Re: Updating a package; ediquette and procedure questions
Le Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 07:16:52PM -0500, Paul Johnson a écrit :
> Hi, again. I'm the guy who builds RPMs trying to understand the Debian
> way. Still.
Hi again,
> $ cp ggobi-2.1.7.tar.bz2 ggobi_2.1.7.orig.tar.bz2
Debian provides many facilities in the `devscripts' package. One of them
is the uscan/uupdate programs. They need a special file in the source
package, `debian/watch', that is unfortunately not available for ggobi.
Luckily, it is easy to write:
cat > debian/watch
version=3
http://www.ggobi.org/downloads/ggobi-(.+)\.tar\.bz2
now if you type `uscan':
ggobi: Newer version (2.1.7) available on remote site:
http://www.ggobi.org/downloads/ggobi-2.1.7.tar.bz2
(local version is 2.1.6)
ggobi: Successfully downloaded updated package ggobi-2.1.7.tar.bz2
and symlinked ggobi_2.1.7.orig.tar.bz2 to it
> 3. Go into the new source tree, manually copy over the debian
> directory from the previous version:
And then, uupdate ../ggobi_2.1.7.orig.tar.bz2
New Release will be 2.1.7-1.
-- Untarring the new sourcecode archive ../ggobi_2.1.7.orig.tar.bz2
Success! The diffs from version 2.1.6-2 worked fine.
Remember: Your current directory is the OLD sourcearchive!
Do a "cd ../ggobi-2.1.7" to see the new package
> $ debuild -r fakeroot
Latest versions use fakeroot automagically if available.
> That ends with a lot of warnings about the source code not being
> found, because it is looking for ggobi_2.1.7.orig.tar.gz, but i have
> the bz2 file instead.
Maybe you do non have the latest version of our toolchain (dpkg-dev,
...)? Using bz2 works except that these packages are not yet accepted
by our archive management system.
> In the end, I could find no way to make that go away except for
> re-packaging the source code from a bz2 file to gz. After that I'm
> able to build both the deb package and the source pieces.
>
> Here are my questions, in no particular order.
>
> 2. In Ubuntu, or Debian more generally, what happens when package
> maintainers don't stay up to date? It is a little tough to figure out
> who is responsible for a package sometimes, there is an
> OriginalMaintainer and other names in the changelog. If you email the
> person you think is in charge, and don't get an answer, what do you
> do?
In Debian, the responsible persons are listed in the Uploaders and
Maintainers field. Websites such as packages.debian.org display this
information. Request for packaging a new upstream release can be
adressed by mail or by bug, and if there is not answer within a month,
one can enquire wether the package is unmaintained or not. If
unmaintained, it will be adopted, orphaned or removed).
> This reminds me, I noticed today that in Ubuntu, the supplied version
> of R is 2.6.2, but I need 2.7, the current version.
For Ubuntu, you have to contact Masters Of The Universe (MOTUs). They
decide wether imorting the latest Debian package is appropriate given
their release strategy.
> 3. What do you do with code distributed in bz2 files?
For the moment we bunzip2 and gzip them :(
> 4. Suppose I succeed in building some packages and want to post them
> on a website.
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/repository-howto/repository-howto.en.html ?
Have a nice day, and thanks for your interest in Debian.
PS: You may save some time by reading things in the followign section of our
website:
http://www.debian.org/doc
In particular http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/
PPS: for more complex packages, it is not always that easy.
--
Charles Plessy
Debian-Med packaging team
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan
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