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<debiandoc>
preparations you have to do before you can register to become a Debian
developer.
-For example, before you apply, you have to to read the <url
+For example, before you apply, you have 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
to verify your application (an <em>advocate</em>). After you have
contributed to Debian for a while, and you want to apply to become a
registered developer, an existing developer with whom you
-have worked over the past months has to express his belief that you
+have worked over the past months has to express their belief that you
can contribute to Debian successfully.
<p>
When you have found an advocate, have your GnuPG key signed and have
<p>
A big part of your job as Debian maintainer will be to stay in contact
with the upstream developers. Debian users will sometimes report bugs
-to the Bug Tracking System that are not specific to Debian. You
-must forward these bug reports to the upstream developers so that
-they can be fixed in a future release. It's not your job to fix
-non-Debian specific bugs. However, if you are able to do so, you are
-encouraged to contribute to upstream development of the package by
-providing a fix for the bug. Debian users and developers will often
-submit patches to fix upstream bugs, and you should evaluate and
-forward these patches upstream.
+that are not specific to Debian to our bug tracking system. You
+have to forward these bug reports to the upstream developers so that
+they can be fixed in a future upstream release.
+ <p>
+While it's not your job to fix non-Debian specific bugs, you may freely
+do so if you're able. When you make such fixes, be sure to pass them on
+to the upstream maintainers as well. Debian users and developers will
+sometimes submit patches to fix upstream bugs -- you should evaluate
+and forward these patches upstream.
<p>
If you need to modify the upstream sources in order to build a policy
compliant package, then you should propose a nice fix to the upstream
<sect id="mailing-lists">Mailing lists
<p>
-The mailing list server is at <tt>&lists-host;</tt>.
+Much of the conversation between Debian developers (and users) is managed
+through a wide array of mailing lists we host at
+<tt><url id="http://&lists-host;/" name="&lists-host;"></tt>.
+To find out more on how to subscribe or unsubscribe, how to post and how not
+to post, where to find old posts and how to search them, how to contact the
+list maintainers and see various other information about the mailing lists,
+please read <url id="&url-debian-lists;">. This section will only cover
+aspects of mailing lists that are of particular interest to developers.
+
+ <sect1 id="mailing-lists-rules">Basic rules for use
+ <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>
+Cross-posting (sending the same message to multiple lists) is discouraged.
+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;">.
+Please read the <url name="code of conduct" id="&url-debian-lists;#codeofconduct">
+for more information.
<sect1 id="core-devel-mailing-lists">Core development mailing lists
<p>
</item>
</list>
<p>
-There are
-other mailing lists available for a variety of special topics; see
-<url id="&url-debian-lists-subscribe;"> for a list.
-
- <sect1 id="mailing-lists-subunsub">Subscribing and unsubscribing
- <p>
-To subscribe to or unsubscribe from any of the Debian mailing lists, email
-<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.
- <p>
-If you prefer to use a web page to subscribe to multiple mailing lists,
-there's one at <url id="&url-debian-lists-subscribe;">.
- <p>
-You can download the current list of mailing lists and basic usage
-instructions from <url id="&url-debian-lists-txt;">
-or install the <package>doc-debian</package> package and have it
-locally in &file-mail-lists;.
-
- <sect1 id="mailing-lists-rules">Basic rules for use
- <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>
-Cross-posting (sending the same message to multiple lists) is discouraged.
-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>
-Please read the <url name="code of conduct" id="&url-debian-lists;">
-for more information.
+There are other mailing lists available for a variety of special topics;
+see <url id="http://&lists-host;/"> for a list.
<sect1 id="mailing-lists-special">Special lists
<p>
about licenses, bugs, etc. or discussing the project with others where it
might be useful to have the discussion archived somewhere.
+ <sect1 id="mailing-lists-new">Requesting new development-related lists
+ <p>
+Before requesting a mailing list that relates to the development of a
+package (or a small group of related packages), please consider if using
+an alias (via a .forward-aliasname file on master.debian.org, which
+translates into a reasonably nice <var>you-aliasname@debian.org</var>
+address) or a self-managed mailing list on <qref id="alioth">Alioth</qref>
+is more appropriate.
+ <p>
+If you decide that a regular mailing list on lists.debian.org is really what
+you want, go ahead and fill in a request, following <url name="the HOWTO"
+id="&url-debian-lists-new;">.
<sect id="irc-channels">IRC channels
<p>
<p>
The &debian-formal; distribution consists of a lot of packages
(<file>.deb</file>'s, currently around &number-of-pkgs;) and a few
-additional files (such documentation and installation disk images).
+additional files (such as documentation and installation disk images).
<p>
Here is an example directory tree of a complete Debian archive:
<p>
(<file>source</file>) and a directory for each supported architecture
(<file>binary-i386</file>, <file>binary-m68k</file>, etc.).
<p>
-The <file>main</file> area contains additional directories which holds
+The <file>main</file> area contains additional directories which hold
the disk images and some essential pieces of documentation required
for installing the Debian distribution on a specific architecture
(<file>disks-i386</file>, <file>disks-m68k</file>, etc.).
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
+also have ports underway to non-Linux kernels. 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>,
<em>arm</em>, <em>ia64</em>, <em>hppa</em>, <em>s390</em>, <em>mips</em>,
support of five new architectures: <em>ia64</em>, <em>hppa</em>,
<em>s390</em>, <em>mips</em> and <em>mipsel</em>.
<p>
-Information for developers or uses about the specific ports are
+Information for developers and users about the specific ports are
available at the <url id="&url-debian-ports;" name="Debian Ports web
pages">.
the package (maintainer, version, etc.).
- <sect1>Distribution directories
+ <sect1>Distributions
<p>
The directory system described in the previous chapter is itself
contained within <em>distribution directories</em>. Each
to make sure everything in this distribution is working properly, it is
sometimes literally unstable.
<p>
-<ref id="testing"> is generated automatically by taking
+<qref id="testing">"testing"</qref> is generated automatically by taking
packages from unstable if they satisfy certain criteria. Those
criteria should ensure a good quality for packages within testing.
The update to testing is launched each day after the
-new packages have been installed.
+new packages have been installed. See <ref id="testing">.
<p>
After a period of development, once the release manager deems fit, the
<em>testing</em> distribution is frozen, meaning that the policies
freeze period, since the <em>unstable</em> distribution remains in
place in parallel with <em>testing</em>.
+ <sect2 id="testing">
+ <heading>More information about the testing distribution</heading>
+ <p>
+The scripts that update the <em>testing</em> distribution are run each
+day after the installation of the updated packages. They generate the
+<file>Packages</file> files for the <em>testing</em> distribution, but
+they do so in an intelligent manner trying to avoid any inconsistency
+and trying to use only non-buggy packages.
+ <p>
+The inclusion of a package from <em>unstable</em> is conditional on
+the following:
+<list>
+ <item>
+The package must have been available in <em>unstable</em> for several days;
+the precise number depends on the upload's urgency field. It
+is 10 days for low urgency, 5 days for medium urgency and 2 days for high
+urgency. Those delays may be doubled during a freeze;
+ <item>
+It must have less release-critical bugs than the version available
+in <em>testing</em>;
+ <item>
+It must be available on all architectures on which it has been
+previously built. <ref id="madison"> may be of interest to
+check that information;
+ <item>
+It must not break any dependency of a package that is already available
+in <em>testing</em>;
+ <item>
+The packages on which it depends must either be available in <em>testing</em>
+or they must be accepted into <em>testing</em> at the same time (and they will
+if they respect all the necessary criteria);
+</list>
+ <p>
+To find out whether a package is progressing into testing or not, see the
+testing script output on the <url name="web page of the testing distribution"
+id="&url-testing-maint;">, or use the program <prgn>grep-excuses</prgn>
+which is in the <package>devscripts</package> package. This utility can
+easily be used in a <manref name="crontab" section="5"> to keep one
+informed of the progression of their packages into <em>testing</em>.
+ <p>
+The <file>update_excuses</file> file does not always give the precise reason
+why the package is refused, one may have to find it on their own by looking
+for what would break with the inclusion of the package. The
+<url id="&url-testing-maint;" name="testing web page"> gives some more
+information about the usual problems which may be causing such troubles.
+ <p>
+Sometimes, some packages never enter <em>testing</em> because the set of
+inter-relationship is too complicated and cannot be sorted out
+by the scripts. In that case, the release manager must be
+contacted, and he will force the inclusion of the packages.
+ <p>
+In general, please refer to the <url name="testing web page"
+id="&url-testing-maint;"> for more information. It also includes
+answers to some of the frequently asked questions.
+
+
<sect2 id="experimental">Experimental
<p>
The <em>experimental</em> distribution is a special distribution.
Whenever there is a new upstream version of a package that introduces new
features but breaks a lot of old ones, it should either not be uploaded, or
be uploaded to <em>experimental</em>. A new, beta, version of some software
-which uses completely different configuration can go into
+which uses a completely different configuration can go into
<em>experimental</em>, at the maintainer's discretion. 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
<p>
The various download archives and the web site have several mirrors
available in order to relieve our canonical servers from heavy load.
-In fact, some of the canonical servers aren't public, and instead a
-first tier of mirrors balances the load. That way, users always access
+In fact, some of the canonical servers aren't public — a first tier
+of mirrors balances the load instead. That way, users always access
the mirrors and get used to using them, which allows Debian to better
spread its bandwidth requirements over several servers and networks,
and basically makes users avoid hammering on one primary location.
