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- <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.77 $">
+ <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.86 $">
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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
+the &debian-formal; 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;.
helpful.
<p>
-When you know how you want to contribute to the Debian Project, you
+When you know how you want to contribute to &debian-formal;, you
should get in contact with existing Debian maintainers who are working
on similar tasks. That way, you can learn from experienced developers.
For example, if you are interested in packaging existing software for
<sect id="registering">Registering as a Debian developer
<p>
-Before you decide to register with the Debian Project, you will need
-to read all the information available at the <url id="&url-newmaint;"
-name="New Maintainer's Corner">. It describes exactly the 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 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
+Before you decide to register with &debian-formal;, you will need to
+read all the information available at the <url id="&url-newmaint;"
+name="New Maintainer's Corner">. It describes exactly the
+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
+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-formal;. 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, and checking your technical skills.
-As the number of people working on Debian has grown to over
+your identity and intentions, and checking your technical skills. As
+the number of people working on &debian-formal; 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
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.
+<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">.
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
+the case in France). &debian-formal; 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>
-When you are ready to apply, you need an existing Debian maintainer
+To apply as a new maintainer, you need an existing Debian maintainer
to verify your application (an <em>advocate</em>). After you have
-contributed to the Project and when you want to apply to become a
+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
-can contribute to the Project successfully.
+can contribute to Debian successfully.
<p>
When you have found an advocate, have your GPG key signed and have
already contributed to Debian for a while, you're ready to apply.
For more details, please consult <url id="&url-newmaint;" name="New
Maintainer's Corner"> at the Debian web site. Make sure that you
are familiar with the necessary steps of the New Maintainer process
-before actually applying. If you are prepared well, you can save
+before actually applying. If you are well prepared, you can save
a lot of timer later on.
<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.
+his packages. Try contacting him 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">
+useful information about this maintainer. Start by logging into
+the <url id="&url-debian-db;" 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.
+and when he was last seen. Collect any important package names
+he maintains 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.
&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
+&email-debian-devel-announce;. There are
+other mailing lists 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>
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.
+<em>not</em> forward email from that list to anyone. Archives of this
+list are not available on the web for obvious reasons, but you can see
+them using your shell account <tt>master.debian.org</tt> and looking
+in the <file>~debian/archive/debian-private</file> directory.
<p>
&email-debian-email; is a special mailing list used as a grab-bag
for Debian related correspondence such as contacting upstream authors
<sect>Overview
<p>
-The Debian GNU/Linux distribution consists of a lot of Debian packages
+The &debian-formal; 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>
<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.
+<strong>official &debian-formal; 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-formal;.
<p>
Every package in the main section must fully comply with the <url
id="&url-dfsg;" name="Debian Free Software Guidelines"> (DFSG) and
<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
+&debian-formal; 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
directory of the archive (because of backwards compatibility).
- <sect1>Stable, testing, unstable, and sometimes frozen
+ <sect1 id="sec-dists">Stable, testing, and unstable
<p>
-There is always a distribution called <em>stable</em> (residing in
+There are always distributions 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
<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.
+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. You can see some notes on this system as well
+as <tt>update_excuses</tt> (describing which packages are valid
+candidates, which are not, and why not) at <url
+id="&url-testing-maint;">.
<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
+<em>testing</em> distribution is frozen, meaning that the policies
+which control how packages move from <em>unstable</em> to testing are
+tightened. Packages which are too buggy are removed. No changes are
+allowed into <em>testing</em> except for bug fixes. After some time
+has elapsed, depending on progress, the <em>testing</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.
+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>testing</em> distribution is renamed to <em>stable</em>,
+overriding the old <em>stable</em> distribution, which is removed at
+that time (although it can be found at <tt>&archive-host;</tt>).
<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 &mdash 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).
+period of being in <em>testing</em>. Even once a distribution is
+considered stable, a few bugs inevitably remain &mdash 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.
-
+place in parallel with <em>testing</em>.
<sect1>Experimental
<p>
`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.
+real distribution directories use the <em>code names</em>, while
+symbolic links for <em>stable</em>, <em>testing</em>, and
+<em>unstable</em> point to the appropriate release directories.
<chapt id="upload">Package uploads
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
+There are three possible values for this field: `stable', `unstable',
+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).
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
original bug fixed and the severity of the bug newly introduced by the
fix.
+ -->
+
<sect2 id="upload-stable">Uploading to <em>stable</em>
<p>
official maintainer. If you use <prgn>scp</prgn> or <prgn>rsync</prgn>
to transfer the files, place them into <tt>&us-upload-dir;</tt>;
if you use anonymous FTP to upload, place them into
-<ftppath>/pub/UploadQueue/</ftppath>.
