Debian policy manual - chapter 5
How to become a Debian developer


5.1 Before you start work

So, you've read all the documentation, you understand what everything in the hello example package is for, and you're about to Debianise your favourite package. How do you actually become a Debian developer so that your work can be incorporated into the Project?

Firstly, subscribe to debian-devel if you haven't already. Send the word subscribe in the Subject of a mail to debian-devel-REQUEST@lists.debian.org. In case of problems contact the list administrator, Anders Chrigstrom ac@netg.se.

You should to subscribe and lurk for a bit before doing any coding, and you should post about your intentions to work on something to avoid duplicated effort.

If you do not have a PGP key yet generate one. You should probably read the PGP manual, as it has much important information which is critical to its security. Many more security failures are due to human error than to software failure or high-powered spy techniques.


5.2 When you have a package to upload

When you have your package ready to be uploaded you must send a message to the project leader, Bruce Perens bruce@pixar.com, the administrator of master.debian.org, Simon Shapiro shimon@i-connect.net, the mailing list administrator, Anders Chrigstrom ac@netg.se and the dpkg maintainer, Ian Jackson ijackson@gnu.ai.mit.edu.

The message should say what you've done and who you are, and should ask for an account on master and to be subscribed to debian-private (the developers-only mailing list). It should contain your PGP key (extracted using pgp -kxa) for the database of keys which is shipped with dpkg. When you have your personal account on master log in and transfer the files to /home/Debian/ftp/private/project/Incoming. You cannot upload to Incoming on master using anonymous FTP.

You can also upload files to Incoming via a cron-driven upload queue in Europe on chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk. For details connect to chiark using anonymous FTP and read /pub/debian/private/project/README.how-to-upload.


5.3 Upload handling - .changes files

When a package is uploaded to the Debian FTP archive, it must be accompanied by a .changes file which gives directions for its handling. This is usually generated by dpkg-genchanges.

This file is a control file with the following fields:

All of them are mandatory for a Debian upload. See the list of control fields in the dpkg programmers' manual for the contents of these fields.


Debian policy manual - Copyright ©1996 Ian Jackson.
Contents; abstract; next; back.
version 0.1, 11 August 1996
Ian Jackson ijackson@gnu.ai.mit.edu