<sect id="incoming-system">
<heading>The Incoming system
<p>
-The Incoming system is responsible of collecting updated packages and
+The Incoming system is responsible for collecting updated packages and
installing them in the Debian archive. It consists of a set of
directories and scripts that are installed both on <tt>&ftp-master-host;</tt>
and <tt>&non-us-host;</tt>.
<p>
Packages are uploaded by all the maintainers into a directory called
<file>unchecked</file>. This directory is scanned every 15 minutes by
-the <prgn>katie</prgn> script, which verifies the integrity of the uploaded packages and the cryptographic
-signatures. If the package is considered ready to be installed, it
+the <prgn>katie</prgn> script, which verifies the integrity of the uploaded
+packages and their cryptographic signatures.
+If the package is considered ready to be installed, it
is moved into the <file>accepted</file> directory. If this is the first upload of
the package, it is moved in the <file>new</file> directory, where it waits
for an approval of the ftpmasters. If the package contains files to be installed
<example>DELAY=5 dupload --to delayed <changes-file></example>
- <sect id="testing">
- <heading>The "testing" distribution</heading>
- <p>
-The scripts that update the <em>testing</em> distribution are run each day
-after the installation of the
-updated packages. They generate the <file>Packages</file> files for
-the <em>testing</em> distribution, but they do so in an intelligent manner
-trying to avoid any inconsistency and trying to use only
-non-buggy packages.
- <p>The inclusion of a package from <em>unstable</em> is conditional on the following:
-<list>
- <item>
-The package must have been available in <em>unstable</em> for several days;
-the precise number depends on the upload's urgency field. It
-is 10 days for low urgency, 5 days for medium urgency and 2 days for high
-urgency. Those delays may be doubled during a freeze;
- <item>
-It must have less release-critical bugs than the version available
-in <em>testing</em>;
- <item>
-It must be available on all architectures on which it has been
-previously built. <ref id="madison"> may be of interest to
-check that information;
- <item>
-It must not break any dependency of a package that is already available
-in <em>testing</em>;
- <item>
-The packages on which it depends must either be available in <em>testing</em>
-or they must be accepted into <em>testing</em> at the same time (and they will
-if they respect themselves all the criteria);
-</list>
- <p>
-To find out whether a package is progressing into testing or not, see the
-testing script output on the <url name="web page of the testing distribution"
-id="&url-testing-maint;">, or use the program <prgn>grep-excuses</prgn>
-which is in the <package>devscripts</package> package. This utility can
-easily be used in a <manref name="crontab" section="5"> to keep one
-informed of the progression of their packages into <em>testing</em>.
- <p>
-The <file>update_excuses</file> file does not always give the precise reason
-why the package is refused, one may have to find it on their own by looking
-what would break with the inclusion of the package. The <url
-id="&url-testing-maint;" name="testing web page"> gives some more information
-about the usual problems which may be causing such troubles.
- <p>
-Sometimes, some packages never enter <em>testing</em> because the set of
-inter-relationship is too complicated and can not be sorted out
-by the scripts. In that case, the release manager must be
-contacted, and he will force the inclusion of the packages.
- <p>
-In general, please refer to the <url name="testing web page"
-id="&url-testing-maint;"> for more information. It also includes
-answers to some of the frequently asked questions.
-
<sect id="pkg-info">Package information
<p>
which provides information, including the package description,
the dependencies and package download links.
<p>
-The bug tracking system track bugs for each package. You can
-view the bugs of a given package at the URL
+The bug tracking system tracks bugs for each package.
+You can view the bugs of a given package at the URL
<tt>http://&bugs-host;/<var>package-name</var></tt>.
<sect1 id="madison">The <prgn>madison</prgn> utility
<sect id="pkg-tracking-system">The Package Tracking System
<p>
-The Package Tracking System (PTS) is basically a tool to track by mail
-the activity of a source package. You just have to subscribe
-to a source package to start getting the mails related to it.
-You get the same mails as the maintainer. Each mail
-sent through the PTS is classified and associated to one of
-the keyword listed below. This will let you select the mails that
+The Package Tracking System (PTS) is an email-based tool to track
+the activity of a source package. This really means that you can
+get the same emails that the package maintainer gets, simply by
+subscribing to the package in the PTS.
+ <p>
+Each email sent through the PTS is classified under one of
+the keywords listed below. This will let you select the mails that
you want to receive.
<p>
By default you will get:
<tag><tt>bts-control</tt>
<item>
-The control mails notifying a status change in one of the bugs.
+The email notifications from <email>control@bugs.debian.org</email>
+about bug report status changes.
<tag><tt>upload-source</tt>
<item>
-The
confirmation mail from <prgn>katie</prgn> when an uploaded source
+The
email notification from <prgn>katie</prgn> when an uploaded source
package is accepted.
