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[developers-reference.git] / developers-reference.sgml

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 TODO:
  - bugs in upstream versions should be reported upstream!
  - add information on how to get accounts on different architectures
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  - add information on how you can contribute w/o being an official
    developer
  - "official port maintainer" ? (cf. glibc-pre2.1)
 -->

  <book>

      <title>Debian Developer's Reference
      <author>Adam Di Carlo, current maintainer <email>aph@debian.org</email>
      <author>Christian Schwarz <email>schwarz@debian.org</email>
      <author>Ian Jackson <email>ijackson@gnu.ai.mit.edu</email>
      <version>ver. &version;, &date;

      <copyright>
        <copyrightsummary>
copyright &copy;1998 &ndash 2001 Adam Di Carlo</copyrightsummary>
        <copyrightsummary>
copyright &copy;1997, 1998 Christian Schwarz</copyrightsummary>
        <p>
This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
later version.
        <p>
This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
<em>without any warranty</em>; without even the implied warranty of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
        <p>
A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as &file-GPL; in
the Debian GNU/Linux distribution or on the World Wide Web at <url
id="&url-gpl;" name="the GNU website">.  You can also obtain it by
writing to the &fsf-addr;.

    <toc detail="sect2">

    <chapt id="scope">Scope of This Document
      <p>
The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the
recommended procedures and the available resources for Debian
developers.
      <p>
The procedures discussed within include how to become a maintainer
(<ref id="new-maintainer">); how to upload new packages (<ref
id="upload">); how and when to do ports and interim releases of other
maintainers' packages (<ref id="nmu">); how to move, remove, or orphan
packages (<ref id="archive-manip">); and how to handle bug reports
(<ref id="bug-handling">).
      <p>
The resources discussed in this reference include the mailing lists
and servers (<ref id="servers">); a discussion of the structure of the
Debian archive (<ref id="archive">); explanation of the different
servers which accept package uploads (<ref id="upload-ftp-master">); and a
discussion of resources which can help maintainers with the quality of
their packages (<ref id="tools">).
      <p>
It should be clear that this reference does not discuss the technical
details of the Debian package nor how to generate Debian packages.
Nor does this reference detail the standards to which Debian software
must comply.  All of such information can be found in the <url
id="&url-debian-policy;" name="Debian Policy Manual">.
      <p>
Furthermore, this document is <em>not an expression of formal
policy</em>.  It contains documentation for the Debian system and
generally agreed-upon best practices.  Thus, it is what is called a
``normative'' document.


    <chapt id="new-maintainer">Applying to Become a Maintainer
        
      <sect>Getting started
        <p>
So, you've read all the documentation, you understand what everything
in the <package>hello</package> example package is for, and you're about to
Debianize your favourite piece of software.  How do you actually
become a Debian developer so that your work can be incorporated into
the Project?
        <p>
Firstly, subscribe to &email-debian-devel; if you haven't already.
Send the word <tt>subscribe</tt> in the <em>Subject</em> of an email
to &email-debian-devel-req;.  In case of problems, contact the list
administrator at &email-listmaster;.  More information on available
mailing lists can be found in <ref id="mailing-lists">.
        <p>
You should subscribe and lurk (that is, read without posting) for a
bit before doing any coding, and you should post about your intentions
to work on something to avoid duplicated effort.
        <p>
Another good list to subscribe to is &email-debian-mentors;.  See <ref
id="mentors"> for details.  The IRC channel <tt>#debian</tt> on the
Linux People IRC network (e.g., <tt>irc.debian.org</tt>) can also be
helpful.


      <sect id="registering">Registering as a Debian developer
        <p>
Before you decide to register with the Debian Project, you will need
to read the <url id="&url-social-contract;" name="Debian Social
Contract">.  Registering as a developer means that you agree with and
pledge to uphold the Debian Social Contract; it is very important that
maintainers are in accord with the essential ideas behind Debian
GNU/Linux.  Reading the <url id="&url-gnu-manifesto;" name="GNU
Manifesto"> would also be a good idea.
        <p>
The process of registering as a developer is a process of verifying
your identity and intentions.  As the number of people working on
Debian GNU/Linux has grown to over &number-of-maintainers; people and
our systems are used in several very important places we have to be
careful about being compromised.  Therefore, we need to verify new
maintainers before we can give them accounts on our servers and
letting them upload packages.
        <p>
Registration requires that the following information be sent in
appropriate steps described at <url id="&url-newmaint-checklist;"
                                    name="Checklist for applicants">
after the initial contact to &email-new-maintainer:

<list>
            <item>
Your name.
            <item>
Your preferred login name on <tt>master</tt> (eight characters or
less), as well as the email address at which you'd prefer to be
subscribed to &email-debian-private; (typically this will be either
your primary mail address or your new <tt>debian.org</tt> address).
            <item>
A phone number where we can call you.  Remember that the new
maintainer team usually calls during evening hours to save on long
distance tolls.  Please do not give a work number, unless you are
generally there in the evening.
            <item>
A statement of intention, that is, what package(s) you intend to work
on, which Debian port you will be assisting, or how you intend to
contribute to Debian.
            <item>
A statement that you have read and agree to uphold the <url
id="&url-social-contract;" name="Debian Social Contract">.
            <item>
Some mechanism by which we can verify your real-life identity. For
example, any of the following mechanisms would suffice:
<list>
                  <item>
An OpenPGP key signed by any well-known signature, such as:
<list>
                        <item>
Any current Debian developer you have met <em>in real life</em>.
                        <item>
Any formal certification service (such as Verisign, etc.) that
verifies your identity.  A certification that verifies your email
address, and not you identity, is not sufficient.
                      </list>
                  <item>
Alternatively, you may identify yourself with a scanned (or physically
mailed) copy of any formal documents certifying your identity (such as
a birth certificate, national ID card, U.S. Driver's License, etc.).
If emailed, please sign the mail with your OpenPGP key.
                </list>
          </list>
        <p>
If you do not have an OpenPGP key yet, generate one. Every developer
needs a OpenPGP key in order to sign and verify package uploads. You
should read the manual for the software you are using, since it has
much important information which is critical to its security.  Many
more security failures are due to human error than to software failure
or high-powered spy techniques.  See <ref id="key-maint"> for more
information on maintaining your public key.
        <p>
Debian uses the <prgn>GNU Privacy Guard</prgn> (package
<package>gnupg</package> version 1 or better as its baseline standard.
You can use some other implementation of OpenPGP as well.  Note that
OpenPGP is a open standard based on <url id="&url-rfc2440;" name="RFC
2440">.
        <p>
The recommended public key algorithm for use in Debian development
work is the DSA (sometimes call ``DSS'' or ``DH/ElGamal'').  Other key
types may be used however.  Your key length must be at least 1024
bits; there is no reason to use a smaller key, and doing so would be
much less secure.  Your key must be signed with at least your own user
ID; this prevents user ID tampering.  <prgn>gpg</prgn> does this
automatically.
        <p>
Also remember that one of the names on your key must match the email
address you list as the official maintainer for your packages.  For
instance, I set the maintainer of the
<package>developers-reference</package> package to ``Adam Di Carlo
&lt;aph@debian.org&gt;''; therefore, one of the user IDs on my key is
that same value, ``Adam Di Carlo &lt;aph@debian.org&gt;''.
        <p>
If your public key isn't on public key servers such as &pgp-keyserv;,
please read the documentation available locally in &file-keyservs;.
That document contains instructions on how to put your key on the
public key servers.  The New Maintainer Group will put your public key
on the servers if it isn't already there.
        <p>
Due to export restrictions by the United States government some Debian
packages, including <package>gnupg</package>, are located on ftp sites
outside of the United States. You can find the current locations of
those packages at <url id="&url-readme-non-us;">.
        <p>
Some countries restrict the use of cryptographic software by their
citizens.  This need not impede one's activities as a Debian package
maintainer however, as it may be perfectly legal to use cryptographic
products for authentication, rather than encryption purposes (as is
the case in France).  The Debian Project does not require the use of
cryptography <em>qua</em> cryptography in any manner.  If you live in a
country where use of cryptography even for authentication is forbidden
then please contact us so we can make special arrangements.
        <p>
Once you have all your information ready, and your public key is
available on public key servers, send a message to
&email-new-maintainer; to register as an offical Debian developer so
that you will be able to upload your packages.  This message must
contain your name and your valid e-mail address.  All the information
discussed above is required after your Application Manager is
assigned.  Application Manager is your agent in the registration
process, and you can always ask him about the status of your
application. You can check the <url id="&url-newmaint-db;"
name="Application StatusBoard"> as well.
        <p>
For more details, please consult <url id="&url-newmaint;" name="New
Maintainer's Corner"> at the Debian web site.
        <p>
Once this information is received and processed, you should be
contacted with information about your new Debian maintainer account.
If you don't hear anything within a month, please send a followup
message asking if your original application was received.  Do
<em>not</em> re-send your original application, that will just confuse
the New Maintainer Group. Please be patient, especially near release
points; mistakes do occasionally happen, and people do sometimes run
out of volunteer time.


      <sect id="mentors">Debian Mentors
        <p>
The mailing list &email-debian-mentors; has been set up for novice
maintainers who seek help with initial packaging and other
developer-related issues.  Every new developer is invited to subscribe
to that list (see <ref id="mailing-lists"> for details).
        <p>
Those who prefer one-on-one help (e.g., via private email) should also
post to that list and an experienced developer will volunteer to help.


    <chapt id="developer-duties">Debian Developer's Duties

      <sect id="user-maint">Maintaining Your Debian Information
        <p>
There's a LDAP database containing many informations concerning all
developers, you can access it at <url id="&url-debian-db;">. You can
update your password (this password is propagated to most of the machines
that are accessible to you), your address, your country, the latitude and
longitude of the point where you live, phone and fax numbers, your
preferred shell, your IRC nickname, your web page and the email that
you're using as alias for your debian.org email. Most of the information
is not accessible to the public, for more details about this
database, please read its online documentation that you can find
here : <url id="&url-debian-db-doc;">.
        <p>
You have to keep the information available there up to date.

