X-Git-Url: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?a=blobdiff_plain;f=developers-reference.sgml;h=d9b32af5d320e7f2ac8c2b74e5b12760c5aca8e2;hb=29d894ef84ae1a1583cfa162475c7c5a36bea9c9;hp=607bf46b27d28307f100e1179a3d52d513d43764;hpb=bbf0f17087219b30cf50b00d9049439876455ceb;p=developers-reference.git diff --git a/developers-reference.sgml b/developers-reference.sgml index 607bf46..d9b32af 100644 --- a/developers-reference.sgml +++ b/developers-reference.sgml @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ %commondata; - + @@ -259,8 +259,12 @@ In addition, if you have some packages ready for inclusion in Debian, but are waiting for your new maintainer application to go through, you might be able find a sponsor to upload your package for you. Sponsors are people who are official Debian maintainers, and who are willing to -criticize and upload your packages for you. Those who are seeking a -sponsor can request one at . Please read the +criticize and upload your packages for you. + +Please read the inofficial debian-mentors FAQ at first.

If you wish to be a mentor and/or sponsor, more information is @@ -364,6 +368,13 @@ The other thing to do is to mark yourself as "on vacation" in the Debian developers' LDAP database (this information is only accessible to Debian developers). Don't forget to remove the "on vacation" flag when you come back! +

+Ideally, you should sign up at the + +when booking a holiday and check if anyone there is looking for signing. +This is especially important when people go to exotic places +where we don't have any developers yet but +where there are people who are interested in applying. Coordination with upstream developers @@ -546,9 +557,7 @@ all the files.

There are other additional channels dedicated to specific subjects. #debian-bugs is used for coordinating bug squash parties. -#debian-boot is used to coordinate the work on the boot -floppies (i.e., the installer). - +#debian-boot is used to coordinate the work on the debian-installer. #debian-doc is occasionally used to talk about documentation, like the document you are reading. Other channels are dedicated to an architecture or a set of @@ -564,6 +573,16 @@ French speaking people interested in Debian's development. Channels dedicated to Debian also exist on other IRC networks, notably on the IRC network. +

+To get a cloak on freenode, you send Göran Weinholt <weinholt@debian.org> +a signed mail where you tell what your nick is. +Put "cloak" somewhere in the Subject: header. +The nick should be registered: +. +The mail needs to be signed by a key in the Debian keyring. +Please see + +for more information about cloaks. Documentation @@ -830,7 +849,7 @@ commercial distribution, for example.

On the other hand, a CD-ROM vendor could easily check the individual package licenses of the packages in non-free and include as -many on the CD-ROMs as he's allowed to. (Since this varies greatly from +many on the CD-ROMs as it's allowed to. (Since this varies greatly from vendor to vendor, this job can't be done by the Debian developers.)

Note that the term "section" is also used to refer to categories @@ -1105,12 +1124,20 @@ directories and scripts that are installed both on &ftp-master-host; and &non-us-host;.

Packages are uploaded by all the maintainers into a directory called -unchecked. This directory is scanned every 15 minutes by +UploadQueue. +This directory is scanned every few minutes by a daemon called +queued, *.command-files are executed, and +remaining and correctly signed *.changes-files are moved +together with their corresponding files to the unchecked +directory. +This directory is not visible for most Developers, as ftp-master is restricted; +it is scanned every 15 minutes by the katie script, which verifies the integrity of the uploaded packages and their cryptographic signatures. If the package is considered ready to be installed, it is moved into the accepted directory. If this is the first upload of -the package, it is moved to the new directory, where it waits +the package (or it has new binary packages), +it is moved to the new directory, where it waits for approval by the ftpmasters. If the package contains files to be installed "by hand" it is moved to the byhand directory, where it waits for manual installation by the ftpmasters. Otherwise, if any error has been detected, @@ -1119,9 +1146,12 @@ the package is refused and is moved to the reject directory. Once the package is accepted, the system sends a confirmation mail to the maintainer and closes all the bugs marked as fixed by the upload, and the auto-builders may start recompiling it. The package is now publicly -accessible at (there is no -such URL for packages in the non-US archive) until it is really installed -in the Debian archive. This happens only once a day, the package +accessible at +until it is really installed +in the Debian archive. +This happens only once a day +(and is also called `dinstall run' for historical reasons); +the package is then removed from incoming and installed in the pool along with all the other packages. Once all the other updates (generating new Packages and Sources index files for example) have been @@ -1136,6 +1166,10 @@ If a package is released with Distribution: set to `unstable' or `experimental', the announcement will be posted to &email-debian-devel-changes; instead.