<tag><tt>katie-other</tt>
<item>
-Other warning and error mails from <prgn>katie</prgn> (like the
-override disparity for the section or priority field).
+Other warning and error emails from <prgn>katie</prgn> (such as an
+override disparity for the section and/or the priority field).
<tag><tt>default</tt>
<item>
-Any non-automatic mail sent to the PTS by people who wanted to
+Any non-automatic email sent to the PTS by people who wanted to
contact the subscribers of the package. This can be done by sending mail
-to <tt><var>srcpackage</var>@&pts-host;</tt>. In order to prevent spam,
-mails sent to these addresses must contain the header "X-PTS-Approved"
-with a non-empty string.
-
+to <tt><var>sourcepackage</var>@&pts-host;</tt>. In order to prevent spam,
+all messages sent to these addresses must contain the <tt>X-PTS-Approved</tt>
+header with a non-empty value.
<tag><tt>summary</tt>
<item>
-In the future, you may receive regular summary mails to keep you
-informed of the package's status (bug statistics, porting overview,
-progression in <em>testing</em>, ...).
+(This is a planned expansion.)
+The regular summary emails about the package's status (bug statistics,
+porting overview, progression in <em>testing</em>, ...).
</taglist>
+
<p>
-You can also decide to receive some more information:
+You can also decide to receive additional information:
<taglist>
<tag><tt>upload-binary</tt>
<item>
-The confirmation mail from <prgn>katie</prgn> when an uploaded binary
-package is accepted (to check that your package is recompiled for all
-architectures).
+The email notification from <prgn>katie</prgn> when an uploaded binary
+package is accepted. In other words, whenever a build daemon or a porter
+uploads your package for another architecture, you can get an email to
+track how your package gets recompiled for all architectures.
<tag><tt>cvs</tt>
<item>
-CVS commits if the maintainer has setup a system to forward commit
-notification to the PTS.
+CVS commit notifications, if the package has a CVS repository and the
+maintainer has set up forwarding commit notifications to the PTS.
<tag><tt>ddtp</tt>
<item>
<taglist>
-<tag><tt>subscribe <srcpackage> [<email>]</tt>
+<tag><tt>subscribe <sourcepackage> [<email>]</tt>
<item>
Subscribes <var>email</var> to communications related to the source package
- <var>srcpackage</var>. Sender address is used if the second argument is
- not present. If <var>srcpackage</var> is not a valid source package,
+ <var>sourcepackage</var>. Sender address is used if the second argument is
+ not present. If <var>sourcepackage</var> is not a valid source package,
you'll get a warning. However if it's a valid binary package, the PTS
will subscribe you to the corresponding source package.
-<tag><tt>unsubscribe <srcpackage> [<email>]</tt>
+<tag><tt>unsubscribe <sourcepackage> [<email>]</tt>
<item>
- Removes a previous subscription to the source package <var>srcpackage</var>
+ Removes a previous subscription to the source package <var>sourcepackage</var>
using the specified email address or the sender address if the second
argument is left out.
<tag><tt>keyword [<email>]</tt>
<item>
- Tells you the keywords that you are accepting. Each mail sent through
- the Package Tracking System is associated to a keyword and you receive
- only the mails associated to keywords that you are accepting. Here is
- the list of available keywords:
+ Tells you the keywords that you are accepting.
+ For an explanation of keywords, <qref id="pkg-tracking-system">see
+ above</qref>. Here's a quick summary:
<list>
<item><tt>bts</tt>: mails coming from the Debian Bug Tracking System
<item><tt>bts-control</tt>: reply to mails sent to &email-bts-control;
<item><tt>default</tt>: all the other mails (those which aren't "automatic")
</list>
-<tag><tt>keyword <srcpackage> [<email>]</tt>
+<tag><tt>keyword <sourcepackage> [<email>]</tt>
<item>
- Same as previous item but for the given source package since
+ Same as the previous item but for the given source package, since
you may select a different set of keywords for each source package.
<tag><tt>keyword [<email>] {+|-|=} <list of keywords></tt>
<item>
- Accept (+) or refuse (-) mails associated to the given keyword(s).
+ Accept (+) or refuse (-) mails classified under the given keyword(s).
Define the list (=) of accepted keywords.
-<tag><tt>keyword <srcpackage> [<email>] {+|-|=} <list of keywords></tt>
+<tag><tt>keyword <sourcepackage> [<email>] {+|-|=} <list of keywords></tt>
<item>
Same as previous item but overrides the keywords list for the
indicated source package.
<sect1 id="pts-mail-filtering">Filtering PTS mails
<p>
Once you are subscribed to a package, you will get the mails sent to
-<tt><var>srcpackage</var>@packages.qa.debian.org</tt>. Those mails
+<tt><var>sourcepackage</var>@packages.qa.debian.org</tt>. Those mails
have special headers appended to let you filter them in a special
-mailbox with <prgn>procmail</prgn>. The added headers are
+mailbox (e.g. with <prgn>procmail</prgn>). The added headers are
<tt>X-Loop</tt>, <tt>X-PTS-Package</tt>, <tt>X-PTS-Keyword</tt> and
<tt>X-Unsubscribe</tt>.