      <sect id="key-maint">Maintaining Your Public Key
        <p>
Be very careful with your private keys.  Do not place them on any
public servers or multiuser machines, such as
<tt>master.debian.org</tt>.  Back your keys up; keep a copy offline.
Read the documentation that comes with your software; read the <url
id="&url-pgp-faq;" name="PGP FAQ">.
        <p>
If you add signatures to your public key, or add user identities, you
can update the debian keyring by sending your key to the key server at
<tt>&keyserver-host;</tt>.  If you need to add a completely new key,
or remove an old key, send mail to &email-debian-keyring;.  The same
key extraction routines discussed in <ref id="registering"> apply.
        <p>
You can find a more in-depth discussion of Debian key maintenance in
the documentation for the <package>debian-keyring</package> package.

      <sect id="inform-vacation">Going On Vacation Gracefully
        <p>
Most developers take vacations, and usually this means that they can't
work for Debian and they can't be reached by email if any problem occurs.
The other developers need to know that you're on vacation so that they'll
do whatever is needed when such a problem occurs. Usually this means that
other developers are allowed to NMU (see <ref id="nmu">) your package if a
big problem (release critical bugs, security update, ...) occurs while
you're on vacation.
        <p>
In order to inform the other developers, there's two things that you should do.
First send a mail to &email-debian-private; giving the period of time when
you will be on vacation.  You can also give some special instructions on what to
do if any problem occurs. Next you should update your information
available in the Debian LDAP database and mark yourself as ``on vacation''
(this information is only accessible to debian developers). Don't forget
to remove the ``on vacation'' flag when you come back.

      <sect id="upstream-coordination">Coordination With Upstream Developers
        <p>
A big part of your job as Debian maintainer will be to stay in contact
with the upstream developers since you'll have to share information that
you get from the Bug Tracking System. It's not your job to fix non-Debian
specific bugs.
Rather, you have to forward these bugs to the upstream developers.
(Of course, if you are able to do so, you may certainly fix them...)
This way, the bug will hopefully
be corrected when the next upstream version comes out.
        <p>
From time to
time, you may get a patch attached to a bug report.  You have to send the
patch upstream and make sure that it gets included (if the authors accept
the proposed fix). If you need to modify the upstream sources in order to
build a policy conformant package, then you should propose a nice fix 
to the upstream developers which can be included there, so that you won't have to
modify the sources of the next upstream version. Whatever changes you
need, always try not to fork from the upstream sources.

      <sect id="rc-bugs">Managing Release Critical Bugs
        <p>
Release Critical Bugs (RCB) are all bugs that have severity
<em>critical</em>, <em>grave</em> or <em>serious</em>.
Those bugs can delay the Debian release
and/or can justify the removal of a package at freeze time. That's why
those bugs needs to be corrected as fast as possible.  You must be
aware that some developers who are part of the <url
id="&url-debian-qa;" name="Debian Quality Assurance"> effort are
following those bugs and try to help you each time they can. But if
you can't fix such bugs within 2 weeks, you should either ask for help
by sending a mail to the Quality Assurance (QA) group
(&email-debian-qa;) or justify yourself and present your plan to fix
it by sending a mail to the bug concerned report. Otherwise people
from the QA group may want to do a Non-Maintainer Upload (see
<ref id="nmu">) after trying to contact you (they might not wait as long as
usual before they do their NMU if they have seen no recent activity from you
on the BTS).

      <sect id="qa-effort">Quality Assurance Effort
        <p>
Even though there is a dedicated group of people for Quality
Assurance, QA duties are not reserved solely to them. You can
participate in this effort by keeping your packages as bug free as
possible, and as lintian-clean (see <ref id="lintian-reports">) as
possible. If you think that it's quite impossible, then you should
consider orphaning (see <ref id="orphaning">) some of your packages so
that you can do a good job with the other packages that you
maintain. Alternatively you may ask the help of other people in order
to catch up the backlog of bugs that you have (you can ask for help on
&email-debian-qa; or &email-debian-devel;).

      <sect>Retiring Gracefully
        <p>
If you choose to leave the Debian project, you should make sure you do
the following steps:
<enumlist>
            <item>
Orphan all your packages, as described in <ref id="orphaning">.
            <item>
Send an email about how you are leaving the project to
&email-debian-private;.
            <item>
Notify the Debian key ring maintainers that you are leaving by
emailing to &email-debian-keyring;.
          </enumlist>


    <chapt id="servers">Mailing Lists, Servers, and Other Machines
      <p>
In this chapter you will find a very brief road map of the Debian
mailing lists, the main Debian servers, and other Debian machines
which may be available to you as a developer.

      <sect id="mailing-lists">Mailing lists
        <p>
The mailing list server is at <tt>&lists-host;</tt>.  Mail
<tt>debian-<var>foo</var>-REQUEST@&lists-host;</tt>, where
<tt>debian-<var>foo</var></tt> is the name of the list, with the word
<tt>subscribe</tt> in the <em>Subject</em> to subscribe to the list or
<tt>unsubscribe</tt> to unsubscribe.  More detailed instructions on
how to subscribe and unsubscribe to the mailing lists can be found at
<url id="&url-debian-lists-subscribe;">, <url id="&url-debian-lists;">
or locally in &file-mail-lists; if you have the
<package>doc-debian</package> package installed.
        <p>
When replying to messages on the mailing list, please do not send a
carbon copy (<tt>CC</tt>) to the original poster unless they explicitly
request to be copied.  Anyone who posts to a mailing list should read
it to see the responses.
        <p>
The following are the core Debian mailing lists: &email-debian-devel;,
&email-debian-policy;, &email-debian-user;, &email-debian-private;,
&email-debian-announce;, and &email-debian-devel-announce;.  All
developers are expected to be subscribed to at least
&email-debian-private; and &email-debian-devel-announce;.  There are
other mailing lists are available for a variety of special topics; see
<url id="&url-debian-lists-subscribe;"> for a list.  Cross-posting
(sending the same message to multiple lists) is discouraged.
        <p>
&email-debian-private; is a special mailing list for private
discussions amongst Debian developers.  It is meant to be used for
posts which for whatever reason should not be published publically.
As such, it is a low volume list, and users are urged not to use
&email-debian-private; unless it is really necessary.  Moreover, do
<em>not</em> forward email from that list to anyone.
        <p>
&email-debian-email; is a special mailing list used as a grab-bag 
for Debian related correspondence such as contacting upstream authors
about licenses, bugs, etc. or discussing the project with others where it
might be useful to have the discussion archived somewhere.
        <p>
As ever on the net, please trim down the quoting of articles you're
replying to.  In general, please adhere to the usual conventions for
posting messages.
        <p>
Online archives of mailing lists are available at <url
id="&url-lists-archives;">.


      <sect id="server-machines">Debian servers
        <p>
Debian servers are well known servers which serve critical functions
in the Debian project.  Every developer should know what these servers
are and what they do.
        <p>
If you have a problem with the operation of a Debian server, and you
think that the system operators need to be notified of this problem,
please find the contact address for the particular machine at <url
id="&url-devel-machines;">.  If you have a non-operating problems
(such as packages to be remove, suggestions for the web site, etc.),
generally you'll report a bug against a ``pseudo-package''.  See <ref
id="submit-bug"> for information on how to submit bugs.

      <sect1 id="servers-master">The master server
        <p>
<tt>master.debian.org</tt> is the canonical location for the Bug
Tracking System (BTS).  If you plan on doing some statistical analysis
or processing of Debian bugs, this would be the place to do it.
Please describe your plans on &email-debian-devel; before implementing
anything, however, to reduce unnecessary duplication of effort or
wasted processing time.
        <p>
All Debian developers have accounts on <tt>master.debian.org</tt>.
Please take care to protect your password to this machine.  Try to
avoid login or upload methods which send passwords over the Internet
in the clear.
        <p>
If you find a problem with <tt>master.debian.org</tt> such as disk
full, suspicious activity, or whatever, send an email to
&email-debian-admin;.

      <sect1 id="servers-ftp-master">The ftp-master server
        <p>
The ftp-master server, <tt>ftp-master.debian.org</tt> (or
<tt>auric.debian.org</tt>), holds the canonical copy of the Debian
archive (excluding the non-U.S. packages). Generally, package uploads
go to this server; see <ref id="upload">.
        <p>
Problems with the Debian FTP archive generally need to be reported as
bugs against the <package>ftp.debian.org</package> pseudo-package or
an email to &email-ftpmaster;, but also see the procedures in
<ref id="archive-manip">.

      <sect1 id="servers-www">The WWW server
        <p>
The main web server, <tt>www.debian.org</tt>, is also known as
<tt>klecker.debian.org</tt>.  All developers are given accounts on this
machine.
        <p>
If you have some Debian-specific information which you want to serve
up on the web, you can do this by putting material in the
<file>public_html</file> directory under your home directory.  You should
do this on <tt>klecker.debian.org</tt>. Any material you put in those areas
are accessible via the URL
<tt>http://people.debian.org/~<var>user-id</var>/</tt>.
You should only use this particular location because it will be backed up,
whereas on other hosts it won't. Please do not put any material on Debian
servers not relating to Debian, unless you have prior permission.
Send mail to &email-debian-devel; if you have any questions.
        <p>
If you find a problem with the Debian web server, you should generally
submit a bug against the pseudo-package,
<package>www.debian.org</package>.  First check whether or not someone
else has already reported the problem on the
<url id="http://bugs.debian.org/www.debian.org" name="Bug Tracking System">.


      <sect1 id="servers-cvs">The CVS server
        <p>
<tt>cvs.debian.org</tt> is also known as <tt>klecker.debian.org</tt>,
discussed above.  If you need to use a publically accessible CVS
server, for instance, to help coordinate work on a package between
many different developers, you can request a CVS area on the server.
          <p>
Generally, <tt>cvs.debian.org</tt> offers a combination of local CVS
access, anonymous client-server read-only access, and full
client-server access through <prgn>ssh</prgn>.  Also, the CVS area can
be accessed read-only via the Web at <url id="&url-cvsweb;">.
        <p>
To request a CVS area, send a request via email to
&email-debian-admin;.  Include the name of the requested CVS area,
Debian account should own the CVS root area, and why you need it.


      <sect1 id="servers-mirrors">Mirrors of Debian servers
        <p>
The web and FTP servers have several mirrors available.  Please do not
put heavy load on the canonical FTP or web servers.  Ideally, the
canonical servers only mirror out to a first tier of mirrors, and all
user access is to the mirrors.  This allows Debian to better spread
its bandwidth requirements over several servers and networks.  Note
that newer push mirroring techniques ensure that mirrors are as
up-to-date as they can be.
        <p>
The main web page listing the available public FTP (and, usually,
HTTP) servers can be found at <url id="&url-debian-mirrors;">.  More
information concerning Debian mirrors can be found at <url
id="&url-debian-mirroring;">.  This useful page includes information
and tools which can be helpful if you are interested in setting up
your own mirror, either for internal or public access.
        <p>
Note that mirrors are generally run by third-parties who are
interested in helping Debian.  As such, developers generally do not
have accounts on these machines.