+<ftppath>/pub/UploadQueue/</ftppath>. 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
+all files have been uploaded. If you don't want to bother with transfering
+the changes file last, you can simply copy your files to a temporary
+directory on <tt>ftp-master</tt> and then move them to
+<tt>&us-upload-dir;</tt>.
<p>
<em>Note:</em> Do not upload to <tt>ftp-master</tt> packages
containing software that is export-controlled by the United States
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
+You may also find the Debian packages <package>dupload</package> or
+<package>dput</package> useful
+when uploading packages. These handy program are 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.
+section="1">, <manref name="dupload" section="5"> and <manref name="dput"
+section="1"> 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
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
+or `experimental', the announcement will be
posted to &email-debian-devel-changes; instead.
<p>
The <prgn>dupload</prgn> program is clever enough to determine
<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
+distribution, i.e., stable, unstable, or experimental. Porters have
slightly different rules than non-porters, due to their unique
circumstances (see <ref id="source-nmu-when-porter">).
<p>
cannot be reached in time, a security officer 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.
+During the release cycle (see <ref id="sec-dists">), 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,
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
+uploading to.
+
+<!--
+FIXME: commented out until I can work out how to upload to testing directly
+
+ 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.
<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;).
+In the past, it was possible to remove packages from <tt>incoming</tt>.
+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
+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
+packages, the need to replace a package should not occur too often anyway.
<sect>Replacing or renaming packages
<p>
<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>.
+&file-bts-docs;.
<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
+&cron-bug-report;
</example>
-Replace <var>maintainer-address</var> with you official Debian
+Replace <var>address</var> with you official Debian
maintainer address.
<sect id="submit-bug">Submitting Bugs
<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.
+maintainers. The following is by no means complete or definitive, but
+just a guide to some of the more popular tools.
+ <p>
+Debian maintainer tools are meant to help convenience developers and
+free their time for critical tasks. As Larry Wall says, there's more
+than one way to do it.
<p>
Some people prefer to use high-level package maintenance tools and
some do not. Debian is officially agnostic on this issue; any 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.
+the package documentation itself. You can also see more info with the
+command <tt>apt-cache show <var>package_name</var></tt>.
<sect id="dpkg-dev">
<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
+independant, 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>
+You can find documentation for this package in the
+<package>debconf-doc</package> package.
+ <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.
+ <p>
<sect id="debhelper">
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>.
+Unlike some approaches, <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 some of the
+other "debian/rules tools".
+ <p>
+There are a number of little <package>debhelper</package> add-on
+packages, too transient to document. You can see the list of most of
+them by doing <tt>apt-cache search ^dh-</tt>.
<sect id="debmake">
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.
+<package>yada</package> is another packaging helper tool. It uses a
+<file>debian/packages</file> file to auto-generate
+<file>debian/rules</file> 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.
+Note that <package>yada</package> is called "essentially unmaintained"
+by it's own maintainer, Charles Briscoe-Smith. As such, it can be
+considered deprecated.
<sect id="equivs">
new upload locations or methods.
+ <sect id="dput">
+ <heading><package>dput</package>
+ <p>
+The <package>dput</package> package and script does much the same
+thing as <package>dupload</package>, but in a different way. It has
+some features over <package>dupload</package>, such as the ability to
+check the GnuPG signature and checksums before uploading, and the
+possibility of running <tt>dinstall</tt> in dry-run mode after the
+upload.
+
+
<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.
+<package>fakeroot</package> installed, you can build packages as a
+user: <tt>dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot</tt>.
+
+
+ <sect id="debootstrap">
+ <heading><package>debootstrap</package>
+ <p>
+The <package>debootstrap</package> package and script allows you to
+"bootstrap" a Debian base system into any part of your filesystem.
+By "base system", we mean the bare minimum of packages required to
+operate and install the rest of the system.
+ <p>
+Having a system link this can be useful in many ways. For instance,
+you can <prgn>chroot</prgn> into it if you want to test your build
+depends. Or, you can test how your package behaves when installed
+into a bare base system.
<sect id="devscripts">
<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>.
+packages. Example scripts include <prgn>debchange</prgn> and
+<prgn>dch</prgn>, which 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">
<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.
-
+You can use it to download source packages, for instance (although
+<tt>apt-get source <var>package</var></tt> does pretty much the same
+thing).
+
+
+<!-- FIXME: add the following
+ dpkg-awk
+ dpkg-cross
+ dpkg-dev-el
+ alien
+ dpkg-repack
+ grep-dctrl
+ pbuilder -->
</book>
~ianmdlvl / developers-reference.git / blobdiff