package maintenance

Old stuff that should not bother anyone anymore
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JRD
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Re: package maintenance

Post by JRD »

thenktor really well summarized it.
About subversion (or other version manager), the idea was to use it to have backups and history, and commit messages could be used for changelog. The point raised, was that this type of use will quicly take a very huge size and we can afford that.
So another solution have been proposed based on a backup of a package when replaced, with only two backups max per package.
Changelog will be filled by the web interface directly (for now it's edited manually).

About packages posted on the web interface (into a local cache) :
- 3 trusted users that mark the package as tested will automaticaly make the package go to the repo (FIFO indead, because repo directly could cause missing dependancies but it's the main idea).
- A trusted user (maybe more trusted) could push it to FIFO before 3 trusted users have marked the package tested if the package is not famous and is not very tested by our guys. Is also can be used if we know it's only a .desktop changed in the package or something like that :)
- regular users should be able to upload package, but the package must conform to our rules. It will help new packagers to make good package. (It's not that hard ! I regulary make some packages on my system that conform to Zenwalk rules, even if I not always submit them because it's a bit too complicated and too slow to submit them in Zenwalk).
- custom repo with packages not conform to our rules will not be hosted in this system. Let's don't build a linuxpackage.net site with poor package quality.

Borromini, can you tell us (or me if others already know) more about the "AUR-like approach" of Arch ? It's always interresting to know how others do :)
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Sparky
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Re: package maintenance

Post by Sparky »

JRD wrote:- A trusted user (maybe more trusted) could push it to FIFO before 3 trusted users have marked the package tested if the package is not famous and is not very tested by our guys. Is also can be used if we know it's only a .desktop changed in the package or something like that :)
On that note, what if there was an option to specify whether a package was simply a minor fix, like an updated .dep file or .desktop file or something? It could help the trusted users who must verify software. It might cause unneeded complication though too, I don't know.
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JRD
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Re: package maintenance

Post by JRD »

It could be done. But I'm a bit scared about people who provide a good package that is very tested, and later modify it in not a good way (intentionnaly or not) and mark it as "minor change"…
What do you think ?
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gapan
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Re: package maintenance

Post by gapan »

I'm more concerned about excessive bureaucracy. What I mean is that several packages might never get the 3 votes from trusted users, simply because no 3 trusted users will have the time to check them. Remember that we are a very small team (at least for now). One trusted user should be enough in my opinion, it's a bit more error prone, but it will get stuff done considerably faster.

And a question about the web interface: packagers will upload from their own PC, or upload to some other ftp site and post the links there? The 1st one sounds easier, but we should consider how we manage the sources in that case. I don't want to be forced to upload all sources myself, it doubles the upload time, src files are a clever way to automate that on the server I think. But if you upload straight to the server, what url should you put in sourcetemplate?
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JRD
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Re: package maintenance

Post by JRD »

One trusted user should be enough in my opinion, it's a bit more error prone, but it will get stuff done considerably faster.
OK, do it like that firstly.

About the second point, my opinion :
Packagers will upload it from their home, easier that way, and we will get more packagers.
For about the sourcetemplate, it may be a good idea to fix it to some pre-generated location on the web interface.
Like : sourcetemplate=http://webadress.org/user/pkgname/pkgver/pkgrlz/ or something like that.
Do you think of a better thing ? (Modify the SLKBUILD is not a good idea because it's already packed in the package).
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thenktor
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Re: package maintenance

Post by thenktor »

gapan wrote:what url should you put in sourcetemplate?
Only urls from external stuff. The other stuff will be uploaded directly to the source folder.
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JRD
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Re: package maintenance

Post by JRD »

You mix up source and sourcetemplate.

Maybe sourcetemplate will be useless by the way !
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gapan
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Re: package maintenance

Post by gapan »

JRD wrote:Maybe sourcetemplate will be useless by the way !
Maybe you're right. If the SLKBUILD is uploaded with the package, then there is no need to put it in the src file. But then we have the same problem with stuff other that the SLKBUILD put in source. What about extra icons, or .desktop files or anything not provided by the main tarball, but created by the packager? Will all that need to be uploaded too? I guess there won't be any problem since usually they are small in size.
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JRD
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Re: package maintenance

Post by JRD »

Will all that need to be uploaded too?
This is what I thought. ZUR (I know I know) handle these extra files (desktop, patches, icons...). So our webtool can do it also. Not that hard.
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gapan
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Re: package maintenance

Post by gapan »

Yes, but these files will need to be placed in the source array anyway. I can see where it will get confusing what url to put in there in that case.
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