      <sect id="other-machines">Other Debian Machines
        <p>
There are other Debian machines which may be made available to you.
You can use these for Debian-related purposes as you see fit.  Please
be kind to system administrators, and do not use up tons and tons of
disk space, network bandwidth, or CPU without first getting the
approval of the local maintainers.  Usually these machines are run by
volunteers.  Generally, these machines are for porting activities.
        <p>
Aside from the servers mentioned in <ref id="server-machines">, there
is a list of machines available to Debian developers at <url
id="&url-devel-machines;">.



    <chapt id="archive">The Debian Archive

      <sect>Overview
        <p>
The Debian GNU/Linux distribution consists of a lot of Debian packages
(<tt>.deb</tt>'s, currently around &number-of-pkgs;) and a few
additional files (documentation, installation disk images, etc.).
        <p>
Here is an example directory tree of a complete Debian archive:
        <p>
&sample-dist-dirtree;
        <p>
As you can see, the top-level directory contains two directories,
<tt>dists/</tt> and <tt>pool/</tt>. The latter is a ``pool'' in which the
packages actually are, and which is handled by the archive maintenance
database and the accompanying programs. The former contains the
distributions, <em>stable</em>, <em>testing</em> and <em>unstable</em>.
Each of those distribution directories is divided in equivalent
subdirectories purpose of which is equal, so we will only explain how it
looks in stable. The <tt>Packages</tt> and <tt>Sources</tt> files in the
distribution subdirectories can reference files in the <tt>pool/</tt>
directory.
        <p>
<tt>dists/stable</tt> contains three directories, namely <em>main</em>,
<em>contrib</em>, and <em>non-free</em>.
        <p>
In each of the areas, there is a directory with the source packages
(<tt>source</tt>), a directory for each supported architecture
(<tt>binary-i386</tt>, <tt>binary-m68k</tt>, etc.), and a directory
for architecture independent packages (<tt>binary-all</tt>).
        <p>
The <em>main</em> area contains additional directories which holds
the disk images and some essential pieces of documentation required
for installing the Debian distribution on a specific architecture
(<tt>disks-i386</tt>, <tt>disks-m68k</tt>, etc.).
        <p>
The <em>binary-*</em> and <em>source</em> directories are divided
further into <em>subsections</em>.


      <sect>Sections
        <p>
The <em>main</em> section of the Debian archive is what makes up the
<strong>official Debian GNU/Linux distribution</strong>.
The <em>main</em> section is official because it fully complies with
all our guidelines.  The other two sections do not, to different degrees;
as such, they are <strong>not</strong> officially part of Debian GNU/Linux.
        <p>
Every package in the main section must fully comply with the <url
id="&url-dfsg;" name="Debian Free Software Guidelines"> (DFSG) and
with all other policy requirements as described in the <url
id="&url-debian-policy;" name="Debian Policy Manual">.  The DFSG is
our definition of ``free software.'' Check out the Debian Policy
Manual for details.
        <p>
Packages in the <em>contrib</em> section have to comply with the DFSG,
but may fail other requirements.  For instance, they may depend on
non-free packages.
        <p>
Packages which do not apply to the DFSG are placed in the
<em>non-free</em> section. These packages are not considered as part
of the Debian distribution, though we support their use, and we
provide infrastructure (such as our bug-tracking system and mailing
lists) for non-free software packages.
        <p>
The <url id="&url-debian-policy;" name="Debian Policy Manual">
contains a more exact definition of the three sections. The above
discussion is just an introduction.
        <p>
The separation of the three sections at the top-level of the archive
is important for all people who want to distribute Debian, either via
FTP servers on the Internet or on CD-ROMs: by distributing only the
<em>main</em> and <em>contrib</em> sections, one can avoid any legal
risks.  Some packages in the <em>non-free</em> section do not allow
commercial distribution, for example.
        <p>
On the other hand, a CD-ROM vendor could easily check the individual
package licenses of the packages in <em>non-free</em> and include as
many on the CD-ROMs as he's allowed to. (Since this varies greatly from
vendor to vendor, this job can't be done by the Debian developers.)


      <sect>Architectures
        <p>
In the first days, the Linux kernel was only available for the Intel
i386 (or greater) platforms, and so was Debian. But when Linux became
more and more popular, the kernel was ported to other architectures,
too.
        <p>
The Linux 2.0 kernel supports Intel x86, DEC Alpha, SPARC, Motorola
680x0 (like Atari, Amiga and Macintoshes), MIPS, and PowerPC.  The
Linux 2.2 kernel supports even more architectures, including ARM and
UltraSPARC.  Since Linux supports these platforms, Debian decided that
it should, too.  Therefore, Debian has ports underway; in fact, we
also have ports underway to non-Linux kernel.  Aside from
<em>i386</em> (our name for Intel x86), there is <em>m68k</em>,
<em>alpha</em>, <em>powerpc</em>, <em>sparc</em>, <em>hurd-i386</em>,
and <em>arm</em>, as of this writing.
        <p>
Debian GNU/Linux 1.3 is only available as <em>i386</em>.  Debian 2.0
shipped for <em>i386</em> and <em>m68k</em> architectures.  Debian 2.1
ships for the <em>i386</em>, <em>m68k</em>, <em>alpha</em>, and
<em>sparc</em> architectures.  Debian 2.2 adds support for the
<em>powerpc</em> and <em>arm</em> architectures.
        <p>
Information for developers or uses about the specific ports are
available at the <url id="&url-debian-ports;" name="Debian Ports web
pages">.


      <sect>Subsections
        <p>
The sections <em>main</em>, <em>contrib</em>, and <em>non-free</em>
are split into <em>subsections</em> to simplify the installation
process and the maintainance of the archive.  Subsections are not
formally defined, except perhaps the `base' subsection.
Subsections simply exist to simplify the organization and browsing of
available packages.  Please check the current Debian distribution to
see which sections are available.
        <p>
Note however that with the introduction of package pools (see the top-level
<em>pool/</em> directory), the subsections in the form of subdirectories
will eventually cease to exist. They will be kept in the packages' `Section'
header fields, though.

      <sect>Packages
        <p>
There are two types of Debian packages, namely <em>source</em> and
<em>binary</em> packages.
        <p>
Source packages consist of either two or three files: a <tt>.dsc</tt>
file, and either a <tt>.tar.gz</tt> file or both an
<tt>.orig.tar.gz</tt> and a <tt>.diff.gz</tt> file.
        <p>
If a package is developed specially for Debian and is not distributed
outside of Debian, there is just one <tt>.tar.gz</tt> file which
contains the sources of the program.  If a package is distributed
elsewhere too, the <tt>.orig.tar.gz</tt> file stores the so-called
<em>upstream source code</em>, that is the source code that's
distributed from the <em>upstream maintainer</em> (often the author of
the software). In this case, the <tt>.diff.gz</tt> contains the
changes made by the Debian maintainer.
        <p>
The <tt>.dsc</tt> lists all the files in the source package together
with checksums (<prgn>md5sums</prgn>) and some additional info about
the package (maintainer, version, etc.).


      <sect>Distribution directories
        <p>
The directory system described in the previous chapter is itself
contained within <em>distribution directories</em>.  Each
distribution is actually contained in the <tt>pool</tt> directory in the
top-level of the Debian archive itself.
        <p>
To summarize, the Debian archive has a root directory within an FTP
server.  For instance, at the mirror site,
<ftpsite>ftp.us.debian.org</ftpsite>, the Debian archive itself is
contained in <ftppath>/debian</ftppath>, which is a common location
(another is <ftppath>/pub/debian</ftppath>).
        <p>
A distribution is comprised of Debian source and binary packages, and the
respective <tt>Sources</tt> and <tt>Packages</tt> index files, containing
the header information from all those packages. The former are kept in the
<tt>pool/</tt> directory, while the latter are kept in the <tt>dists/</tt>
directory of the archive (because of backwards compatibility).


        <sect1>Stable, testing, unstable, and sometimes frozen
        <p>
There is always a distribution called <em>stable</em> (residing in
<tt>dists/stable</tt>), one called <em>testing</em> (residing in
<tt>dists/testing</tt>), and one called <em>unstable</em> (residing in
<tt>dists/unstable</tt>). This reflects the development process of the
Debian project.
        <p>
Active development is done in the <em>unstable</em> distribution
(that's why this distribution is sometimes called the <em>development
distribution</em>). Every Debian developer can update his or her
packages in this distribution at any time. Thus, the contents of this
distribution change from day-to-day. Since no special effort is done
to make sure everything in this distribution is working properly, it is
sometimes ``unstable.''
        <p>
Packages get copied from <em>unstable</em> to <em>testing</em> if they
satisfy certain criteria. To get into <em>testing</em> distribution, a
package needs to be in the archive for two weeks and not have any release
critical bugs. After that period, it will propagate into <em>testing</em>
as soon as anything it depends on is also added. This process is automatic.
        <p>
After a period of development, once the release manager deems fit, the
<em>testing</em> distribution is renamed to <em>frozen</em>. Once
that has been done, no changes are allowed to that distribution except
bug fixes; that's why it's called ``frozen.''  After another month or
a little longer, depending on the progress, the <em>frozen</em> distribution
goes into a `deep freeze', when no changes are made to it except those
needed for the installation system. This is called a ``test cycle'', and it
can last up to two weeks. There can be several test cycles, until the
distribution is prepared for release, as decided by the release manager.
At the end of the last test cycle, the <em>frozen</em> distribution is
renamed to <em>stable</em>, overriding the old <em>stable</em> distribution,
which is removed at that time.
        <p>
This development cycle is based on the assumption that the
<em>unstable</em> distribution becomes <em>stable</em> after passing a
period of testing as <em>frozen</em>.  Even once a distribution is
considered stable, a few bugs inevitably remain--that's why the stable
distribution is updated every now and then. However, these updates are
tested very carefully and have to be introduced into the archive
individually to reduce the risk of introducing new bugs.  You can find
proposed additions to <em>stable</em> in the <tt>proposed-updates</tt>
directory.  Those packages in <tt>proposed-updates</tt> that pass
muster are periodically moved as a batch into the stable distribution
and the revision level of the stable distribution is incremented
(e.g., `1.3' becomes `1.3r1', `2.0r2' becomes `2.0r3', and so forth).
        <p>
Note that development under <em>unstable</em> continues during the
``freeze'' period, since the <em>unstable</em> distribution remains in
place when the <em>testing</em> is moved to <em>frozen</em>.
Another wrinkle is that when the <em>frozen</em> distribution is
offically released, the old stable distribution is completely removed
from the Debian archives (although they do live on at
<tt>archive-host;</tt>).
        <p>
In summary, there is always a <em>stable</em>, a <em>testing</em> and an
<em>unstable</em> distribution available, and a <em>frozen</em> distribution
shows up for a couple of months from time to time.