<p>
<p>
If you use a publicly accessible CVS repository for maintaining
your Debian package you may want to forward the commit notification
-to the PTS so that the subscribers (possible co-maintainers) can
+to the PTS so that the subscribers (and possible co-maintainers) can
closely follow the package's evolution.
<p>
-It's very easy to setup. Once your CVS repository generates commit
-notifications, you just have to make sure it sends a copy of those mails
-to <tt><var>srcpackage</var>_cvs@&pts-host;</tt>. Only people who
-accepts the <em>cvs</em> keyword will receive the notifications.
+Once you set up the CVS repository to generate commit notifications,
+you just have to make sure it sends a copy of those mails
+to <tt><var>sourcepackage</var>_cvs@&pts-host;</tt>. Only the people
+who accept the <em>cvs</em> keyword will receive these notifications.
<sect1 id="pts-web">The PTS web interface
<p>
-The PTS has been extended with a web interface that puts together
-many information about each source package. It features many useful
+The PTS has a web interface at <url id="http://&pts-host;/"> that puts
+together a lot of information about each source package. It features many useful
links (BTS, QA stats, contact information, DDTP translation status,
-buildd logs) and gathers many more information from various places
+buildd logs) and gathers much more information from various places
(30 latest changelog entries, testing status, ...). It's a very useful
tool if you want to know what's going on with a specific source
-package. Furthermore there's a form that let you easily subscribe to
-the mail service offered by the PTS.
+package. Furthermore there's a form that allows easy subscription to
+the PTS via email.
<p>
You can jump directly to the web page concerning a specific source package
-with an url like <tt>http://&pts-host;/<var>srcpackage</var></tt>. Otherwise
-you can go through the <url id="http://&pts-host;" name="main page">.
+with a URL like <tt>http://&pts-host;/<var>sourcepackage</var></tt>.
<p>
This web interface has been designed like a portal for the development of
-packages: you can add custom content on the pages of your packages. You can
-add "static information" (news item that are meant to stay available
+packages: you can add custom content on your packages' pages. You can
+add "static information" (news items that are meant to stay available
indefinitely) and news items in the "latest news" section.
<p>
-Static news can be used to indicate:
+Static news items can be used to indicate:
<list>
-<item>the availability of a project hosted on alioth.debian.org for co-maintaining the package
-<item>a link to the upstream website
-<item>a link to the upstream bugtracker
+<item>the availability of a project hosted on <qref id="alioth">Alioth</qref> for co-maintaining the package
+<item>a link to the upstream web site
+<item>a link to the upstream bug tracker
<item>the existence of an IRC channel dedicated to the software
<item>any other available resource that could be useful in the maintenance of the package
</list>
-Usual news item may be used to announce that:
+Usual news items may be used to announce that:
<list>
-<item>beta packages are available for test
+<item>beta packages are available for testing
<item>final packages are expected for next week
<item>the packaging is about to be redone from scratch
<item>backports are available
-<item>the maintainer is on vacation (if he wishes to publish this information)
+<item>the maintainer is on vacation (if they wish to publish this information)
<item>a NMU is being worked on
<item>something important will affect the package
</list>
<p>
-Both kind of news are generated in a similar manner: you just have to send a mail
-either to <email>pts-static-news@qa.debian.org</email> or to
-<email>pts-news@qa.debian.org</email>. The mail should indicate which package is
-concerned by the news by giving the name of the source package in a
+Both kinds of news are generated in a similar manner: you just have to send
+an email either to <email>pts-static-news@qa.debian.org</email> or to
+<email>pts-news@qa.debian.org</email>. The mail should indicate which
+package is concerned by having the name of the source package in a
<tt>X-PTS-Package</tt> mail header or in a <tt>Package</tt> pseudo-header (like the
-BTS reports). If an URL is available in the <tt>X-PTS-Url</tt> mail header or in
+BTS reports). If a URL is available in the <tt>X-PTS-Url</tt> mail header or in
the <tt>Url</tt> pseudo-header, then the result is a link to that URL instead
of a complete news item.
<p>
-Some examples of valid mails used to generate news item in the PTS are following. The first one
-adds a link to the cvsweb interface of debian-cd in the "Static information" section.
+Here are a few examples of valid mails used to generate news items in
+the PTS. The first one adds a link to the cvsweb interface of debian-cd
+in the "Static information" section:
<example>
From: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
To: pts-static-news@qa.debian.org
Package: debian-cd
Url: http://cvs.debian.org/debian-cd/
</example>
-The second one is an announce sent to a mailing list which is also sent
+ <p>
+The second one is an announcement sent to a mailing list which is also sent
to the PTS so that it is published on the PTS web page of the package. Note the
-use of the BCC field to avoid answers sent to the PTS by mistake ...
