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- <!ENTITY cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.212 $">
+ <!ENTITY cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.219 $">
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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
<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>
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>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
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>
<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
<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.
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