Re: RFS: nesc
On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 2:29 AM, Razvan Musaloiu-E. <razvan@musaloiu.com> wrote:
> Unfortunately the Debian developer that initially volunteer to review
> this package doesn't have time to finish it. I would be really
> grateful if somebody else could help out with this.
Hello Razvan,
I'm not an DD or DM so I can't sponsor this but I have some
time packaging software in Debian so I'm going to review your
package. I used this compiler when I was in the university so
it would be very cool to see this useful software in Debian.
Please see below my review:
* I would remove those unnecessary comments in the
header of debian/rules.
* You have to override the clean target in debian/rules.
Your package is leaving tons of .o and .class files after clean.
When I build your package with pbuilder --build --twice,
it fails.
* I also think those blank spaces and comments in debian/watch
are unnecessary.
* You should provide a more elaborated extended description of
nesc binary package. IMO, just 2 lines are too short for this.
If I would not used nesc in the past I could not have figured out
that this is a compiler for a language based on C and designed
for embedded hardware usually deployed on wireless
sensor networks. You should clarify what is the purpose of this
software.
* nesc Recommends openjdk-6-jdk but doesn't install nesc.jar.
When I worked with nesc I didn't use the Java library but I think
that nesc should only Recommend or Suggest on libnesc-java
and drop openjdk-6-jdk. If you are going to provide the Java
library, consider using javahelper.
* You should document your patches. They look sane to me
but it is not clear why you are applying them. You can use a
format like DEP-3[1] to do this.
* The Vcs-* fields are not meant to point to upstream.
"Value of this field should be a string identifying unequivocally
the location of the Version Control System repository used to
maintain the given package, if available". Please check the
Debian Developer's Reference at section 6.2.5[2].
I recommend you to join the collab-maint group on Alioth[3],
create a git repository and maintain your package there. In that
way, it is more easy for sponsors and even interested parties to
help you and contribute with your packaging.
Also in my experience, that increases the chance of your package
being sponsored.
* The binary package has some lintian warnings that you should
take care of:
miguel@fiona:/tmp$ lintian -I /var/cache/pbuilder/result/*nesc*.deb
I: nesc: extended-description-is-probably-too-short
I: nesc: possible-documentation-but-no-doc-base-registration
I: nesc: hyphen-used-as-minus-sign usr/share/man/man1/nescc-mig.1.gz:137
I: nesc: hyphen-used-as-minus-sign usr/share/man/man1/nescc-wiring.1.gz:47
I: nesc: hyphen-used-as-minus-sign usr/share/man/man1/nescc-wiring.1.gz:48
I: nesc: hyphen-used-as-minus-sign usr/share/man/man1/nescc-wiring.1.gz:49
I: nesc: hyphen-used-as-minus-sign usr/share/man/man1/nescc-wiring.1.gz:50
I: nesc: hyphen-used-as-minus-sign usr/share/man/man1/nescc.1.gz:194
* You should split this package and provide a nesc-doc package that
contains the reference manual and some extra documentation. Also
this package provides syntax files for vim, emacs and kde so probably you
should provide them in separated packages but I'm not so sure about
this. An example of this could be vim-puppet.
All in all, I think this package is mostly in good shape and it is very
mature software, so with fixing all those issues there should not be
obstacles to have this in Debian. Maybe you can ping a DD or some
team that maintains compilers and/or software designed for embedded
hardware and ask if they could be interested in sponsoring this.
Also you could wait until squeeze is released and the freeze is over
and surely someone could sponsor this.
Contact me directly if you need help with this and good luck with
your packaging.
Cheers,
1. http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep3/
2. http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/best-pkging-practices.html#bpp-vcs
3. http://alioth.debian.org/
--
Miguel Landaeta, miguel at miguel.cc
secure email with PGP 0x7D8967E9 available at http://keyserver.pgp.com/
"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." -- Nietzsche
Reply to: