Is my webgui package suitable for volatile upgrades?
I have been packaging WebGUI [1] for my private usage for about two
years now. WebGUI required a number of dependencies that were not in
Debian, and I have worked as a member of the Debian Perl Packaging Team
[2] in order to get the needed modules into Debian as they are now. I
filed my ITP on webgui [3] and proceeded to polish the package, with the
help of some folks in [2] and its now ready to go, but before uploading
the package to Sid my sponsor asked me to clarify webgui's upgrade
situation with debian-volatile and see if it fits the need of our users.
WebGUI always has two available versions: the stable one, currently
7.4.36, and the development one, currently 7.5.10. The development one
eventually becomes stable, and the cycle repeats. I have packaged
7.4.36, and the target for Lenny is having the current stable WebGUI
version, targeting 7.5.x for Lenny+1. Needless to say, upstream is
_very_ happy about it and have been very helpful, with several of my
patches making their way into 7.5.X and possibly backported to 7.4.Y if
needed.
Once a WebGUI version is declared stable (let's use 7.4.8 as an example)
it receives bugfixes and security updates only (numbered 7.4.9, 7.4.10
and so on [4]). No new features nor new dependencies are added. This
releases happen usually every other week, although sometimes you get
more or less releases per month, and the upgrade path is provided by
upstream: just un-tar the sources on top of the existing ones and then
run an upgrade script that takes care of any database updating (if any).
In my experience _most_ of the upgrades are related to functionality
bugfixes and performance enhancements, they occasionally include
security updates; as an example, 7.4.35 had a security update, and the
prior one goes back to 7.4.14 (almost six months). Finally, when WebGUI
switches the development branch to a stable status, the old-stable
receives a final patch and an upgrade path is _guaranteed_ from the
_last_ old-stable release to _any_ of the new-stable releases. This
upgrade script is of course packaged, and documented both as a manpage
and described in README.Debian; it just works...
In my opinion, webgui stable upgrades should be handled in
debian-volatile in general, thus allowing Debian users to have the
latest revision of the stable version at any given time. If a security
fix is released, volatile users would automatically have it available
with the latest release, and I would contact debian-security to have a
manually patched revision of the base package included in Debian Stable
release.
I would like to confirm if this opinion is correct, and any pointers to
whatever I need to read/do next in order to finally get webgui into
Debian main and debian-volatile repositories.
Please CC me, since I'm not subscribed to the list.
[1] http://www.webgui.org
[2] http://pkg-perl.alioth.debian.org/
[3] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=471697
[4]
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=51417&package_id=45293
--
Ernesto Hernández-Novich - Linux 2.6.18 i686 - Unix: Live free or die!
Geek by nature, Linux by choice, Debian of course.
If you can't aptitude it, it isn't useful or doesn't exist.
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