+use of the BCC field to avoid answers sent to the PTS by mistake.
<example>
From: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
To: debian-gtk-gnome@lists.debian.org
Subject: Galeon 2.0 backported for woody
X-PTS-Package: galeon
-Hello gnomers !
+Hello gnomers!
I'm glad to announce that galeon has been backported for woody. You'll find
everything here:
...
</example>
<p>
-Think twice before adding a news to the PTS because you won't be able to
-remove it later and you wan't be able to edit it either. The only thing that you
-can do is send a second news that will deprecate the information contained in
-the first news.
+Think twice before adding a news item to the PTS because you won't be able
+to remove it later and you wan't be able to edit it either. The only thing
+that you can do is send a second news item that will deprecate the
+information contained in the previous one.
<sect id="ddpo">Developer's packages overview
<p>
you don't forget any open bug, and so that you don't forget which
packages are under your responsibility.
+ <sect id="alioth">Debian *Forge: Alioth
+ <p>
+Alioth is a fairly new Debian service, based on a slightly modified version
+of the GForge software (which evolved from SourceForge). This software
+offers developers access to easy-to-use tools such as bug trackers, patch
+manager, project/task managers, file hosting services, mailing lists, CVS
+repositories etc. All these tools are managed via a web interface.
+ <p>
+It is intended to provide facilities to free software projects backed or led
+by Debian, facilitate contributions from external developers to projects
+started by Debian, and help projects whose goals are the promotion of Debian
+or its derivatives.
+ <p>
+For more information please visit <url id="&url-alioth;">.
+
<chapt id="pkgs">Managing Packages
<p>
the package is installed into the archive. See <ref
id="upload-bugfix">.
<p>
-It is conventional that the changelog entry notating of a package that
+It is conventional that the changelog entry of a package that
contains a new upstream version of the software looks like this:
<example>
* new upstream version
In particular, it never makes sense to combine the <em>experimental</em>
distribution with anything else (see <ref id="experimental">).
- <sect1 id="upload-stable">Uploads to <em>stable</em>
+ <sect1 id="upload-stable">
+ <heading>Special case: uploads to the <em>stable</em> distribution</heading>
<p>
Uploading to <em>stable</em> means that the package will be placed into the
<file>stable-proposed-updates</file> directory of the Debian archive for further
released. See <ref id="bug-security"> for detailed information on
handling security problems.
<p>
-It is discouraged to change anything else in the package that isn't
-important, because even trivial fixes can cause bugs later on.
+Changing anything else in the package that isn't important is discouraged,
+because even trivial fixes can cause bugs later on.
<p>
Packages uploaded to <em>stable</em> need to be compiled on systems running
<em>stable</em>, so that their dependencies are limited to the libraries
<em>stable</em>, because otherwise the package won't be considered for
inclusion.
- <sect1 id="upload-t-p-u">Uploads to <em>testing-proposed-updates</em>
+ <sect1 id="upload-t-p-u">
+ <heading>Special case: uploads to <em>testing-proposed-updates</em></heading>
<p>
The testing distribution is fed with packages from unstable according to the rules
explained in <ref id="testing">. However, the release manager may stop the testing
if you use anonymous FTP to upload, place them into
&upload-queue;.
<p>
+If you want to use the feature described in <ref id="delayed-incoming">,
+you'll have to upload to <tt>ftp-master</tt>. It is the only upload
+point that supports delayed incoming.
+ <p>
Please note that you should transfer
the changes file last. Otherwise, your upload may be rejected because the
archive maintenance software will parse the changes file and see that not
<p>
The bug tracking system's features interesting to developers are described
in the <url id="&url-bts-devel;" name="BTS documentation for developers">.
-This includes closing bugs, sending followup messages, assigning severities,
-tags, marking bugs as forwarded and other issues.
+This includes closing bugs, sending followup messages, assigning severities
+and tags, marking bugs as forwarded and other issues.
<p>
Operations such as reassigning bugs to other packages, merging separate
bug reports about the same issue, or reopening bugs when they are
<sect1 id="bug-answering">Responding to bugs
<p>
-Make sure that any discussion you have about bugs are sent both to
-the original submitter of the bug, and the bug itself (e.g.,
-<email>123@&bugs-host;</email>). If you're writing a new
+When responding to bugs, make sure that any discussion you have about
+bugs is sent both to the original submitter of the bug, and to the bug
+itself (e.g., <email>123@&bugs-host;</email>). If you're writing a new
mail and you don't remember the submitter email address, you can
use the <email>123-submitter@&bugs-host;</email> email to
contact the submitter <em>and</em> to record your mail within the
bug log (that means you don't need to send a copy of the mail to
<email>123@&bugs-host;</email>).