        <sect1>Experimental
<!-- Note: experimental is currently dead because of the package pools.
     Once that changes, the description below will most probably need
     adjustments. -->
          <p>
The <em>experimental</em> distribution is a specialty distribution.
It is not a full distribution in the same sense as `stable' and
`unstable' are.  Instead, it is meant to be a temporary staging area
for highly experimental software where there's a good chance that the
software could break your system.  Users who download and install
packages from <em>experimental</em> are expected to have been duly
warned.  In short, all bets are off for the <em>experimental</em>
distribution.
          <p>
Developers should be very selective in the use of the
<em>experimental</em> distribution.  Even if a package is highly
unstable, it could still go into <em>unstable</em>; just state a
few warnings in the description.  However, if there is a chance that
the software could do grave damage to a system, it might be better to
put it into <em>experimental</em>.
          <p>
For instance, an experimental encrypted file system should probably go
into <em>experimental</em>.  A new, beta, version of some software
which uses completely different configuration might go into
<em>experimental</em> at the maintainer's discretion.  New software
which isn't likely to damage your system can go into
<em>unstable</em>.  If you are working on an incompatible or complex
upgrade situation, you can also use <em>experimental</em> as a staging
area, so that testers can get early access.
          <p>
However, using <em>experimental</em> as a personal staging area is not
always the best idea.  You can't replace or upgrade the files in there
on your own (it is done with Debian archive maintenance software).
Additionally, you'll have to remember to ask the archive
maintainers to delete the package once you have uploaded it to
<em>unstable</em>.  Using your personal web space on
<tt>klecker.debian.org</tt> is generally a better idea, so that you put
less strain on the Debian archive maintainers.


      <sect id="codenames">Release code names
        <p>
Every released Debian distribution has a <em>code name</em>: Debian
1.1 is called `buzz'; Debian 1.2, `rex'; Debian 1.3, `bo'; Debian 2.0,
`hamm'; Debian 2.1, `slink'; and Debian 2.2, `potato'.  There is also
a ``pseudo-distribution'', called `sid', which is the current
`unstable' distribution; since packages are moved from `unstable' to
`testing' as they approach stability, `sid' itself is never released.
As well as the usual contents of a Debian distribution, `sid' contains
packages for architectures which are not yet officially supported or
released by Debian.  These architectures are planned to be integrated
into the mainstream distribution at some future date.
        <p>
Since Debian has an open development model (i.e., everyone can
participate and follow the development) even the `unstable' and `testing'
distributions are distributed to the Internet through the Debian FTP and
HTTP server network. Thus, if we had called the directory which contains
the release candidate version `testing', then we would have to rename it
to `stable' when the version is released, which would cause all FTP
mirrors to re-retrieve the whole distribution (which is quite large).
        <p>
On the other hand, if we called the distribution directories
<em>Debian-x.y</em> from the beginning, people would think that Debian
release <em>x.y</em> is available. (This happened in the past, where a
CD-ROM vendor built a Debian 1.0 CD-ROM based on a pre-1.0 development
version. That's the reason why the first official Debian release was
1.1, and not 1.0.)
        <p>
Thus, the names of the distribution directories in the archive are
determined by their code names and not their release status (e.g.,
`slink').  These names stay the same during the development period and
after the release; symbolic links, which can be changed easily,
indicate the currently released stable distribution.  That's why the
real distribution directories use the <em>code names</em>, while symbolic
links for <em>stable</em>, <em>testing</em>, <em>unstable</em>, and
<em>frozen</em> point to the appropriate release directories.


    <chapt id="upload">Package uploads

      <sect>Announcing new packages
        <p>
If you want to create a new package for the Debian distribution, you
should first check the <url id="&url-wnpp;" name="Work-Needing and
Prospective Packages (WNPP)"> list. Checking the WNPP list ensures that
no one is already working on packaging that software, and that effort is
not duplicated. Read the <url id="&url-wnpp;" name="WNPP web pages"> for
more information.
        <p>
Assuming no one else is already working on your prospective package,
you must then submit a short bug (<ref id="submit-bug">) against the
pseudo package <tt>wnpp</tt> and send a copy to &email-debian-devel;
describing your plan to create a new package, including, but not
limiting yourself to, a description of the package, the license of the
prospective package and the current URL where it can be downloaded
from.  You should set the subject of the bug to ``ITP: <var>foo</var>
-- <var>short description</var>'', substituting the name of the new
package for <var>foo</var>.  The severity of the bug report must be
set to <em>wishlist</em>.  Please include a <tt>Closes:
bug#<var>nnnnn</var></tt> entry on the changelog of the new package in
order for the bug report to be automatically closed once the new
package is installed on the archive (<ref id="upload-bugfix">).
        <p>
There are a number of reasons why we ask maintainers to announce their
intentions:
          <list compact>
            <item>
It helps the (potentially new) maintainer to tap into the experience
of people on the list, and lets them know if anyone else is working
on it already.
            <item>
It lets other people thinking about working on the package know that
there already is a volunteer, so efforts may be shared.
            <item>
It lets the rest of the maintainers know more about the package than
the one line description and the usual changelog entry ``Initial release''
that gets posted to <tt>debian-devel-changes</tt>.
            <item>
It is helpful to the people who live off unstable (and form our first
line of testers).  We should encourage these people.
            <item>
The announcements give maintainers and other interested parties a
better feel of what is going on, and what is new, in the project.
          </list>




      <sect id="uploading">Uploading a package

        <sect1>Generating the changes file
          <p>
When a package is uploaded to the Debian FTP archive, it must be
accompanied by a <tt>.changes</tt> file, which gives directions to the
archive maintainers for its handling.  This is usually generated by
<prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> during the normal package build process.
          <p>
The changes file is a control file with the following fields:
          <p>
&control-file-fields;
          <p>
All of these fields are mandatory for a Debian upload.  See the list
of control fields in the <url id="&url-debian-policy;" name="Debian
Policy Manual"> for the contents of these fields.  You can close bugs
automatically using the <tt>Description</tt> field, see <ref
id="upload-bugfix">.  Only the <tt>Distribution</tt> field is
discussed in this section, since it relates to the archive maintenance
policies.


        <sect1 id="upload-dist">Picking a distribution
          <p>
Notably, the <tt>Distribution</tt> field, which originates from the
<file>debian/changelog</file> file, indicates which distribution the
package is intended for.  There are four possible values for this
field: `stable', `unstable', `frozen', or `experimental'; these values
can also be combined. Or, if Debian has been frozen, and you
want to get a bug-fix release into <em>frozen</em>, you would set the
distribution to `frozen unstable'.  (See <ref id="upload-frozen"> for
more information on when to upload to <em>frozen</em>.)  Note that it
never makes sense to combine the <em>experimental</em> distribution with
anything else.
          <p>
You should avoid combining `stable' with others because of potential
problems with library dependencies (for your package and for the package
built by the build daemons for other architecture).
Also note that setting the distribution to `stable' means
that the package will be placed into the <tt>proposed-updates</tt>
directory of the Debian archive for further testing before it is actually
included in <em>stable</em>. The Release Team (which can be reached at
&email-debian-release;) will decide if your package can be included in
stable, therefore if your changelog entry is not clear enough, you may
want to explain them why you uploaded your package to stable by sending 
them a short explication.
          <p>
The first time a version is uploaded which corresponds to a particular
upstream version, the original source tar file should be uploaded and
included in the <tt>.changes</tt> file.  Subsequently, this very same
tar file should be used to build the new diffs and <tt>.dsc</tt>
files, and will not need to be re-uploaded.
          <p>
By default, <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> and
<prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> will include the original source tar
file if and only if the Debian revision part of the source version
number is 0 or 1, indicating a new upstream version.  This behaviour
may be modified by using <tt>-sa</tt> to always include it or
<tt>-sd</tt> to always leave it out.
          <p>
If no original source is included in the upload, the original
source tar-file used by <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> when constructing the
<tt>.dsc</tt> file and diff to be uploaded <em>must</em> be
byte-for-byte identical with the one already in the archive.  If there
is some reason why this is not the case, the new version of the
original source should be uploaded, possibly by using the <tt>-sa</tt>
flag.

          <sect2 id="upload-frozen">Uploading to <em>frozen</em>
            <p>
The Debian freeze is a crucial time for Debian.  It is our chance to
synchronize and stabilize our distribution as a whole.  Therefore,
care must be taken when uploading to <em>frozen</em>.
            <p>
It is tempting to always try to get the newest release of software
into the release.  However, it's much more important that the system
as a whole is stable and works as expected.
            <p>
The watchword for uploading to <em>frozen</em> is <strong>no new
code</strong>.  This is a difficult thing to quantify, so here are
some guidelines:
            <p>
<list>
                <item>
Fixes for bugs of severity <em>critical</em>, <em>grave</em>, or
<em>serious</em> severity are always allowed for those packages that
must exist in the final release
                <item>
<em>critical</em>, <em>grave</em>, and <em>serious</em> bug fixes are
allowed for non-necessary packages but only if they don't add any new
features
                <item>
important, normal and minor bug fixes are allowed (though discouraged)
on all packages if and only if there are no new features
                <item>
wishlist fixes are not allowed (they are, after all, not really bugs)
                <item>
documentation bug fixes are allowed, since good documentation is
important
              </list>
            <p>
Experience has shown that there is statistically a 15% chance that
every bug fix will introduce a new bug.  The introduction and
discovery of new bugs either delays release or weakens the final
product.  There is little correlation between the severity of the
original bug fixed and the severity of the bug newly introduced by the
fix.



