<!entity % commondata SYSTEM "common.ent" > %commondata;
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- <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.187 $">
+ <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.199 $">
<!-- if you are translating this document, please notate the CVS
revision of the developers reference here -->
<!--
<book>
<title>Debian Developer's Reference
- <author>Adam Di Carlo, current maintainer <email>aph@debian.org</email>
- <author>Raphaël Hertzog, co-maintainer <email>hertzog@debian.org</email>
- <author>Christian Schwarz <email>schwarz@debian.org</email>
- <author>Ian Jackson <email>ijackson@gnu.ai.mit.edu</email>
+ <author>Developer's Reference Team &email-devel-ref;
+ <author>Adam Di Carlo, editor
+ <author>Raphaël Hertzog
+ <author>Christian Schwarz
+ <author>Ian Jackson
<version>ver. &version;, &date-en;
<copyright>
<copyrightsummary>
copyright © 1998—2003 Adam Di Carlo</copyrightsummary>
<copyrightsummary>
-copyright © 2002 Raphaël Hertzog</copyrightsummary>
+copyright © 2002—2003 Raphaël Hertzog</copyrightsummary>
<copyrightsummary>
copyright © 1997, 1998 Christian Schwarz</copyrightsummary>
<p>
In order to inform the other developers, there's two things that you should do.
First send a mail to &email-debian-private; with "[VAC] " prepended to the
subject of your message<footnote>This is so that the message can be easily
-filtered by people who don't want to read vacation notices.</footnote>,
-giving the period of time when you will be on vacation. You can also give
+filtered by people who don't want to read vacation notices.</footnote>
+and state the period of time when you will be on vacation. You can also give
some special instructions on what to do if a problem occurs.
<p>
The other thing to do is to mark yourself as "on vacation" in the
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. Please read the <url name="code of conduct"
-id="&url-debian-lists;"> for more information.
+posting messages.
+ <p>
+Please read the <url name="code of conduct" id="&url-debian-lists;">
+for more information.
<sect1 id="mailing-lists-special">Special lists
<p>
freeze period, since the <em>unstable</em> distribution remains in
place in parallel with <em>testing</em>.
- <sect2>Experimental
+ <sect2 id="experimental">Experimental
<p>
The <em>experimental</em> distribution is a special distribution.
It is not a full distribution in the same sense as `stable' and
warned. In short, all bets are off for the <em>experimental</em>
distribution.
<p>
+These are the <manref name="sources.list" section="5"> lines for
+<em>experimental</em>:
+<example>
+deb http://ftp.<var>xy</var>.debian.org/debian/ ../project/experimental main
+deb-src http://ftp.<var>xy</var>.debian.org/debian/ ../project/experimental main
+</example>
+ <p>
If there is a chance that the software could do grave damage to a system,
it is likely to be better to put it into <em>experimental</em>.
For instance, an experimental compressed file system should probably go
<tag><tt>default</tt>
<item>
Any non-automatic mail sent to the PTS by people who wanted to
-contact the subscribers of the package.
+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.
+
<tag><tt>summary</tt>
<item>
to <tt><var>srcpackage</var>_cvs@&pts-host;</tt>. Only people who
accepts the <em>cvs</em> keyword will receive the 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
+links (BTS, QA stats, contact information, DDTP translation status,
+buildd logs) and gathers many 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.
+ <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">.
+ <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
+indefinitely) and news items in the "latest news" section.
+ <p>
+Static news 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 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:
+<list>
+<item>beta packages are available for test
+<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>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
+<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
+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.
+<example>
+From: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
+To: pts-static-news@qa.debian.org
+Subject: Browse debian-cd CVS repository with cvsweb
+
+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
+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 ...
+<example>
+From: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
+To: debian-gtk-gnome@lists.debian.org
+Bcc: pts-news@qa.debian.org
+Subject: Galeon 2.0 backported for woody
+X-PTS-Package: galeon
+
+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.
+
<sect id="ddpo">Developer's packages overview
<p>
A QA (quality assurance) web portal is available at <url
at the same time but it usually doesn't make sense to use that feature
because the dependencies of the package may vary with the distribution.
In particular, it never makes sense to combine the <em>experimental</em>
-distribution with anything else.
+distribution with anything else (see <ref id="experimental">).
<sect1 id="upload-stable">Uploads to <em>stable</em>
<p>
<em>non-free</em>. This is described in another section, <ref id="archive">.
- <sect id="bug-handling">Handling package bugs
+ <sect id="bug-handling">Handling bugs
+ <p>
+Every developer has to be able to work with the Debian <url name="bug
+tracking system" id="&url-bts;">. This includes knowing how to file bug
+reports properly (see <ref id="submit-bug">), how to update them and
+reorder them, and how to process and close them.
