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- <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.68 $">
+ <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.74 $">
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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.
+let them upload packages.
<p>
Registration requires that the following information be sent in
appropriate steps described at <url id="&url-newmaint-checklist;"
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
+do if any problem occurs. Be aware that some people don't care for vacation
+notices and don't want to read them; you should prepend "[VAC] " to the
+subject of your message so that it can be easily filtered.
+ <p>
+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.
+to remove the ``on vacation'' flag when you come back!
<sect id="upstream-coordination">Coordination With Upstream Developers
<p>
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 id="mia-qa">Dealing with unreachable maintainers
+ <p>
+If you notice that a package is lacking maintenance, you should
+make sure the maintainer is active and will continue to work on
+their packages. Try contacting them yourself.
+ <p>
+If you do not get a reply after a few weeks you should collect all
+useful information about this maintainer. Start by logging in to
+the <url id="http://db.debian.org" name="Debian Developer's Database">
+and doing a full search to check whether the maintainer is on vacation
+and when they were last seen. Collect any important package names
+they maintain and any Release Critical bugs filled against them.
+ <p>
+Send all this information to &email-debian-qa;, in order to let the
+QA people do whatever is needed.
+
<sect>Retiring Gracefully
<p>
If you choose to leave the Debian project, you should make sure you do
</list>
+ <sect 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>
- <sect id="uploading">Uploading a package
-
- <sect1>Generating the changes file
+ <sect>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
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.
+id="upload-bugfix">.
- <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).
-See <ref id="upload-stable"> for more information on when and how to
-upload to <em>stable</em>.
+ <sect1>The original source tarball
<p>
The first time a version is uploaded which corresponds to a particular
upstream version, the original source tar file should be uploaded and
original source should be uploaded, possibly by using the <tt>-sa</tt>
flag.
+
+ <sect1 id="upload-dist">Picking a distribution
+ <p>
+The <tt>Distribution</tt> field, which originates from the first line of
+the <file>debian/changelog</file> file, indicates which distribution the
+package is intended for.
+ <p>
+There are four possible values for this field: `stable', `unstable',
+`frozen', and `experimental'. Normally, packages are uploaded into
+<em>unstable</em>.
+ <p>
+These values can be combined, but only a few combinations make sense.
+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 uploading to
+<em>frozen</em>.
+ <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).
+See <ref id="upload-stable"> for more information on when and how to
+upload to <em>stable</em>.
+ <p>
+It never makes sense to combine the <em>experimental</em> distribution
+with anything else.
+
<sect2 id="upload-frozen">Uploading to <em>frozen</em>
<p>
The Debian freeze is a crucial time for Debian. It is our chance to
- <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>
-
+ <sect id="uploading">Uploading a package
<sect1 id="upload-ftp-master">Uploading to <tt>ftp-master</tt>
<p>
~ianmdlvl / developers-reference.git / blobdiff