        <sect1 id="upload-checking">Checking the package prior to upload
          <p>
Before you upload your package, you should do basic testing on it.  At
a minimum, you should try the following activities (you'll need to
have an older version of the same Debian package around):
<list>
              <item>
Install the package and make sure the software works, or upgrade the
package from an older version to your new version if a Debian package
for it already exists.
              <item>
Run <prgn>lintian</prgn> over the package.  You can run
<prgn>lintian</prgn> as follows: <tt>lintian -v
<var>package-version</var>.changes</tt>. This will check the source
package as well as the binary package.  If you don't understand the
output that <prgn>lintian</prgn> generates, try adding the <tt>-i</tt>
switch, which will cause <prgn>lintian</prgn> to output a very verbose
description of the problem.
                <p>
Normally, a package should <em>not</em> be uploaded if it causes lintian
to emit errors (they will start with <tt>E</tt>).
                <p>
For more information on <prgn>lintian</prgn>, see <ref id="lintian">.
              <item>
Downgrade the package to the previous version (if one exists) -- this
tests the <tt>postrm</tt> and <tt>prerm</tt> scripts.
              <item>
Remove the package, then reinstall it.
            </list>


        <sect1 id="upload-ftp-master">Uploading to <tt>ftp-master</tt>
          <p>
To upload a package, you need a personal account on
<ftpsite>ftp-master.debian.org</ftpsite>, which you should have as an
official maintainer. If you use <prgn>scp</prgn> or <prgn>rsync</prgn>
to transfer the files, place them into <ftppath>&us-upload-dir;</ftppath>;
if you use anonymous FTP to upload, place them into
<ftppath>/pub/UploadQueue/</ftppath>.
          <p>
<em>Note:</em> Do not upload to <tt>ftp-master</tt> packages
containing software that is export-controlled by the United States
government, nor to the overseas upload queues on <tt>chiark</tt> or
<tt>erlangen</tt>.  This prohibition covers almost all cryptographic
software, and even sometimes software that contains ``hooks'' to
cryptographic software, such as electronic mail readers that support
PGP encryption and authentication.  Uploads of such software should go
to <tt>non-us</tt> (see <ref id="upload-non-us">).  If you are not
sure whether U.S. export controls apply to your package, post a
message to &email-debian-devel; and ask.
          <p>
You may also find the Debian package <package>dupload</package> useful
when uploading packages.  This handy program is distributed with
defaults for uploading via <prgn>ftp</prgn> to <tt>ftp-master</tt>,
<tt>chiark</tt>, and <tt>erlangen</tt>.  It can also be configured to
use <prgn>ssh</prgn> or <prgn>rsync</prgn>.  See <manref name="dupload"
section="1"> and <manref name="dupload" section="5"> for more information.
          <p>
After uploading your package, you can check how the archive maintenance
software will process it by running <prgn>dinstall</prgn> on your changes
file: <example>dinstall -n foo.changes</example>

        <sect1 id="upload-non-us">Uploading to <tt>non-us</tt> (pandora)
          <p>
As discussed above, export controlled software should not be uploaded
to <tt>ftp-master</tt>.  Instead, use <prgn>scp</prgn> or non-anonymous
FTP to copy the package to <ftpsite>non-us.debian.org</ftpsite>, placing
the files in <ftppath>&non-us-upload-dir;</ftppath>. By default, you can
use the same account/password that works on <tt>ftp-master</tt>.
          <p>
The program <prgn>dupload</prgn> comes with support for uploading to
<tt>non-us</tt>; please refer to the documentation that comes with
the program for details.
          <p>
You can check your upload the same way it's done on <tt>ftp-master</tt>,
with:
<example>dinstall -n foo.changes</example>
      
        <sect1>Uploads via <tt>chiark</tt>
          <p>
If you have a slow network connection to <tt>ftp-master</tt>, there are
alternatives.  One is to upload files to <tt>Incoming</tt> via a
upload queue in Europe on <tt>chiark</tt>. For details connect to
<url id="&url-chiark-readme;">.
          <p>
<em>Note:</em> Do not upload packages containing software that is
export-controlled by the United States government to the queue on
<tt>chiark</tt>.  Since this upload queue goes to <tt>ftp-master</tt>, the
prescription found in <ref id="upload-ftp-master"> applies here as well.
          <p>
The program <prgn>dupload</prgn> comes with support for uploading to
<tt>chiark</tt>; please refer to the documentation that comes with the
program for details.


        <sect1>Uploads via <tt>erlangen</tt>
          <p>
Another upload queue is available in Germany: just upload the files
via anonymous FTP to <url id="&url-upload-erlangen;">.
          <p>
The upload must be a complete Debian upload, as you would put it into
<tt>ftp-master</tt>'s <tt>Incoming</tt>, i.e., a <tt>.changes</tt> files
along with the other files mentioned in the <tt>.changes</tt>. The
queue daemon also checks that the <tt>.changes</tt> is correctly
PGP-signed by a Debian developer, so that no bogus files can find
their way to <tt>ftp-master</tt> via this queue. Please also make sure that
the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field in the <tt>.changes</tt> contains
<em>your</em> e-mail address. The address found there is used for all
replies, just as on <tt>ftp-master</tt>.
          <p>
There's no need to move your files into a second directory after the
upload, as on <tt>chiark</tt>. And, in any case, you should get a
mail reply from the queue daemon explaining what happened to your
upload. Hopefully it should have been moved to <tt>ftp-master</tt>, but in
case of errors you're notified, too.
          <p>
<em>Note:</em> Do not upload packages containing software that is
export-controlled by the United States government to the queue on
<tt>erlangen</tt>.  Since this upload queue goes to <tt>ftp-master</tt>, the
prescription found in <ref id="upload-ftp-master"> applies here as well.
          <p>
The program <prgn>dupload</prgn> comes with support for uploading to
<tt>erlangen</tt>; please refer to the documentation that comes with
the program for details.


        <sect1>Other Upload Queues
          <p>
Another upload queue is available which is based in the US, and is a
good backup when there are problems reaching <tt>ftp-master</tt>.  You can
upload files, just as in <tt>erlangen</tt>, to <url
id="&url-upload-samosa;">.
          <p>
An upload queue is available in Japan: just upload the files via
anonymous FTP to <url id="&url-upload-jp;">.



      <sect id="upload-announce">Announcing package uploads
        <p>
When a package is uploaded, an announcement should be posted to one of
the ``debian-changes'' lists. This is now done automatically by the archive
maintenance software when it runs (usually once a day). You just need to use
a recent <package>dpkg-dev</package> (&gt;= 1.4.1.2). The mail generated by
the archive maintenance software will contain the PGP/GPG signed 
<tt>.changes</tt> files that you uploaded with your package.
Previously, <prgn>dupload</prgn> used to send those announcements, so
please make sure that you configured your <prgn>dupload</prgn> not to
send those announcements (check its documentation and look for
``dinstall_runs'').
        <p>
If a package is released with the <tt>Distribution:</tt> set to
`stable', the announcement is sent to &email-debian-changes;.  If a
package is released with <tt>Distribution:</tt> set to `unstable',
`experimental', or `frozen' (when present), the announcement will be
posted to &email-debian-devel-changes; instead.
        <p>
On occasion, it is necessary to upload a package to both the
<em>stable</em> and <em>unstable</em> distributions; this is done by
putting both distributions in the <tt>Distribution:</tt> line.  In
such a case the upload announcement will go to both of the above
mailing lists.
        <p>
The <prgn>dupload</prgn> program is clever enough to determine
where the announcement should go, and will automatically mail the
announcement to the right list.  See <ref id="dupload">.

      <sect id="upload-notification">
        <heading>Notification that a new package has been installed</heading>
        <p>
The Debian archive maintainers are responsible for handling package
uploads.  For the most part, uploads are automatically handled on a
daily basis by archive maintenance tools `dak'
(also referred to as <prgn>katie</prgn> or <prgn>dinstall</prgn>).
Specifically, updates to existing packages to
the `unstable' distribution are handled automatically. In other cases,
notably new packages, placing the uploaded package into the
distribution is handled manually. When uploads are handled manually,
the change to the archive may take up to a month to occur. Please be
patient.
        <p>
In any case, you will receive email notification indicating that the
package has been uploaded.  Please examine this notification
carefully.  You may notice that the package didn't go into the section
you thought you set it to go into.  Read on for why.

        <sect1 id="override-file">The override file
          <p>
The <file>debian/control</file> file's <tt>Section</tt> and
<tt>Priority</tt> fields do not actually specify where the file will
be placed in the archive, nor its priority.  In order to retain the
overall integrity of the archive, it is the archive maintainers who
have control over these fields.  The values in the
<file>debian/control</file> file are actually just hints.
          <p>
The archive maintainers keep track of the canonical sections and
priorities for packages in the <em>override file</em>.  Sometimes the
<em>override file</em> needs correcting.  Simply changing the
package's <file>control</file> file is not going to work.  Instead,
you should email &email-override; or submit a bug against
<package>ftp.debian.org</package>.
          <p>
For more information about <em>override files</em>, see <manref
name="dpkg-scanpackages" section="8">, &file-bts-mailing;, and
&file-bts-info;.



    <chapt id="nmu">Non-Maintainer Uploads (NMUs)
      <p>
Under certain circumstances it is necessary for someone other than the
official package maintainer to make a release of a package.  This is
called a non-maintainer upload, or NMU.
       <p>
Debian porters, who compile packages for different architectures, do
NMUs as part of their normal porting activity (see <ref
id="porting">).  Another reason why NMUs are done is when a Debian
developers needs to fix another developers' packages in order to
address serious security problems or crippling bugs, especially during
the freeze, or when the package maintainer is unable to release a fix
in a timely fashion.
      <p>
This chapter contains information providing guidelines for when and
how NMUs should be done.  A fundamental distinction is made between
source and binary NMUs, which is explained in the next section.

      <sect id="nmu-terms">Terminology
        <p>
There are two new terms used throughout this section: ``binary NMU''
and ``source NMU''.  These terms are used with specific technical
meaning throughout this document.  Both binary and source NMUs are
similar, since they involve an upload of a package by a developer who
is not the official maintainer of that package.  That is why it's a
<em>non-maintainer</em> upload.
        <p>
A source NMU is an upload of a package by a developer who is not the
official maintainer, for the purposes of fixing a bug in the package.
Source NMUs always involves changes to the source (even if it is just
a change to <file>debian/changelog</file>).  This can be either a change
to the upstream source, or a change to the Debian bits of the source.
        <p>
A binary NMU is a recompilation and upload of a binary package for a
new architecture.  As such, it is usually part of a porting effort.  A
binary NMU is a non-maintainer uploaded binary version of a package
(often for another architecture), with no source changes required.
There are many cases where porters must fix problems in the source in
order to get them to compile for their target architecture; that would
be considered a source NMU rather than a binary NMU.  As you can see,
we don't distinguish in terminology between porter NMUs and non-porter
NMUs.
        <p>
Both classes of NMUs, source and binary, can be lumped by the term
``NMU''.  However, this often leads to confusion, since most people
think ``source NMU'' when they think ``NMU''.  So it's best to be
careful.  In this chapter, if I use the unqualified term ``NMU'', I
mean both source and binary NMUs.


