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Bug#834245: RFS: arasan/19.0.1-1 [ITP] -- a strong chess engine using xboard



control: tag -1 +moreinfo
control: owner -1 !

Dear Michael,

Thank you for packaging this interesting-looking software for Debian.  I
can't sponsor the upload, but I hope this review is useful to you.

I've split it into two sections: things that I would consider must-fixes
before an upload to Debian, and suggested improvements.  The latter
aren't strictly necessary, but they would help demonstrate to a
potential sponsor that you are committed to maintaining this package in
Debian.

=== Must-fixes / clarifications

1. The upstream author distributes the source code under the MIT
license, but places restrictions on distributing the binary builds
available from his website.  I think you need to confirm that none of
the files in your package are bit-for-bit identical to any files that
can be downloaded from his website.  It might be best to ask
debian-legal about it.

2. The debian/copyright file doesn't fill all the requirements given in
Debian Policy section 12.5.  It's highly recommended you use the
"machine-readable" copyright format:
<https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/>

3. You seem to be embedding at least one other project: src/syzygy looks
to be a library.  This needs to be packaged separately.

4. The content in debian/changelog is not appropriate.  It should
contain a single entry, saying "Initial release (Closes: #771057)."  The
information in your changelog should be split between
/usr/share/doc/arasan/README.Debian and patch headers.

5. You shouldn't install the whole doc/ directory.  You are installing
the upstream changelog twice, installation instructions, and some
licenses for components that

=== Suggested improvements

1. I'd be very grateful if you'd put your packaging in a git
repository.  That allows me to more easily track changes you've made in
response to my comments in this review.

2. In your debian/rules file, you do not use the dh sequencer.  Since
you are not doing anything non-standard, you could probably use a rules
file that is less than 5 lines long.  Please look into that (dh(1) would
be a good place to start).

3. Upstream are on version 19.1.0 now.  You could upgrade from 19.0.1.

4. In the patch header for remove-arasanx-suffix.patch, isn't it for
running a multi-arch system not a multi-user system?

5. Why are you installing /usr/share/arasan/README?  That's not the
place for a README.

6. Would it make sense to run upstream's test suite during the package
build, to check everything is working?

7. Have you considered packaging the Syzygy tablebase for Debian (if
it's free software)?

The "must-fixes" are quite serious, so I'll end my review here.  If you
can deal with the above I'll probably be able to find some more things
you can improve :)

-- 
Sean Whitton

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