On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 11:08:29AM +0200, Grammostola Rosea wrote: > Peter Pentchev wrote: > > On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 05:49:02PM +0200, Grammostola Rosea wrote: [snip] > >> lintian says: > >> P: phasex source: direct-changes-in-diff-but-no-patch-system > >> misc/phasex.desktop and 1 more > >> > > > > Sigh. And what does "lintian -i" say about that? And what > > does that actually *mean*? And do you want to use a patch system? > > And if you do, why not use one? And if there are really good > > reasons why you don't want to use a patch system, then you can > > ignore this warning - but only after you've come to understand > > what it means and why it is there. > > > > And understanding what it means and why it is there is usually - > > and in this case, too - as simple as *reading* the output of > > "lintian -i", thinking about it a bit, then reading what people > > with similar issues have said and done on the -mentors list, > > and sometimes examining a couple of packages that are already in > > Debian to see how they deal with it. > > > > In this particular case, just reading the additional information > > that Lintian displays ought to be enough to understand it :) > > > > Erm... I hope this doesn't seem harsh; it isn't meant to be. > > Just a piece of well-meant advice that has helped me deal with > > lintian warnings and other packaging problems in the past > > year or two :) > > > > > Thanks, I understand your point. > But I can't understand all those messages yet and I'm not gonna read > hundreds of difficult to read manual pages with at least 200 pages each.. > > I hope this doesn't seem harsh ;) But in my experience, it works the > best at start to ask experienced people and learn bit by bit how things > work. At first the manpages are mostly 'acadabra' but picking up some > bits from others will help you to be able to quickly understand the more > sophisticated issues. In my experience, when people tell me how to do it > and I succeeded once, I don't have to ask it again how it works (like > the install file thing). After a while I see other people do things > different and then I can ask and investigate why... > > If you want to read all the different things at start at once, packaging > for Debian will cost you a fulltime job and that would in many cases not > be good. > > I think the help is good on this list. thanks for that. But I don't > think 'read the manpages of that, that and that package' is a very > productive way to learn things. It's like reading all the manuals for > the electric apparatus in your house... you wouldn't have time to work > on Debian if you did that... Well... I think I should rather let others answer that - I'm not a DD, not applied even to DM yet (though I intend to do both soon), just a random volunteer who tries to help Debian every once in a while with a package or fifteen :) So maybe someone more authoritative could chime in here and give us an official opinion if needed :) Still, I'd just like to point out that none of what you describe was actually a problem for me a couple of years ago when I started. (Just for the record, it was not a full-time job back then, and it isn't now, although the truth is that part of my job *does* include making Debian packages of in-house software for Etch and Lenny). I read the Developer's Reference, I examined several packages to see how things were done, I ran "dh_make" with different options to see what it did... then I ran it once again and started working on lintian warnings (and errors, too, in my first packages). Working on them was really just "run lintian -i, read what it says, read the Policy section if one is mentioned, take a look at the manpage of the dh_* tool in question, change one line be done with it". Maybe it helped that I started using just plain debhelper from the start, and first dpatch, then quilt afterwards. IMHO, debhelper's manpages are written wonderfully - short, to the point, with plain and simple descriptions of what the tool does and what files it reads. And, of course, following the -mentors list helped a lot :) G'luck, Peter -- Peter Pentchev roam@ringlet.net roam@space.bg roam@FreeBSD.org PGP key: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~roam/roam.key.asc Key fingerprint FDBA FD79 C26F 3C51 C95E DF9E ED18 B68D 1619 4553 What would this sentence be like if pi were 3?
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