+ <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.
<p>
-Often as a package maintainer, you find bugs in other packages or else
-have bugs reported to your packages which need to be reassigned. The
-<url id="&url-bts-control;" name="BTS instructions"> can tell you how
-to do this. Some information on filing bugs can be found in <ref
-id="submit-bug">.
+Operations such as reassigning bugs to other packages, merging separate
+bug reports about the same issue, or reopening bugs when they are
+prematurely closed, are handled using the so-called control mail server.
+All of the commands available in this server are described in the
+<url id="&url-bts-control;" name="BTS control server documentation">.
<sect1 id="bug-monitoring">Monitoring bugs
<p>
<sect1 id="multiple-binary">Multiple binary packages
<p>
A single source package will often build several binary packages,
-either to provide several flavors of the same software (examples are
-the <package>vim-*</package> packages) or to make several small
+either to provide several flavors of the same software (e.g.,
+the <package>vim</package> source package) or to make several small
packages instead of a big one (e.g., if the user can install only the
subset she needs, and thus save some disk space).
<p>
The second case can be easily managed in <file>debian/rules</file>.
You just need to move the appropriate files from the build directory
into the package's temporary trees. You can do this using
-<prgn>install</prgn>
(vanilla approach) or <prgn>dh_install</prgn>
-(from <package>debhelper</package>). Be sure to check the different
+<prgn>install</prgn> or <prgn>dh_install</prgn>
+from <package>debhelper</package>. Be sure to check the different
permutations of the various packages, ensuring that you have the
inter-package dependencies set right in <file>debian/control</file>.
<p>
The first case is a bit more difficult since it involves multiple
-recompiles of the same software but with different configure
-options. The <package>vim</package> is an example of how to manage
+recompiles of the same software but with different configuration
+options. The <package>vim</package> source package is an example of how to manage
this using an hand-crafted <file>debian/rules</file> file.
<!-- &FIXME; Find a good debhelper example with multiple configure/make
</sect1>
</sect>
- <sect id="bpp-debian-maint-scripts">
- <heading>Best practices for maintainer scripts</heading>
- <p>
-Maintainer scripts include the files <file>debian/postinst</file>,
-<file>debian/preinst</file>, <file>debian/prerm</file> and
-<file>debian/postrm</file>. These scripts take care of any package
-installation or deinstallation setup which isn't handled merely by the
-creation or removal of files and directories. The following
-instructions supplement the <url id="&url-debian-policy;" name="Debian
-Policy">.
- <p>
-Maintainer scripts must be idempotent. That means that you need to
-make sure nothing bad will happen if the script is called twice where
-it would usually be called once.
- <p>
-Standard input and output may be redirected (e.g. into pipes) for
-logging purposes, so don't rely on them being a tty.
- <p>
-All prompting or interactive configuration should be kept to a
-minimum. When it is necessary, you should use the
-<package>debconf</package> package for the interface. Remember that
-prompting in any case can only be in the <tt>configure</tt> stage of
-the <file>postinst</file> script.
- <p>
-Keep the maintainer scripts as simple as possible. We suggest you use
-pure POSIX shell scripts. Remember, if you do need any bash features,
-the maintainer script must have a bash sh-bang line. POSIX shell or
-Bash are preferred to Perl, since they enable
-<package>debhelper</package> to easily add bits to the scripts.
- <p>
-If you change your maintainer scripts, be sure to test package
-removal, double installation, and purging. Be sure that a purged
-package is completely gone, that is, it must remove any files created,
-directly or indirectly, in any maintainer script.
- <p>
-If you need to check for the existence of a command, you should use
-something like
-<example>if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-docs ]; then ...</example>
-
-If you don't wish to hard-code the path of the command in your
-maintainer script, the following POSIX-compliant shell function may
-help:
-
-&example-pathfind;
-You can use this function to search <tt>$PATH</tt> for a command name,
-passed as an argument. It returns true (zero) if the command was
-found, and false if not. This is really the most portable way, since
-<tt>command -v</tt>, <prgn>type</prgn>, and <prgn>which</prgn> are not
-POSIX.
- <p>
-While <prgn>which</prgn> is an acceptable alternative, since
-it is from the required <package>debianutils</package> package, it's
-not on the root partition. That is, it's in <file>/usr/bin</file> rather
-than <file>/bin</file>, so one can't use it in scripts which are run
-before the <file>/usr</file> partition is mounted. Most scripts won't have
-this problem, though.
