option=any&field.assignee=&field.bug_reporter=&field.bug_contact=&field.bug_commenter=&field.subscriber=&field.status_upstream-empty-marker=1&field.omit_dupes.used=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch.used=&field.tag=&field.has_cve.used=
for further examples.
> I understand that you may not have intended to transgress, disrespect or
> otherwise harm the upstream maintainer.
Well, if that would have been the case I would indeed be a very poor person.
> However, you should be aware that your actions have consequences, and
> that the work performed by others should be respected and acknowledged.
I don't quite understand why this has been blow out to this proportion.
Wouldn't a simple email sent to me saying: "Hey, I think you forgot to quote
me in the changelog" have been more than enough?
Since we are on the subject of respecting the work done by others, let me
point your attention to bug:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=447342
linked to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/monodevelop/+bug/123182
which has not even be acknowledged.
I have sent it to you because I'd really appreciate to have your opinion.
> Again, thank you for taking part in this conversation.
No problem at all, better clarify this.
Cesare
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