      <sect id="nmu-who">Who can do an NMU
        <p>
Only official, registered Debian maintainers can do binary or source
NMUs.  An official maintainer is someone who has their key in the
Debian key ring.  Non-developers, however, are encouraged to download
the source package and start hacking on it to fix problems; however,
rather than doing an NMU, they should just submit worthwhile patches
to the Bug Tracking System.  Maintainers almost always appreciate
quality patches and bug reports.


      <sect id="nmu-when">When to do a source NMU
        <p>
Guidelines for when to do a source NMU depend on the target
distribution, i.e., stable, unstable, or frozen.  Porters have
slightly different rules than non-porters, due to their unique
circumstances (see <ref id="source-nmu-when-porter">).
        <p>
Only critical changes or security bug fixes make it into stable.  When
a security bug is detected, a fixed package should be uploaded as soon
as possible. In this case, the Debian Security Managers should get in
contact with the package maintainer to make sure a fixed package is
uploaded within a reasonable time (less than 48 hours). If the package
maintainer cannot provide a fixed package fast enough or if he/she
cannot be reached in time, the Security Manager may upload a fixed
package (i.e., do a source NMU).
        <p>
During the release freeze (see <ref id="upload-frozen">), NMUs which
fix serious or higher severity bugs are encouraged and accepted.
Even during this window, however, you should endeavor to reach the
current maintainer of the package; they might be just about to upload
a fix for the problem.  As with any source NMU, the guidelines found
in <ref id="nmu-guidelines"> need to be followed.
        <p>
Bug fixes to unstable by non-maintainers are also acceptable, but only
as a last resort or with permission.  Try the following steps first,
and if they don't work, it is probably OK to do an NMU:
        <p>
<list>
            <item>
Make sure that the package bug is in the Debian Bug Tracking System
(BTS).  If not, submit a bug.
            <item>
Email the maintainer, and offer to help fix the package bug.  Give it a 
few days.
            <item>
Go ahead and fix the bug, submitting a patch to the right bug in the
BTS.  Build the package and test it as discussed in <ref
id="upload-checking">.  Use it locally.
            <item>
Wait a couple of weeks for a response.
            <item>
Email the maintainer, asking if it is OK to do an NMU.
            <item>
Double check that your patch doesn't have any unexpected side effects.
Make sure your patch is as small and as non-disruptive as it can be.
            <item>
Wait another week for a response.
            <item>
Go ahead and do the source NMU, as described in <ref
id="nmu-guidelines">.
          </list>



      <sect id="nmu-guidelines">How to do a source NMU
        <p>
The following applies to porters insofar as they are playing the dual
role of being both package bug-fixers and package porters.  If a
porter has to change the Debian source archive, automatically their
upload is a source NMU and is subject to its rules.  If a porter is
simply uploading a recompiled binary package, the rules are different;
see <ref id="porter-guidelines">.
        <p>
First and foremost, it is critical that NMU patches to source should
be as non-disruptive as possible.  Do not do housekeeping tasks, do
not change the name of modules or files, do not move directories; in
general, do not fix things which are not broken.  Keep the patch as
small as possible.  If things bother you aesthetically, talk to the
Debian maintainer, talk to the upstream maintainer, or submit a bug.
However, aesthetic changes must <em>not</em> be made in a non-maintainer
upload.


        <sect1 id="nmu-version">Source NMU version numbering
          <p>
Whenever you have made a change to a package, no matter how trivial,
the version number needs to change.  This enables our packing system
to function.
          <p>
If you are doing a non-maintainer upload (NMU), you should add a new
minor version number to the <var>debian-revision</var> part of the
version number (the portion after the last hyphen).  This extra minor
number will start at `1'.  For example, consider the package `foo',
which is at version 1.1-3.  In the archive, the source package control
file would be <file>foo_1.1-3.dsc</file>.  The upstream version is
`1.1' and the Debian revision is `3'.  The next NMU would add a new
minor number `.1' to the Debian revision; the new source control file
would be <file>foo_1.1-3.1.dsc</file>.
          <p>
The Debian revision minor number is needed to avoid stealing one of
the package maintainer's version numbers, which might disrupt their
work.  It also has the benefit of making it visually clear that a
package in the archive was not made by the official maintainer.
          <p>
If there is no <var>debian-revision</var> component in the version
number then one should be created, starting at `0.1'.  If it is
absolutely necessary for someone other than the usual maintainer to
make a release based on a new upstream version then the person making
the release should start with the <var>debian-revision</var> value
`0.1'.  The usual maintainer of a package should start their
<var>debian-revision</var> numbering at `1'.  Note that if you do
this, you'll have to invoke <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> with the
<tt>-sa</tt> switch to force the build system to pick up the new
source package (normally it only looks for Debian revisions of '0' or
'1' -- it's not yet clever enough to know about `0.1').
          <p>
Remember, porters who are simply recompiling a package for a different
architecture do not need to renumber.  Porters should use new version
numbers if and only if they actually have to modify the source package
in some way, i.e., if they are doing a source NMU and not a binary
NMU.


        <sect1 id="nmu-changelog">
          <heading>Source NMUs must have a new changelog entry</heading>
          <p>
A non-maintainer doing a source NMU must create a changelog entry,
describing which bugs are fixed by the NMU, and generally why the NMU
was required and what it fixed.  The changelog entry will have the
non-maintainer's email address in the log entry and the NMU version
number in it.</p>
          <p>
By convention, source NMU changelog entries start with the line
<example>
  * Non-maintainer upload
</example></p></sect1>


        <sect1 id="nmu-patch">Source NMUs and the Bug Tracking System
          <p>
Maintainers other than the official package maintainer should make as
few changes to the package as possible, and they should always send a
patch as a unified context diff (<tt>diff -u</tt>) detailing their
changes to the Bug Tracking System.
          <p>
What if you are simply recompiling the package?  In this case, the
process is different for porters than it is for non-porters, as
mentioned above.  If you are not a porter and are doing an NMU that
simply requires a recompile (i.e., a new shared library is available
to be linked against, a bug was fixed in
<package>debhelper</package>), there must still be a changelog entry;
therefore, there will be a patch.  If you are a porter, you are
probably just doing a binary NMU.  (Note: this leaves out in the cold
porters who have to do recompiles -- chalk it up as a weakness in how
we maintain our archive.)
          <p>
If the source NMU (non-maintainer upload) fixes some existing bugs,
the bugs in the Bug Tracking System which are fixed need to be
<em>notified</em> but not actually <em>closed</em> by the
non-maintainer.  Technically, only the official package maintainer or
the original bug submitter are allowed to close bugs.  However, the
person making the non-maintainer release must send a short message to
the relevant bugs explaining that the bugs have been fixed by the NMU.
Using <email>control@bugs.debian.org</email>, the party doing the NMU
should also set the severity of the bugs fixed in the NMU to `fixed'.
This ensures that everyone knows that the bug was fixed in an NMU;
however the bug is left open until the changes in the NMU are
incorporated officially into the package by the official package
maintainer.  Also, open a bug with the patches needed to fix the
problem, or make sure that one of the other (already open) bugs has
the patches.
          <p>
The normal maintainer will either apply the patch or employ an
alternate method of fixing the problem.  Sometimes bugs are fixed
independently upstream, which is another good reason to back out an
NMU's patch.  If the maintainer decides not to apply the NMU's patch
but to release a new version, the maintainer needs to ensure that the
new upstream version really fixes each problem that was fixed in the
non-maintainer release.
          <p>
In addition, the normal maintainer should <em>always</em> retain the
entry in the changelog file documenting the non-maintainer upload.


        <sect1 id="nmu-build">Building source NMUs
          <p>
Source NMU packages are built normally.  Pick a distribution using the
same rules as found in <ref id="upload-dist">.  Just as described in
<ref id="uploading">, a normal changes file, etc., will be built.  In
fact, all the prescriptions from <ref id="upload"> apply, including
the need to announce the NMU to the proper lists.
          <p>
Make sure you do <em>not</em> change the value of the maintainer in
the <file>debian/control</file> file.  Your name as given in the NMU entry of
the <file>debian/changelog</file> file will be used for signing the
changes file.




    <chapt id="porting">Porting and Being Ported
      <p>
Debian supports an ever-increasing number of architectures.  Even if
you are not a porter, and you don't use any architecture but one, it
is part of your duty as a maintainer to be aware of issues of
portability.  Therefore, even if you are not a porter, you should read
most of this chapter.
      <p>
Porting is the act of building Debian packages for architectures that
is different from the original architecture of the package
maintainer's binary package.  It is a unique and essential activity.
In fact, porters do most of the actual compiling of Debian packages.
For instance, for a single <em>i386</em> binary package, there must be a
recompile for each architecture, which is amounts to five more builds.


      <sect id="kind-to-porters">Being Kind to Porters
        <p>
Porters have a difficult and unique task, since they are required to
deal with a large volume of packages.  Ideally, every source package
should build right out of the box.  Unfortunately, this is often not
the case.  This section contains a checklist of ``gotchas'' often
committed by Debian maintainers -- common problems which often stymie
porters, and make their jobs unnecessarily more difficult.
        <p>
The first and most important watchword is to respond quickly to bug or
issues raised by porters.  Please treat porters with courtesy, as if
they were in fact co-maintainers of your package (which in a way, they
are).
        <p>
By far, most of the problems encountered by porters are caused by
<em>packaging bugs</em> in the source packages.  Here is a checklist
of things you should check or be aware of.

