On Wednesday 12 May 2010 16:03:24 danny.rodriguez@comcast.net wrote:
> Once i have permission to take over maintaining a package -- what do I do
> from there?
Determine if the package is maintained in a VCS somewhere (probably alioth).
If so, get (an alioth account and) write permissions to the VCS. Check out
the latest version ("HEAD") and also the last version uploaded to Sid.
If not, download the source package from Sid.
Subscribe to your package on the PTS.
Find upstream. Introduce yourself on their communication medium of choice.
See if any of the developers have feedback on the Debian package, especially
if they use Debian but not your package. Start following development or at
least release schedules.
Does upstream have an new non-crashy version available? (This need not be a
release, but it shouldn't be the tip of their development tree.
If so, update the packaging to use upstream's new version. Run it through
lintian (from Sid preferably, but the version from backports is usually good
enough) and piuparts. For each complaint, either fix the packaging or be
prepared to defend your decision not to. Update the changelog not only with
the upstream version bump, but also any changes you made to satisfy
lintian/piuparts.
If not, you might not need to make a release right now. Study the packaging,
perhaps alter it so it can build packages "directly" from the upstream VCS,
for possible uploads to experimental.
Check bugs.d.o for any issues. If you can fix them, do so, and record it in
the Changelog. If they need to go upstream, forward them. If you have the
skills, get involved in fixing upstream bugs, too; particularly the ones
coming from the Debian BTS.
Install the new package and become "user 0". Confirm the package is ready to
be shared, with others and upload to mentors. Fill out the template
completely, send it over here and wait for a review.
Once you've got something in Sid, check your bugs again. See if you can
marked some as fixed in a particular version, or close some as invalid
completely. Consider preparing a package for stable-updates if you can fix
bugs affecting stable the risk is low. Consider preparing a package for
backports.
...
Anything I missed, -mentors?
--
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =.
bss@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_))
ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-'
http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/
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