debian/upstream and the PTS.
Le Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 06:34:27PM +0200, Raphael Hertzog a écrit :
> On Fri, 26 Apr 2013, Paul Wise wrote:
>
> > The upstream metadata apart from homepage is stored in
> > debian/upstream:
> >
> > http://wiki.debian.org/debian/upstream
> > http://wiki.debian.org/UpstreamMetadata
> > http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep12
>
> That DEP is still in DRAFT stage and I don't particularly like the fact
> that we abuse VCS and source package to track this information. It doesn't
> allow easy collaboration with non-maintainers.
>
> If the PTS provides an alternative implementation, and if it turns out to
> be more convenient, what's the problem ? :-)
Hi Raphaël and everybody,
let me make a couple of short clarifications about debian/upstream.
- We use it in Debian Med, and there is currently no replacement availalbe.
- If a superior solution emerges, I am happy to use it, and I am sure
that it will be the case of the other Debian Med members.
- Monitoring the package's VCS is a key feature: it gives ACLs for free, and
removes the need for uploading source packages. For Debian Med, all Debian
developers have write access to our VCS. I would be happy to extend this to
all Alioth users, but it has been discouraged in the past.
- The file is also present in source packages, but we do not rely on it to be
there. I have not read any convincing argument that it is an abuse. I see
it more like a backup as a side effect. Each source distribution of Debian
comes with a full copy of its "Upstream Metadata".
- The DEP is a draft, about fixing the syntax of debian/upstream. It is not a
proposition about an implementation, because it is already implemented. How
the data is further propagated is also out of the scope of this DEP. (Which
does not mean that it is not important or that it should not be discussed,
of course).
- The debian/upstream data is aggregated and refresehd using "Umegaya", running
on upstream-metadata.debian.net. It is commited in a file pool in Debian QA's
"collab" subversion repository, and some of the data is sent to the UDD.
You can find more details at the followign URL:
http://wiki.debian.org/UpstreamMetadata
- (To Olivier): it does not use RDF because we do not have an easy way to let
package maintainers to declare metadata without having to learn and control
the syntax of RDF (or Turtle, etc), which I find heavy and difficult. But
it is in the scope of DEP 12 to make a one-to-one relationship between fields
of debian/upstream and other ontologies, so that the PTS or other engines
could serve the data in a semantic-friendly format.
In conclusion, if this year's SoC produces a PTS that makes it easier to
register arbitrary metadata (and I insist on arbitrary extensibility to give
the possibility to experiment), I have no problem to migrate from the
debian/upstream concept, but in the meantime, let's avoid "chilling effects" of
better solutions awaiting for an implementation.
Have a nice bon week-end !
--
Charles Plessy
Debian Med packaging team,
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-med
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan
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