X-Git-Url: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?p=developers-reference.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=developers-reference.sgml;h=a4118fbd3303e9a32ef7cf8fa4fff1c9b874bd03;hp=e3ea90eb698216b50a2d586ef724845b685777be;hb=057fd42386bdc2c5362a5732030935a12af47687;hpb=11279d4b96c913b10c8c7d34f9b899b7065383eb

diff --git a/developers-reference.sgml b/developers-reference.sgml
index e3ea90e..a4118fb 100644
--- a/developers-reference.sgml
+++ b/developers-reference.sgml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   <!ENTITY % commondata  SYSTEM "common.ent" > %commondata;
 
   <!-- CVS revision of this document -->
-  <!ENTITY cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.211 $">
+  <!ENTITY cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.220 $">
   <!-- if you are translating this document, please notate the CVS
        revision of the developers reference here -->
   <!--
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ 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
+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
@@ -418,10 +418,29 @@ resources that are available to help you in your maintainer work.
 
       <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>
@@ -442,40 +461,8 @@ The core Debian mailing lists that developers should use are:
   </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>
@@ -494,6 +481,18 @@ for Debian related correspondence such as contacting upstream authors
 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>
@@ -716,7 +715,7 @@ Those features are documented at <url id="&url-debian-db-mail-gw;">.
 	<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>
@@ -741,7 +740,7 @@ In each of the areas, there is a directory for the source packages
 (<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.).
@@ -809,7 +808,7 @@ The Linux 2.0 kernel supports Intel x86, DEC Alpha, SPARC, Motorola
 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>,
@@ -823,7 +822,7 @@ ships for the <em>i386</em>, <em>m68k</em>, <em>alpha</em>, and
 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">.
 
@@ -888,11 +887,11 @@ distribution changes from day-to-day. Since no special effort is done
 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
@@ -958,7 +957,7 @@ 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);
+if they respect all the necessary criteria);
 </list>
 	<p>
 To find out whether a package is progressing into testing or not, see the
@@ -970,12 +969,12 @@ 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.
+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 can not be sorted out
+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>
@@ -1012,7 +1011,7 @@ into <em>experimental</em>.
 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
@@ -1075,8 +1074,8 @@ symbolic links for <em>stable</em>, <em>testing</em>, and
 	<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 &mdash; 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.
@@ -1098,15 +1097,16 @@ have accounts on these machines.
     <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
@@ -1193,8 +1193,8 @@ available in the various distributions.  Each version links to a page
 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
@@ -1226,7 +1226,7 @@ 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 and associated to one of
+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>
@@ -1317,7 +1317,7 @@ various commands to <email>pts@qa.debian.org</email>.
 <item>
   Tells you the keywords that you are accepting.
   For an explanation of keywords, <qref id="pkg-tracking-system">see
-  above</a>. Here's a quick summary:
+  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;
@@ -1339,7 +1339,7 @@ various commands to <email>pts@qa.debian.org</email>.
 
 <tag><tt>keyword [&lt;email&gt;] {+|-|=} &lt;list of keywords&gt;</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 &lt;sourcepackage&gt; [&lt;email&gt;] {+|-|=} &lt;list of keywords&gt;</tt>
@@ -1404,7 +1404,7 @@ indefinitely) and news items in the "latest news" section.
 	<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
@@ -1421,7 +1421,7 @@ Usual news items may be used to announce that:
 <item>something important will affect the package
 </list>
 	<p>
-Both kind of news are generated in a similar manner: you just have to send
+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
@@ -1478,6 +1478,21 @@ It is a good idea to look up your own data regularly so that
 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>
@@ -1947,8 +1962,8 @@ 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.
+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
@@ -2314,17 +2329,24 @@ When packaging the fix, keep the following points in mind:
     <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.
@@ -3072,7 +3094,8 @@ 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
@@ -3096,10 +3119,12 @@ Using the PTS (<ref id="pkg-tracking-system">), the co-maintainers
 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>
@@ -3236,7 +3261,7 @@ this using an hand-crafted <file>debian/rules</file> file.
         <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
@@ -3313,9 +3338,9 @@ or, if the package name itself is a plural (such as
 
 <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">