[maemo-developers] debmaster priorities

[From: Anderson Lizardo]

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 8:39 AM, Quim Gil <quim.gil at nokia.com> wrote:
> http://wiki.maemo.org/Maemo.org_Sprints/May_09 says
>
> Run a test build of all Diablo Extras packages on Fremantle . Could.
> "The fact that developers are porting packages themselves somewhat
> obviates the need to me to do a lot of this."
>
> ... wouldn't this be the other way around? Developers have to port
> themselves because there is no automatic build trying to push as much
> packages as possible from Diablo?

I think this would have the disadvantage of pushing forward old cruft
from Diablo (e.g. packages that were uploaded just for solving build
dependencies and are not needed anymore in newer releases). Also it
should make sure that a package already ported and uploaded to
fremantle extras-devel is not mistakenly overwritten by some automatic
upload.

Unless the purpose of this is just to run a build test and report the
issues to the maintainers? In this case I totally agree.

> Anyway, I think what developers need right now is direct support for
> their packaging. The idea of hiring a debmaster came with the will to
> save time and hassle to developers. For that high level tasks are
> needed, but the primary work should be to offer direct support, and
> getting your Diablo dependencies working already in Fremantle looks like
> a very good and immediate help.

Yes; as long at they are still valid dependencies.

Regarding debmaster tasks, I have some suggestions:

* remove packages from maemo-extras that break the official C API. See
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4503, where a package was
uploaded to extras-devel which broke any application that depends on
the oficcial libclutter.
* remove packages on developer request (after checking that they are
not dependencies of other packages in extras-devel)
* monitor issues in the autobuilder (Niels has been doing a great job
on this regard, but unfortunately due to timezone differences the
builder is fixed only on the next day for me if I upload the package
in the afternoon :-) and strange behaviour, such as
https://garage.maemo.org/pipermail/extras-cauldron-builds/2009-May/006711.html
* implement debsign verification support in autobuilder (?)

> Or at least this is my humble opinion.  :)

My two cents,
-- 
Anderson Lizardo
OpenBossa Labs - INdT
Manaus - Brazil