Bug#387703: Fwd: piklab debian package

[Jan Wagemakers <janw@dommel.be>]

Stefan von Halenbach schreef:

> Hi ! I would love to see Piklab integrated into the debian or ubuntu file 
> distribution system, but as Nicolas already said, i don't think that i am the 
> right person to do it. I am no developer and there are outstanding bugs with 
> the packaging of piklab, which i am unable to resolve.

I will try to fix the errors that lintian/linda find. However, building
piklab on my PC (750Mhz) takes a very long time. So, this is very
time-consuming for me. Also, I don't have experience with packaging
"complex" programs like piklab, so I'm not sure if I'm able to fix things.

Also, at the moment the original piklab-tarball contains a debian-directory,
which makes it more difficult to fix things. Nicolas, can you remove the
debian-directory in future releases of piklab? More info about this is
available in the debian-mentors_FAQ¹



[1] <http://people.debian.org/~mpalmer/debian-mentors_FAQ.html>
What's wrong with upstream shipping a debian/ directory?

There are cases where upstream ships a tarball which already contains a
debian directory. This is undesirable, even if you're upstream yourself or
can commit there. Keep the released tarballs (used as .orig.tar.gz) and the
debian directory separated.

The problem is that at some point, upstream's debian directory will deviate
from the one in the Debian package -- because the maintainer changes, the
directory was already outdated, or someone does an NMU or a security upload.
Because it was The .diff.gz will now be a diff between the two debian dirs,
which is very confusing.

The Debian package format is designed to keep upstream and Debian-specific
neatly separated into orig.tar.gz and .diff.gz. Putting the debian dir in
the .orig.tar.gz confuses this.

If upstream has a debian directory in their releases, you should contact
them and ask if they can remove the debian/ directory from their tarball
releases. There's no need to remove the debian directory from their revision
control system (although if it's out of date they may decide to do so
anyway), but at the very least the directory shouldn't appear in releases.
If you are upstream yourself, well, you can ask yourself to do it.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groetjes         - Jan Wagemakers -

... I'm no missionary! I don't even believe in Jebus!    --Homer Simpson