-
-
- <sect id="bpp-debian-control">
+ <sect id="bpp-debian-control">
<heading>Best practices for <file>debian/control</file></heading>
<p>
The following practices are relevant to the
<p>
The description of the package, as defined by the corresponding field
in the <file>control</file> file, contains both the package synopsis
-and the long description for the package.
-
-
+and the long description for the package. <ref id="bpp-desc-basics">
+describes common guidelines for both parts of the package description.
+Following that, <ref id="bpp-pkg-synopsis"> provides guidelines
+specific to the synopsis, and <ref id="bpp-pkg-desc"> contains
+guidelines specific to the description.
<sect1 id="bpp-desc-basics">
<heading>General guidelines for package descriptions</heading>
<p>
How do you write for non-technical users? Avoid jargon. Avoid
referring to other applications or frameworks that the user might not
-be familiar with — "GNOME" or "KDE" is fine, but "GTK+" is
+be familiar with — "GNOME" or "KDE" is fine, since users are
+probably familiar with these terms, but "GTK+" is
probably not. Try not to assume any knowledge at all. If you must
use technical terms, introduce them.
+ <p>
+Be objective. Package descriptions are not the place for advocating
+your package, no matter how much you love it. Remember that the
+reader may not care about the same things you care about.
<p>
References to the names of any other software packages, protocol names,
standards, or specifications should use their canonical forms, if one
Windows", "X-Windows", or "X Window". Use "GTK+", not "GTK" or "gtk".
Use "GNOME", not "Gnome". Use "PostScript", not "Postscript" or
"postscript".
+ <p>
+If you are having problems writing your description, you may wish to
+send it along to &email-debian-l10n-english; and request feedback.
+ </sect1>
<sect1 id="bpp-pkg-synopsis">
e.g., "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer". The appositive clause here is
"red-nosed reindeer". Since the synopsis is a clause, rather than a
full sentence, we recommend that it neither start with a capital nor
-end with a full stop (period). Imagine that the synopsis is combined
-with the package name in the following way:
-
-<example>The <var>package-name</var> is a <var>synopsis</var>.</example>
+end with a full stop (period). It should also not begin with an
+article, either definite ("the") or indefinite ("a" or "an").
<p>
-If the package name is an acronym, it is sometimes useful to expand
-the acronym. For instance, the synopsis for <package>vim</package> is
-"Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor".
+It might help to imagine that the synopsis is combined with the
+package name in the following way:
+
+<example><var>package-name</var> is a <var>synopsis</var>.</example>
+
+Alternatively, it might make sense to think of it as
+<example><var>package-name</var> is <var>synopsis</var>.</example>
+
+or, if the package name itself is a plural (such as
+"developers-tools")
+
+<example><var>package-name</var> are <var>synopsis</var>.</example>
+
+This way of forming a sentance 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.
+ </sect1>
<sect1 id="bpp-pkg-desc">
<heading>The long description</heading>
package. Assume that the user has already read the package synopsis.
<p>
The long description should consist of full and complete sentences.
-It is recommended to use two spaces after full stops in sentences. We
-realize this is an American style rather than European, but it is
-additionally helpful in creating visual space in fixed-width fonts.
<p>
The first paragraph of the long description should answer the
following questions: what does the package do? what task does it help
for <file>debian/control</file> files:
<example>ispell -d american -g debian/control</example>
-
</sect1>
+
<sect1 id="bpp-upstream-info">
<heading>Upstream home page</heading>
<p>
id="&url-eg-desc-upstream-info;">.
<p>
If there is no home page for the software, this should naturally be
-left empty.
+left out.
<p>
Note that we expect this field will eventually be replaced by a proper
<file>debian/control</file> field understood by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> and
<p>
&FIXME; presentation of cvs-buildpackage, updating sources
via CVS (debian/rules refresh).
+ <url id="http://www.debian.org/devel/cvs_packages">
-->
+ <sect id="bpp-debian-maint-scripts">
+ <heading>Best practices for maintainer scripts</heading>
+ <p>
+Maintainer scripts include the files <file>debian/postinst</file>,
+<file>debian/preinst</file>, <file>debian/prerm</file> and
+<file>debian/postrm</file>. These scripts take care of any package
+installation or deinstallation setup which isn't handled merely by the
+creation or removal of files and directories. The following
+instructions supplement the <url id="&url-debian-policy;" name="Debian
+Policy">.
+ <p>
+Maintainer scripts must be idempotent. That means that you need to
+make sure nothing bad will happen if the script is called twice where
+it would usually be called once.