+Though ftp-master is restricted, a copy of the installation is available +to all developers on &ftp-master-mirror;. + Package information @@ -1206,7 +1240,8 @@ You can view the bugs of a given package at the URL The madison utility

madison is a command-line utility that is available -on both &ftp-master-host; and &non-us-host;. It +on both &ftp-master-host; and &non-us-host;, and on +the mirror on &ftp-master-mirror;. It uses a single argument corresponding to a package name. In result it displays which version of the package is available for each architecture and distribution combination. An example will explain @@ -2036,6 +2071,17 @@ inflate the severity of bugs to make sure their bugs are fixed quickly. Some bugs may even be dropped to wishlist severity when the requested change is just cosmetic. +If the bug is real but the same problem has already been reported by +someone else, then the two relevant bug reports should be merged +into one using the merge command of the BTS. +In this way, when the +bug is fixed, all of the submitters will be informed of this. +(Note, however, that emails sent to one bug report's submitter won't +automatically be sent to the other report's submitter.) +For more +details on the technicalities of the merge command and its relative, +the unmerge command, see the BTS control server documentation. + The bug submitter may have forgotten to provide some information, in which case you have to ask them the required information. You may use the moreinfo tag to mark the bug as such. Moreover if you can't @@ -2100,6 +2146,17 @@ We prefer the closes: #XXX syntax, as it is the most concise entry and the easiest to integrate with the text of the changelog.

+If an upload is identified as Non-maintainer upload (NMU) +(and that is the case if the name of the person who commits this change +is not exactly the same as any one of Maintainer or Uploader, +except if the maintainer is the qa group), +than the bug is only tagged fixed instead of being closed. +If a maintainer upload is targetted to experimental, +than the tag fixed-in-experimental is added to the bug; +for NMUs, the tag fixed is used. +(The special rule for experimental is expected to change +as soon as version-tracking is added to the bug tracking system.) +

If you happen to mistype a bug number or forget a bug in the changelog entries, don't hesitate to undo any damage the error caused. To reopen wrongly closed bugs, send an reopen XXX command to @@ -2170,10 +2227,10 @@ case depends on the nature of the problem and corresponding fix, and whether it is already a matter of public knowledge.

-There are a few ways a developer can learn of a security problem: +There are a few ways developers can learn of a security problem: - he notices it on a public forum (mailing list, web site, etc.) + they notice it on a public forum (mailing list, web site, etc.) someone files a bug report someone informs them via private email @@ -3530,7 +3587,7 @@ A single source package will often build several binary packages, either to provide several flavors of the same software (e.g., the vim source package) or to make several small packages instead of a big one (e.g., if the user can install only the -subset she needs, and thus save some disk space). +subset needed, and thus save some disk space).

The second case can be easily managed in debian/rules. You just need to move the appropriate files from the build directory @@ -4545,6 +4602,198 @@ to your short description. If you are looking for examples, just run: apt-cache search .|grep transitional. + + + Best practices for orig.tar.gz files +

+ There are two kinds of original source tarballs: Pristine source + and repackaged upstream source. +

+ + Pristine source +

+The defining characteristic of a pristine source tarball is that the +.orig.tar.gz file is byte-for-byte identical to a tarball officially +distributed by the upstream author. + +We cannot prevent upstream authors from changing the tarball +they distribute without also upping the version number, so +there can be no guarantee that a pristine tarball is identical +to what upstream currently distributing at any point in +time. All that can be expected is that it is identical to +something that upstream once did distribute. + +If a difference arises later (say, if upstream notices that he wasn't +using maximal comression in his original distribution and then +re-gzips it), that's just too bad. Since there is no good way +to upload a new .orig.tar.gz for the same version, there is not even +any point in treating this situation as a bug. + +This makes it possible to use checksums to easily verify that all +changes between Debian's version and upstream's are contained in the +Debian diff. Also, if the original source is huge, upstream authors +and others who already have the upstream tarball can save download +time if they want to inspect your packaging in detail. +

+

+There is no universally accepted guidelines that upstream authors +follow regarding to the directory structure inside their tarball, but +dpkg-source is nevertheless able to deal with most +upstream tarballs as pristine source. Its strategy is equivalent to +the following: +

+

+ + +It unpacks the tarball in an empty temporary directory by doing + + +zcat path/to/<packagename>_<upstream-version>.orig.tar.gz | tar xf - + + + +If, after this, the temporary directory contains nothing but one +directory and no other files, dpkg-source renames that +directory to +<packagename>-<upstream-version>(.orig). The name +of the top-level directory in the tarball does not matter, and is +forgotten. + + +Otherwise, the upstream tarball must have been packaged without a +common top-level directory (shame on the upstream author!). In this +case, dpkg-source renames the temporary directory +itself to +<packagename>-<upstream-version>(.orig). + + +