<p>
+If you get a bug which mentions "FTBFS", that means "Fails to build
+from source". Porters frequently use this acronym.
+ <p>
Once you've dealt with a bug report (e.g. fixed it), mark it as
<em>done</em> (close it) by sending an explanation message to
<email>123-done@&bugs-host;</email>. If you're fixing a bug by
Decide whether the report corresponds to a real bug or not. Sometimes
users are just calling a program in the wrong way because they haven't
read the documentation. If you diagnose this, just close the bug with
-enough information to let the user correct his problem (give pointers
+enough information to let the user correct their problem (give pointers
to the good documentation and so on). If the same report comes up
again and again you may ask yourself if the documentation is good
enough or if the program shouldn't detect its misuse in order to
give an informative error message. This is an issue that may need
to be brought to the upstream author.
<p>
-If the bug submitter disagree with your decision to close the bug,
+If the bug submitter disagrees with your decision to close the bug,
they may reopen it until you find an agreement on how to handle it.
If you don't find any, you may want to tag the bug <tt>wontfix</tt>
to let people know that the bug exists but that it won't be corrected.
doing so, please read the <url id="&url-tech-ctte;" name="recommended procedure">.
<item>
If the bug is real but it's caused by another package, just reassign
-the bug the right package. If you don't know which package it should
+the bug to the right package. If you don't know which package it should
be reassigned to, you may either ask for help on &email-debian-devel; or
reassign it to <package>debian-policy</package> to let them decide which
-package is in fault.
+package is at fault.
<p>
Sometimes you also have to adjust the severity of the bug so that it
matches our definition of the severity. That's because people tend to
Some bugs may even be dropped to wishlist severity when the requested
change is just cosmetic.
<item>
-The bug submitter may have forgotten to provide some information, in that
-case you have to ask him the information required. You may use the
+The bug submitter may have forgotten to provide some information, in which
+case you have to ask them the required information. You may use the
<tt>moreinfo</tt> tag to mark the bug as such. Moreover if you can't
reproduce the bug, you tag it <tt>unreproducible</tt>. Anyone who
can reproduce the bug is then invited to provide more information
don't have anything to do with an upload you made, do it by emailing
an explanation to <email>XXX-done@&bugs-host;</email>. Do
<strong>not</strong> close bugs in the changelog entry of a version if
-the changes in that version of the package doesn't have any bearing on
+the changes in that version of the package don't have any bearing on
the bug.
<p>
For general information on how to write your changelog entries, see
<list compact>
<item>he notices it on a public forum (mailing list, web site, etc.)
<item>someone files a bug report
- <item>someone informs him via private email
+ <item>someone informs them via private email
</list>
In the first two cases, the information is public and it is important
<p>
There are two reasons for releasing information even though secrecy is
-requested: the problem has been known for a while, or that the problem
+requested: the problem has been known for a while, or the problem
or exploit has become public.
<sect2 id="bug-security-advisories">Security Advisories
<file>debian/changelog</file>. For stable this is <tt>stable-security</tt> and for
testing this is <tt>testing-security</tt>, and for the previous
stable release, this is <tt>oldstable-security</tt>. Do not target
- <var>distribution</var>-proposed-updates!
+ <var>distribution</var>-proposed-updates or <tt>stable</tt>!
<item>Make descriptive, meaningful changelog entries. Others will
rely on them to determine whether a particular bug was fixed.
- Whenever possible, include an external reference, preferably a CVE
- identifier, so that it can be cross-referenced.
+ Always include an external reference, preferably a CVE
+ identifier, so that it can be cross-referenced. Include the same
+ information in the changelog for unstable, so that it is clear that
+ the same bug was fixed, as this is very helpful when verifying
+ that the bug is fixed in the next stable release. If a CVE
+ identifier has not yet been assigned, the security team will
+ request one so that it can be included in the package and in the advisory.
<item>Make sure the version number is proper. It must be greater
than the current package, but less than package versions in later
distributions. If in doubt, test it with <tt>dpkg
- --compare-versions</tt>. For <em>testing</em>, there must be
+ --compare-versions</tt>. Be careful not to re-use a version
+ number that you have already used for a previous upload. For
+ <em>testing</em>, there must be
a higher version in <em>unstable</em>. If there is none yet (for example,
if <em>testing</em> and <em>unstable</em> have the same version) you must upload a
new version to unstable first.
<sect2 id="bug-security-upload">Uploading the fixed package
<p>
-<em>DO NOT</em> upload a package to the security upload queue
+Do <strong>NOT</strong> upload a package to the security upload queue
(oldstable-security, stable-security, etc.) without
prior authorization from the security team. If the package does not
exactly meet the team's requirements, it will cause many problems and
delays in dealing with the unwanted upload.
