</para>
<para>
The short description should be kept short (50 characters or so) so that it may
-be accomodated by most debconf interfaces. Keeping it short also helps
+be accommodated by most debconf interfaces. Keeping it short also helps
translators, as usually translations tend to end up being longer than the
original.
</para>
The short description should be phrased in the form of a question which should
be kept short and should generally end with a question mark. Terse writing
style is permitted and even encouraged if the question is rather long (remember
-that translations are often longer than original versions)
+that translations are often longer than original versions).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
If the default value may vary depending on language/country (for instance the
default value for a language choice), consider using the special _Default
type documented in <citerefentry> <refentrytitle>po-debconf</refentrytitle>
-<manvolnum>7</manvolnum> </citerefentry>).
+<manvolnum>7</manvolnum> </citerefentry>.
</para>
</section>
<command>apt-cache search .|grep dummy</command> or
<command>apt-cache search .|grep transitional</command>.
</para>
+<para>
+Also, it is recommended to adjust its section to
+<literal>oldlibs</literal>
+and its priority to
+<literal>extra</literal>
+in order to ease <command>deborphan</command>'s job.
+</para>
</section>
<section id="bpp-origtargz">
-<title>Best practices for <filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,lzma}</filename> files</title>
+<title>Best practices for <filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,xz}</filename> files</title>
<para>
There are two kinds of original source tarballs: Pristine source and repackaged
upstream source.
<title>Pristine source</title>
<para>
The defining characteristic of a pristine source tarball is that the
-<filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,lzma}</filename> file is byte-for-byte identical to a tarball officially
+<filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,xz}</filename> file is byte-for-byte identical to a tarball officially
distributed by the upstream author.<footnote><para> We cannot prevent
upstream authors from changing the tarball they distribute without also
incrementing the version number, so there can be no guarantee that a pristine
If a difference arises later (say, if upstream notices that he wasn't using
maximal compression in his original distribution and then
re-<command>gzip</command>s it), that's just too bad. Since there is no good
-way to upload a new <filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,lzma}</filename> for the same version, there is not even any
+way to upload a new <filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,xz}</filename> for the same version, there is not even any
point in treating this situation as a bug. </para> </footnote> This makes it
possible to use checksums to easily verify that all changes between Debian's
version and upstream's are contained in the Debian diff. Also, if the original
that you must remove before uploading.
</para>
<para>
-In these cases the developer must construct a suitable <filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,lzma}</filename>
+In these cases the developer must construct a suitable <filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,xz}</filename>
file himself. We refer to such a tarball as a repackaged upstream
source. Note that a repackaged upstream source is different from a
Debian-native package. A repackaged source still comes with Debian-specific
-changes in a separate <filename>.diff.gz</filename> or <filename>.debian.tar.{gz,bz2,lzma}</filename>
+changes in a separate <filename>.diff.gz</filename> or <filename>.debian.tar.{gz,bz2,xz}</filename>
and still has a version number composed of <replaceable>upstream-version</replaceable> and
<replaceable>debian-version</replaceable>.
</para>
<para>
There may be cases where it is desirable to repackage the source even though
-upstream distributes a <filename>.tar.{gz,bz2,lzma}</filename> that could in principle be
+upstream distributes a <filename>.tar.{gz,bz2,xz}</filename> that could in principle be
used in its pristine form. The most obvious is if
<emphasis>significant</emphasis> space savings can be achieved by recompressing
the tar archive or by removing genuinely useless cruft from the upstream
if you repackage source that could have been pristine.
</para>
<para>
-A repackaged <filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,lzma}</filename>
+A repackaged <filename>.orig.tar.{gz,bz2,xz}</filename>
</para>
<orderedlist numeration="arabic">
<listitem>
Depends: libfoo (= ${binary:Version})
</screen>
</section>
+<section id="bpp-meta">
+<title>Best practices for meta-packages</title>
+<para>
+A meta-package is a mostly empty package that makes it easy to install a
+coherent set of packages that can evolve over time. It achieves this by
+depending on all the packages of the set. Thanks to the power of APT, the
+meta-package maintainer can adjust the dependencies and the user's system
+will automatically get the supplementary packages. The dropped packages
+that were automatically installed will be also be marked as removal
+candidates (and are even automatically removed by <command>aptitude</command>).
+<systemitem role="package">gnome</systemitem> and
+<systemitem role="package">linux-image-amd64</systemitem> are two examples
+of meta-packages (built by the source packages
+<systemitem role="package">meta-gnome2</systemitem> and
+<systemitem role="package">linux-latest</systemitem>).
+</para>
+<para>
+The long description of the meta-package must clearly document its purpose
+so that the user knows what he will lose if he removes the package. Being
+explicit about the consequences is recommended. This is particularly
+important for meta-packages which are installed during initial
+installation and that have not been explicitly installed by the user.
+Those tend to be important to ensure smooth system upgrades and
+the user should be discouraged from uninstalling them to avoid
+potential breakages.
+</para>
+</section>
</section>
~ianmdlvl / developers-reference.git / blobdiff