+ <p>
+Standard input and output may be redirected (e.g. into pipes) for
+logging purposes, so don't rely on them being a tty.
+ <p>
+All prompting or interactive configuration should be kept to a
+minimum. When it is necessary, you should use the
+<package>debconf</package> package for the interface. Remember that
+prompting in any case can only be in the <tt>configure</tt> stage of
+the <file>postinst</file> script.
+ <p>
+Keep the maintainer scripts as simple as possible. We suggest you use
+pure POSIX shell scripts. Remember, if you do need any bash features,
+the maintainer script must have a bash sh-bang line. POSIX shell or
+Bash are preferred to Perl, since they enable
+<package>debhelper</package> to easily add bits to the scripts.
+ <p>
+If you change your maintainer scripts, be sure to test package
+removal, double installation, and purging. Be sure that a purged
+package is completely gone, that is, it must remove any files created,
+directly or indirectly, in any maintainer script.
+ <p>
+If you need to check for the existence of a command, you should use
+something like
+<example>if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-docs ]; then ...</example>
+
+If you don't wish to hard-code the path of the command in your
+maintainer script, the following POSIX-compliant shell function may
+help:
+
+&example-pathfind;
+
+You can use this function to search <tt>$PATH</tt> for a command name,
+passed as an argument. It returns true (zero) if the command was
+found, and false if not. This is really the most portable way, since
+<tt>command -v</tt>, <prgn>type</prgn>, and <prgn>which</prgn> are not
+POSIX.
+ <p>
+While <prgn>which</prgn> is an acceptable alternative, since
+it is from the required <package>debianutils</package> package, it's
+not on the root partition. That is, it's in <file>/usr/bin</file> rather
+than <file>/bin</file>, so one can't use it in scripts which are run
+before the <file>/usr</file> partition is mounted. Most scripts won't have
+this problem, though.
+ </sect>
+
+
<sect id="bpp-config-mgmt">
<heading>Configuration management with <package>debconf</package></heading>
-
<p>
<package>Debconf</package> is a configuration management system which
can be used by all the various packaging scripts
the most critical thing to spend their time on.
<sect id="submit-bug">
- <heading>Bug reporting</heading>
+ <heading>Bug reporting</heading>
<p>
We encourage you to file bugs as you find them in Debian packages. In
fact, Debian developers are often the first line testers. Finding and
-reporting bugs in other developer's packages improves the quality of
+reporting bugs in other developers' packages improves the quality of
Debian.
<p>
+Read the <url name="instructions for reporting bugs"
+id="&url-bts-report;"> in the Debian <url name="bug tracking system"
+id="&url-bts;">.
+ <p>
Try to submit the bug from a normal user account at which you are
-likely to receive mail. Do not submit bugs as root.
+likely to receive mail, so that people can reach you if they need
+further information about the bug. Do not submit bugs as root.
+ <p>
+You can use a tool like <manref name="reportbug" section="1"> to
+submit bugs. It can automate and generally ease the process.
+ <p>
+Make sure the bug is not already filed against a package.
+Each package has a bug list easily reachable at
+<tt>http://&bugs-host;/<var>packagename</var></tt>
+Utilities like <manref name="querybts" section="1"> can also
+provide you with this information (and <prgn>reportbug</prgn>
+will usually invoke <prgn>querybts</prgn> before sending, too).
+ <p>
+Try to direct your bugs to the proper location. When for example
+your bug is about a package that overwrites files from another package,
+check the bug lists for <em>both</em> of those packages in order to
+avoid filing duplicate bug reports.
<p>
-Make sure the bug is not already filed against a package. Try to do a
-good job reporting a bug and redirecting it to the proper location.
For extra credit, you can go through other packages, merging bugs
-which are reported more than once, or setting bug severities to
-`fixed' when they have already been fixed. Note that when you are
+which are reported more than once, or tagging bugs `fixed'
+when they have already been fixed. Note that when you are
neither the bug submitter nor the package maintainer, you should
not actually close the bug (unless you secure permission from the
maintainer).
with the bug reports that you submitted. Take this opportunity to
close those that you can't reproduce anymore. To find
out all the bugs you submitted, you just have to visit
-<tt>http://&bugs-host;/from:<your-email-addr></tt>.
+<tt>http://&bugs-host;/from:<var><your-email-addr></var></tt>.
<sect1 id="submit-many-bugs">Reporting lots of bugs at once
<p>
<!-- FIXME: add the following
questionable:
+ dbs (referred to above)
+ dpatch (referred to above)
+ debarchiver
ucf
dpkg-awk
grep-dctrl
~ianmdlvl / developers-reference.git / blobdiff