<enumlist>
            <item>
Don't set architecture to a value other than ``all'' or ``any'' unless
you really mean it.  In too many cases, maintainers don't follow the
instructions in the <url id="&url-debian-policy;;" name="Debian Policy
Manual">.  Setting your architecture to ``i386'' is usually incorrect.
            <item>
Make sure your source package is correct.  Do <tt>dpkg-source -x
<var>package</var>.dsc</tt> to make sure your source package unpacks
properly.  Then, in there, try building your package from scratch with
<tt>dpkg-buildpackage</tt>.
            <item>
Make sure you don't ship your source package with the
<file>debian/files</file> or <file>debian/substvars</file> files.
They should be removed by the `clean' target of
<file>debian/rules</file>.
            <item>
Make sure you don't rely on locally installed or hacked configurations
or programs.  For instance, you should never be calling programs in
<file>/usr/local/bin</file> or the like.  Try not to rely on programs
be setup in a special way.  Try building your package on another
machine, even if it's the same architecture.
            <item>
Don't depend on the package you're building already being installed (a
sub-case of the above issue).
            <item>
Don't rely on <prgn>egcc</prgn> being available; don't rely on
<prgn>gcc</prgn> being a certain version.
            <item>
Make sure your debian/rules contains separate ``binary-arch'' and
``binary-indep'' targets, as the Debian Packaging Manual requires.
Make sure that both targets work independently, that is, that you can
call the target without having called the other before. To test this,
try to run <tt>dpkg-buildpackage -b</tt>.
          </enumlist>


      <sect id="porter-guidelines">Guidelines for Porter Uploads
        <p>
If the package builds out of the box for the architecture to be ported
to, you are in luck and your job is easy.  This section applies to
that case; it describes how to build and upload your binary NMU so
that it is properly installed into the archive.  If you do have to
patch the package in order to get it to compile for the other
architecture, you are actually doing a source NMU, so consult <ref
id="nmu-guidelines"> instead.
        <p>
In a binary NMU, no real changes are being made to the source.  You do
not need to touch any of the files in the source package.  This
includes <file>debian/changelog</file>.
        <p>
Sometimes you need to recompile a package against other packages
which have been updated, such as libraries.  You do have to bump the
version number in this case, so that the upgrade system can function
properly.  Even so, these are considered binary-only NMUs -- there is
no need in this case for all architectures to recompile.  You should
set the version number as in the case of NMU versioning, but add a
``.0.'' before the the NMU version.  For instance, a recompile-only
NMU of the source package ``foo_1.3-1'' would be numbered
``foo_1.3-1.0.1''.
        <p>
The way to invoke <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> is as
<tt>dpkg-buildpackage -B -m<var>porter-email</var></tt>.  Of course,
set <var>porter-email</var> to your email address.  This will do a
binary-only build of only the architecture-dependant portions of the
package, using the `binary-arch' target in <file>debian/rules</file>.


        <sect1 id="source-nmu-when-porter">
          <heading>When to do a source NMU if you are a porter</heading>
          <p>
Porters doing a source NMU generally follow the guidelines found in
<ref id="nmu">, just like non-porters.  However, it is expected that
the wait cycle for a porter's source NMU is smaller than for a
non-porter, since porters have to cope with a large quantity of
packages.
          <p>
Again, the situation varies depending on the distribution they are
uploading to.  Crucial fixes (i.e., changes need to get a source
package to compile for a released-targeted architecture) can be
uploaded with <em>no</em> waiting period for the `frozen' distribution.
          <p>
However, if you are a porter doing an NMU for `unstable', the above
guidelines for porting should be followed, with two variations.
Firstly, the acceptable waiting period -- the time between when the
bug is submitted to the BTS and when it is OK to do an NMU -- is seven
days for porters working on the unstable distribution.  This period
can be shortened if the problem is critical and imposes hardship on
the porting effort, at the discretion of the porter group.  (Remember,
none of this is Policy, just mutually agreed upon guidelines.)
          <p>
Secondly, porters doing source NMUs should make sure that the bug they
submit to the BTS should be of severity `serious' or greater.  This
ensures that a single source package can be used to compile every
supported Debian architecture by release time.  It is very important
that we have one version of the binary and source package for all
architecture in order to comply with many licenses.
          <p>
Porters should try to avoid patches which simply kludge around bugs in
the current version of the compile environment, kernel, or libc.
Sometimes such kludges can't be helped.  If you have to kludge around
compilers bugs and the like, make sure you <tt>#ifdef</tt> your work
properly; also, document your kludge so that people know to remove it
once the external problems have been fixed.
          <p>
Porters may also have an unofficial location where they can put the
results of their work during the waiting period.  This helps others
running the port have the benefit of the porter's work, even during
the waiting period.  Of course, such locations have no official
blessing or status, so buyer, beware.


      <sect>Tools for Porters
        <p>
There are several tools available for the porting effort. This section
contains a brief introduction to these tools; see the package
documentation or references for full information.


        <sect1 id="quinn-diff">
          <heading><package>quinn-diff</package>
          <p>
<package>quinn-diff</package> is used to locate the differences from
one architecture to another.  For instance, it could tell you which
packages need to be ported for architecture <var>Y</var>, based on
architecture <var>X</var>.


        <sect1 id="buildd">
          <heading><package>buildd</package>
          <p>
The <package>buildd</package> system is used as a distributed,
client-server build distribution system.  It is usually used in
conjunction with <em>auto-builders</em>, which are ``slave'' hosts
which simply check out and attempt to auto-build packages which need
to be ported.  There is also an email interface to the system, which
allows porters to ``check out'' a source package (usually one which
cannot yet be autobuilt) and work on it.
          <p>
<package>buildd</package> is not yet available as a package; however,
most porting efforts are either using it currently or planning to use
it in the near future.  It collects a number of as yet unpackaged
components which are currently very useful and in use continually,
such as <prgn>andrea</prgn>, <prgn>sbuild</prgn> and
<prgn>wanna-build</prgn>.
          <p>
Some of the data produced by <package>buildd</package> which is
generally useful to porters is available on the web at <url
id="&url-buildd;">.  This data includes nightly updated information
from <prgn>andrea</prgn> (source dependencies) and
<package>quinn-diff</package> (packages needing recompilation).
          <p>
We are very excited about this system, since it potentially has so
many uses.  Independent development groups can use the system for
different sub-flavors of Debian, which may or may not really be of
general interest (for instance, a flavor of Debian built with gcc
bounds checking).  It will also enable Debian to recompile entire
distributions quickly.


        <sect1 id="dpkg-cross">
          <heading><package>dpkg-cross</package>
          <p>
<package>dpkg-cross</package> is a tool for installing libraries and
headers for cross-compiling in a way similar to
<package>dpkg</package>. Furthermore, the functionality of
<prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> and <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> is
enhanced to support cross-compiling.




    <chapt id="archive-manip">
      <heading>Moving, Removing, Renaming, Adopting, and Orphaning
      Packages</heading>
      <p>
Some archive manipulation operation are not automated in the Debian
upload process.  These procedures should be manually followed by
maintainers.  This chapter gives guidelines in what to do in these
cases.

      <sect>Moving packages
        <p>
Sometimes a package will change its section.  For instance, a
package from the `non-free' section might be GPL'd in a later version,
in which case, the package should be moved to `main' or
`contrib'.<footnote> See the <url id="&url-debian-policy;"
name="Debian Policy Manual"> for guidelines on what section a package
belongs in.
          </footnote>
        <p>
If you need to change the section for one of your packages, change the
package control information to place the package in the desired
section, and re-upload the package (see the <url id="&url-debian-policy;"
name="Debian Policy Manual"> for details).  Carefully examine the
installation log sent to you when the package is installed into the
archive.  If for some reason the old location of the package remains,
file a bug against <tt>ftp.debian.org</tt> asking that the old
location be removed.  Give details on what you did, since it might be
a bug in the archive maintenance software.
        <p>
If, on the other hand, you need to change the <em>subsection</em> of
one of your packages (e.g., ``devel'', ``admin''), the procedure is
slightly different.  Correct the subsection as found in the control
file of the package, and reupload that.  Also, you'll need to get the
override file updated, as described in <ref id="override-file">.


      <sect id="removing-pkgs">Removing packages
        <p>
If for some reason you want to completely remove a package (say, if it
is an old compatibility library which is not longer required), you
need to file a bug against <tt>ftp.debian.org</tt> asking that the
package be removed.  Make sure you indicate which distribution the
package should be removed from.
        <p>
If in doubt concerning whether a package is disposable, email
&email-debian-devel; asking for opinions.  Also of interest is the
<prgn>apt-cache</prgn> program from the <package>apt</package>
package.  When invoked as <tt>apt-cache showpkg
<var>package</var></tt>, the program will show details for
<var>package</var>, including reverse depends.

        <sect1>Removing packages from <tt>Incoming</tt>
          <p>
If you decide to remove a package from <tt>Incoming</tt>, it is nice
but not required to send a notification of that to the appropriate
announce list (either &email-debian-changes; or
&email-debian-devel-changes;).

      <sect>Replacing or renaming packages
        <p>
Sometimes you made a mistake naming the package and you need to rename
it.  In this case, you need to follow a two-step process.  First, set
your <file>debian/control</file> file to replace and conflict with the
obsolete name of the package (see the <url id="&url-debian-policy;"
name="Debian Policy Manual"> for details).  Once you've uploaded
that package, and the package has moved into the archive, file a bug
against <tt>ftp.debian.org</tt> asking to remove the package with the
obsolete name.

      <sect id="orphaning">Orphaning a package
        <p>
If you can no longer maintain a package, you need to inform the others
about that, and see that the package is marked as orphaned.
you should set the package maintainer to <tt>Debian QA Group
&lt;debian-qa@lists.debian.org&gt;</tt> and submit a bug report
against the pseudo package <tt>wnpp</tt>.  The bug report should be
titled <tt>O: <var>package</var> -- <var>short description</var></tt>
indicating that the package is now orphaned.  The severity of the bug
should be set to <em>normal</em>.  If the package is especially
crucial to Debian, you should instead submit a bug against
<tt>wnpp</tt> and title it <tt>RFA: <var>package</var> -- <var>short
description</var></tt> and set its severity to <em>important</em>. You
should also email &email-debian-devel; asking for a new maintainer.
        <p>
Read instructions on the <url id="&url-wnpp;" name="WNPP web pages">
for more information.