<p>
-<em>DO NOT</em> upload your fix to proposed-updates without
+Do <strong>NOT</strong> upload your fix to proposed-updates without
coordinating with the security team. Packages from
security.debian.org will be copied into the proposed-updates directory
automatically. If a package with the same or a higher version number
removed. For example, you can provide the name of the package that
supersedes the one to be removed.
<p>
-Usually you only ask the removal of a package maintained by yourself.
+Usually you only ask for the removal of a package maintained by yourself.
If you want to remove another package, you have to get the approval
-of its last maintainer.
+of its maintainer.
<p>
If in doubt concerning whether a package is disposable, email
&email-debian-devel; asking for opinions. Also of interest is the
package. When invoked as <tt>apt-cache showpkg
<var>package</var></tt>, the program will show details for
<var>package</var>, including reverse depends.
+Removal of orphaned packages is discussed on &email-debian-qa;.
<p>
Once the package has been removed, the package's bugs should be handled.
They should either be reassigned to another package in the case where
In the past, it was possible to remove packages from <file>incoming</file>.
However, with the introduction of the new incoming system, this is no longer
possible. Instead, you have to upload a new revision of your package with
-a higher version as the package you want to replace. Both versions will be
+a higher version than the package you want to replace. Both versions will be
installed in the archive but only the higher version will actually be
available in <em>unstable</em> since the previous version will immediately
be replaced by the higher. However, if you do proper testing of your
<sect1>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
+When you make a mistake naming your package, you should follow a two-step
+process to rename it. 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
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
+are 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
committed by Debian maintainers — common problems which often stymie
porters, and make their jobs unnecessarily difficult.
<p>
-The first and most important watchword is to respond quickly to bug or
+The first and most important thing 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). Please be tolerant of succinct or even unclear bug reports,
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
+being 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
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.
+blessing or status, so buyer beware.
<sect1 id="porter-automation">
Debian porters, who compile packages for different architectures,
occasionally do binary-only NMUs as part of their 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
+Debian developer needs to fix another developer's 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.
filed in the Debian Bug Tracking System (BTS).
If they are not, submit them immediately.
<item>
-Wait a few days the response from the maintainer. If you don't get
-any response, you may want to help him by sending the patch that fixes
+Wait a few days for the response from the maintainer. If you don't get
+any response, you may want to help them by sending the patch that fixes
the bug. Don't forget to tag the bug with the "patch" keyword.
<item>
Wait a few more days. If you still haven't got an answer from the
-maintainer, send him a mail announcing your intent to NMU the package.
+maintainer, send them a mail announcing your intent to NMU the package.
Prepare an NMU as described in <ref id="nmu-guidelines">, test it
carefully on your machine (cf. <ref id="sanitycheck">).
Double check that your patch doesn't have any unexpected side effects.
<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
+porter has to change the Debian source archive, their upload is
+automatically 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>
personal attack against the maintainer. It is a proof that
someone cares enough about the package and that they were willing to help
you in your work, so you should be thankful. You may also want to
-ask them if they would be interested to help you on a more frequent
+ask them if they would be interested in helping you on a more frequent
basis as co-maintainer or backup maintainer
(see <ref id="collaborative-maint">).
the base set have co-maintainers.</p>
<p>
Generally there is a primary maintainer and one or more
-co-maintainers. The primary maintainer is the whose name is listed in
+co-maintainers. The primary maintainer is the person whose name is listed in
the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field of the <file>debian/control</file> file.
Co-maintainers are all the other maintainers.</p>
<p>
In its most basic form, the process of adding a new co-maintainer is
-quite easy:<list>
+quite easy:
+<list>
<item>
<p>
Setup the co-maintainer with access to the sources you build the
should subscribe themselves to the appropriate source package.</p>
</item>
</list></p>
+ <p>
+Collaborative maintenance can often be further eased with the use of
+tools on Alioth (see <ref id="alioth">).
</sect>
-
<chapt id="best-pkging-practices">
<heading>Best Packaging Practices</heading>
<p>
<p>
The following practices are relevant to the
<file>debian/control</file> file. They supplement the <url
-id="&url-debian-policy;ch-miscellaneous.html#s-descriptions"
+id="&url-debian-policy;ch-binary.html#s-descriptions"
name="Policy on package descriptions">.
<p>
The description of the package, as defined by the corresponding field
<example><var>package-name</var> are <var>synopsis</var>.</example>
-This way of forming a sentance from the package name and synopsis
+This way of forming a sentence from the package name and synopsis
should be considered as a heuristic and not a strict rule. There are
-some cases where it doesn't make sense to try to form a sentance.
+some cases where it doesn't make sense to try to form a sentence.
</sect1>
<sect1 id="bpp-pkg-desc">
~ianmdlvl / developers-reference.git / blobdiff