+ + + Repackaged upstream source +

+You should upload packages with a pristine source +tarball if possible, but there are various reasons why it might not be +possible. This is the case if upstream does not distribute the source +as gzipped tar at all, or if upstream's tarball contains non-DFSG-free +material that you must remove before uploading. +

+

+In these cases the developer must construct a suitable .orig.tar.gz +file himself. We refer to such a tarball as a "repackaged upstream +source". Note that a "repackaged upstream source" is different from a +Debian-native package. A repackaged source still comes with +Debian-specific changes in a separate .diff.gz and still has +a version number composed of <upstream-version> and +<debian-revision>. +

+

+There may be cases where it is desirable to repackage the source even +though upstream distributes a .tar.gz that could in principle +be used in its pristine form. The most obvious is if +significant space savings can be achieved by recompressing +the tar archive or by removing genuinely useless cruft from the +upstream archive. Use your own discretion here, but be prepared to +defend your decision if you repackage source that could have been +pristine. +

+

+A repackaged .orig.tar.gz +

+

+ + +

+must contain detailed information how +the repackaged source was obtained, and how this can be reproduced, in +README.Debian-source or a similar file. This file should +be in the diff.gz part of the Debian source package, +usually in the debian directory, not in the +repackaged orig.tar.gz. It is also a good idea to provide a +get-orig-source target in your debian/rules file +that repeats the process, as described in the Policy Manual, . +

+ + +should not contain any file that does not come from the +upstream author(s), or whose contents has been changed by you. + +As a special exception, if the omission of non-free files would lead +to the source failing to build without assistance from the Debian +diff, it might be appropriate to instead edit the files, omitting only +the non-free parts of them, and/or explain the situation in a +README.Debian-source file in the root of the source +tree. But in that case please also urge the upstream author to make +the non-free components easier seperable from the rest of the source. + + + +

+should, except where impossible for legal reasons, +preserve the entire building and portablility infrastructure provided +by the upstream author. For example, it is not a sufficient reason for +omitting a file that it is used only when building on +MS-DOS. Similarly, a Makefile provided by upstream should not be +omitted even if the first thing your debian/rules does is +to overwrite it by running a configure script. +

+

+(Rationale: It is common for Debian users who need to build +software for non-Debian platforms to fetch the source from a Debian +mirror rather than trying to locate a canonical upstream distribution +point). +

 + +should use +<packagename>-<upstream-version>.orig as the name +of the top-level directory in its tarball. This makes it possible to +distinguish pristine tarballs from repackaged ones. + + +should be gzipped with maximal compression. + + +

+

+The canonical way to meet the latter two points is to let +dpkg-source -b construct the repackaged tarball from an +unpacked directory. +

+ + + Changing binary files in diff.gz +

+Sometimes it is necessary to change binary files contained in the +original tarball, or to add binary files that are not in it. +If this is done by simply copying the files into the debianized source +tree, dpkg-source will not be able to handle this. On the +other hand, according to the guidelines given above, you cannot +include such a changed binary file in a repackaged +orig.tar.gz. Instead, include the file in the +debian directory in uuencoded (or similar) +form + +The file should have a name that makes it clear which binary file it +encodes. Usually, some postfix indicating the encoding should be +appended to the original filename. +. +The file would then be decoded and copied to its place during the +build process. Thus the change will be visible quite easy. +

+

+Some packages use dbs to manage patches to their upstream +source, and always create a new orig.tar.gz file that +contains the real orig.tar.gz in its toplevel directory. This +is questionable with respect to the preference for pristine source. On +the other hand, it is easy to modify or add binary files in this case: +Just put them into the newly created orig.tar.gz file, +besides the real one, and copy them to the right place during the +build process. +

+ + + + @@ -4616,7 +4865,8 @@ is emitted.

If you report more than 10 bugs on the same topic at once, it is recommended that you send a message to &email-debian-devel; describing -your intention before submitting the report. This will allow other +your intention before submitting the report, and mentioning the +fact in the subject of your mail. This will allow other developers to verify that the bug is a real problem. In addition, it will help prevent a situation in which several maintainers start filing the same bug report simultaneously. @@ -4790,9 +5040,11 @@ Sponsoring a package means uploading a package for a maintainer who is not able to do it on their own, a new maintainer applicant. Sponsoring a package also means accepting responsibility for it.

+ New maintainers usually have certain difficulties creating Debian packages — this is quite understandable. That is why the sponsor is there, to check the package and verify that it is good enough for inclusion in Debian.