      <sect id="adopting">Adopting a package
        <p>
A list of packages in need of a new maintainer is available at in the
<url name="Work-Needing and Prospective Packages list (WNPP)"
id="&url-wnpp;">. If you wish to take over maintenance of any of the
packages listed in the WNPP, please take a look at the aforementioned
page for information and procedures.
        <p>
It is not OK to simply take over a package that you feel is neglected
-- that would be package hijacking.  You can, of course, contact the
current maintainer and ask them if you may take over the package.
However, without their assent, you may not take over the package.
Even if they ignore you, that is still not grounds to take over a
package.  If you really feel that a maintainer has gone AWOL (absent
without leave), post a query to &email-debian-private;.
        <p>
If you take over an old package, you probably want to be listed as the
package's official maintainer in the bug system. This will happen
automatically once you upload a new version with an updated
<tt>Maintainer:</tt> field, although it can take a few hours after the
upload is done. If you do not expect to upload a new version for a while,
send an email to &email-override; so that bug reports will go to you
right away.




    <chapt id="bug-handling">Handling Bugs

      <sect>Monitoring bugs
        <p>
If you want to be a good maintainer, you should periodically check the
<url id="&url-bts;" name="Debian bug tracking system (BTS)"> for your
packages.  The BTS contains all the open bugs against your packages.
        <p>
Maintainers interact with the BTS via email addresses at
<tt>bugs.debian.org</tt>.  Documentation on available commands can be
found at <url id="&url-bts;">, or, if you have installed the
<package>doc-debian</package> package, you can look at the local files
<file>/usr/doc/debian/bug-*</file>.
        <p>
Some find it useful to get periodic reports on open bugs.  You can add
a cron job such as the following if you want to get a weekly email
outlining all the open bugs against your packages:
<example>
# ask for weekly reports of bugs in my packages
0 17 * * fri   echo "index maint <var>maintainer-address</var>" | mail request@bugs.debian.org
</example>
Replace <var>maintainer-address</var> with you official Debian
maintainer address.

      <sect id="submit-bug">Submitting Bugs
        <p>
Often as a package maintainer, you find bugs in other packages or else
have bugs reported to your packages which need to be reassigned.  The
<url id="&url-bts-control;" name="BTS instructions"> can tell you how
to do this.
        <p>
We encourage you to file bugs when there are problems.  Try to submit
the bug from a normal user account at which you are likely to receive
mail.  Do not submit bugs as root.
        <p>
Make sure the bug is not already filed against a package.  Try to do a
good job reporting a bug and redirecting it to the proper location.
For extra credit, you can go through other packages, merging bugs
which are reported more than once, or setting bug severities to
`fixed' when they have already been fixed.  Note that when you are
neither the bug submitter nor the package maintainer, you should
not actually close the bug (unless you secure permission from the
maintainer).

      <sect>Responding to Bugs
        <p>
Make sure that any discussions you have about bugs are sent both to
the original submitter of the bug, and the bug itself (e.g.,
<email>123@bugs.debian.org</email>).
        <p>
You should <em>never</em> close bugs via the bug server `close'
command sent to &email-bts-control;.  If you do so, the original
submitter will not receive any feedback on why the bug was closed.

      <sect id="upload-bugfix">When bugs are closed by new uploads
        <p>
If you fix a bug in your packages, it is your responsibility as the
package maintainer to close the bug when it has been fixed.  However,
you should not close the bug until the package which fixes the bug has
been accepted into the Debian archive.  Therefore, once you get
notification that your updated package has been installed into the
archive, you can and should close the bug in the BTS.
        <p>
If you are using a new version of <package>dpkg-dev</package> and you do
your changelog entry properly, the archive maintenance software will close
the bugs automatically.  All you have to do is follow a certain syntax in
your <file>debian/changelog</file> file:
<example>
acme-cannon (3.1415) unstable; urgency=low

  * Frobbed with options (closes: Bug#98339)
  * Added safety to prevent operator dismemberment, closes: bug#98765,
    bug#98713, #98714.
  * Added manpage. Closes: #98725.
</example>

Technically speaking, the following Perl regular expression is what is
used:
<example>
  /closes:\s*(?:bug)?\#\s*\d+(?:,\s*(?:bug)?\#\s*\d+)*/ig
</example>

The author prefers the <tt>(closes: Bug#<var>XXX</var>)</tt> syntax,
since it stands out from the rest of the changelog entries.
        <p>
If you want to close bugs the old fashioned, manual way, it is usually
sufficient to mail the <tt>.changes</tt> file to
<email>XXX-done@bugs.debian.org</email>, where <var>XXX</var> is your
bug number.


      <sect id="lintian-reports">Lintian reports
        <p>
You should periodically get the new <package>lintian</package> from
`unstable' and check over all your packages.  Alternatively you can
check for your maintainer email address at the <url id="&url-lintian;"
name="online lintian report">.  That report, which is updated
automatically, contains <prgn>lintian</prgn> reports against the
latest version of the distribution (usually from 'unstable') using the
latest <package>lintian</package>.


      <sect>Reporting lots of bugs at once
        <p>
Reporting a great number of bugs for the same problem on a great
number of different packages -- i.e., more than 10 -- is a deprecated
practice.  Take all possible steps to avoid submitting bulk bugs at
all.  For instance, if checking for the problem can be automated, add
a new check to <package>lintian</package> so that an error or warning
is emitted.
        <p>
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
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.
        <p>
Note that when sending lots of bugs on the same subject, you should
send the bug report to <email>maintonly@bugs.debian.org</email> so
that the bug report is not forwarded to the bug distribution mailing
list.


    <chapt id="tools">Overview of Debian Maintainer Tools
      <p>
This section contains a rough overview of the tools available to
maintainers.  These tools are meant to help convenience developers and 
free their time for critical tasks.  
      <p>
Some people prefer to use high-level package maintenance tools and
some do not.  Debian is officially agnostic on this issue; any tool
which gets the job done is fine.  Therefore, this section is not meant
to stipulate to anyone which tools they should use or how they should
go about with their duties of maintainership.  Nor is it meant to
endorse any particular tool to the exclusion of a competing tool.
      <p>
Most of the descriptions of these packages come from the actual
package descriptions themselves.  Further information can be found in
the package documentation itself.


      <sect id="dpkg-dev">
        <heading><package>dpkg-dev</package>
        <p>
<package>dpkg-dev</package> contains the tools (including
<prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>) required to unpack, build and upload Debian
source packages.  These utilities contain the fundamental, low-level
functionality required to create and manipulated packages; as such,
they are required for any Debian maintainer.


      <sect id="lintian">
        <heading><package>lintian</package>
        <p>
<package>Lintian</package> dissects Debian packages and reports bugs
and policy violations. It contains automated checks for many aspects
of Debian policy as well as some checks for common errors.  The use of
<package>lintian</package> has already been discussed in <ref
id="upload-checking"> and <ref id="lintian-reports">.


      <sect id="debconf">
        <heading><package>debconf</package></heading>
        <p>
<package>debconf</package> provides a consistent interface to
configuring packages interactively.  It is user interface
intedependant, allowing end-users to configure packages with a
text-only interface, an HTML interface, or a dialog interface.  New
interfaces can be added modularly.
        <p>
Many feel that this system should be used for all packages requiring
interactive configuration.  <package>debconf</package> is not
currently required by Debian Policy, however, that may change in the
future.


      <sect id="debhelper">
        <heading><package>debhelper</package>
        <p>
<package>debhelper</package> is a collection of programs that can be
used in <file>debian/rules</file> to automate common tasks related to
building binary Debian packages. Programs are included to install
various files into your package, compress files, fix file permissions,
integrate your package with the Debian menu system.
        <p>
Unlike <package>debmake</package>, <package>debhelper</package> is
broken into several small, granular commands which act in a consistent
manner.  As such, it allows a greater granularity of control than
<package>debmake</package>.


      <sect id="debmake">
        <heading><package>debmake</package>
        <p>
<package>debmake</package>, a pre-cursor to
<package>debhelper</package>, is a less granular
<file>debian/rules</file> assistant. It includes two main programs:
<prgn>deb-make</prgn>, which can be used to help a maintainer convert
a regular (non-Debian) source archive into a Debian source package;
and <prgn>debstd</prgn>, which incorporates in one big shot the same
sort of automated functions that one finds in
<package>debhelper</package>.
        <p>
The consensus is that <package>debmake</package> is now deprecated in
favor of <package>debhelper</package>.  However, it's not a bug to use
<package>debmake</package>.

      <sect id="yada">
        <heading><package>yada</package>
        <p>
<package>yada</package> is a new packaging helper tool with a slightly
different philosophy.  It uses a <file>debian/packages</file> file to
auto-generate other necessary files in the <file>debian/</file>
subdirectory.
        <p>
Note that <package>yada</package> is still quite new and possibly not
yet as robust as other systems.


      <sect id="equivs">
        <heading><package>equivs</package>
        <p>
<package>equivs</package> is another package for making packages.  It
is often suggested for local use if you need to make a package simply
to fulfill dependencies.  It is also sometimes used when making
``meta-packages'', which are packages whose only purpose is to depend
on other packages.


      <sect id="cvs-buildpackage">
        <heading><package>cvs-buildpackage</package>
        <p>
<package>cvs-buildpackage</package> provides the capability to inject
or import Debian source packages into a CVS repository, build a Debian
package from the CVS repository, and helps in integrating upstream
changes into the repository.
        <p>
These utilities provide an infrastructure to facilitate the use of CVS
by Debian maintainers. This allows one to keep separate CVS branches
of a package for <em>stable</em>, <em>unstable</em>, and possibly
<em>experimental</em> distributions, along with the other benefits of
a version control system.


      <sect id="dupload">
        <heading><package>dupload</package>
        <p>
<package>dupload</package> is a package and a script to automagically
upload Debian packages to the Debian archive, to log the upload, and
to send mail about the upload of a package.  You can configure it for
new upload locations or methods.


      <sect id="fakeroot">
        <heading><package>fakeroot</package>
        <p>
<package>fakeroot</package> simulates root privileges.  This enables
you to build packages without being root (packages usually want to
install files with root ownership).  If you have
<package>fakeroot</package> installed, you can say, i.e.,
<tt>dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot</tt> as a user.


      <sect id="devscripts">
        <heading><package>devscripts</package>
        <p>
<package>devscripts</package> is a package containing a few wrappers
and tools which you may find helpful for maintaining your Debian
packages.  Example scripts include <prgn>debchange</prgn>, which will
manipulate your <file>debian/changelog</file> file from the
command-line, and <prgn>debuild</prgn>, which is a wrapper around
<prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn>.


      <sect id="debget">
        <heading><package>debget</package>
        <p>
<package>debget</package> is a package containing a convenient script
which can be helpful in downloading files from the Debian archive.
You can use it to download source packages, for instance.



  </book>
</debiandoc>

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