dbdvrf #1 Debian Developer's Reference

http://packages.debian.org/sid/developers-reference - - Debian Developer's Reference Developer's Reference Team [developers-reference@ More

http://packages.debian.org/sid/developers-reference - - Debian Developer's Reference Developer's Reference Team [developers-reference@ packages.debian.org] Andreas Barth Adam Di Carlo Raphaël Hertzog Christian Schwarz Ian Jackson ver. from 1 dec 2008 off the web. Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Andreas Barth Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Adam Di Carlo Copyright © 2002, 2003 Raphaël Hertzog Copyright © 1997, 1998 Christian Schwarz This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details. A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as /usr/ share/common-licenses/ GPL in the Debian GNU/ Linux distribution or on the World Wide Web at the GNU web site. You can also obtain it by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. If you want to print this reference, you should use the pdf version. This page is also available in French. Chapter 1. Scope of This Document The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the recommended procedures and the available resources for Debian developers. The procedures discussed within include how to become a maintainer (Chapter 2, Applying to Become a Maintainer ); how to create new packages (Section 5.1, New packages ) and how to upload packages (Section 5.6, Uploading a package ); how to handle bug reports (Section 5.8, Handling bugs ); how to move, remove, or orphan packages (Section 5.9, Moving, removing, renaming, adopting, and orphaning packages ); how to port packages (Section 5.10, Porting and being ported ); and how and when to do interim releases of other maintainers' packages ( Section 5.11, Non-Maintainer Uploads (NMUs) ). The resources discussed in this reference include the mailing lists (Section 4.1, Mailing lists ) and servers (Section 4.4, Debian machines ); a discussion of the structure of the Debian archive (Section 4.6, The Debian archive ); explanation of the different servers which accept package uploads (Section 5.6.1, Uploading to ftp-master ); and a discussion of resources which can help maintainers with the quality of their packages ( Appendix A, Overview of Debian Maintainer Tools ). It should be clear that this reference does not discuss the technical details of Debian packages nor how to generate them. Nor does this reference detail the standards to which Debian software must comply. All of such information can be found in the Debian Policy Manual. Furthermore, this document is not an expression of formal policy . It contains documentation for the Debian system and generallyagreed-upon best practices. Thus, it is not what is called a ``normative'' document. Chapter 2. Applying to Become a Maintainer 2.1. Getting started So, you've read all the documentation, you've gone through the Debian New Maintainers' Guide, understand what everything in the hello example package is for, and you're about to Debianize your favorite piece of software. How do you actually become a Debian developer so that your work can be incorporated into the Project? Firstly, subscribe to [debian-devel@lists.debian.org] if you haven't already. Send the word subscribe in the Subject of an email to [debian-devel-REQUEST@ lists.debian.org]. In case of problems, contact the list administrator at [ listmaster@lists.debian.org]. More information on availablemailing lists can be found in Section 4.1, Mailing lists . [ debian-devel-announce@ lists.debian.org] is another list which is mandatory for anyone who wishes to follow Debian's development. You should subscribe and lurk (that is, read without posting) for a bit before doing any coding, and you should post about your intentions to work on something to avoid duplicated effort. Another good list to subscribe to is [ debian-mentors@lists.debian.org]. See Section 2.2, Debian mentors and sponsors for details. The IRC channel #debian can also be helpful; see Section 4.2, IRC channels . When you know how you want to contribute to Debian GNU/Linux, you should get in contact with existing Debian maintainers whoare working on similar tasks. That way, you can learn from experienced developers. For example, if you are interested in packaging existing software for Debian, you should try to get a sponsor. A sponsor will work together with you on your package and upload it to the Debian archive once they are happy with the packaging work you have done. You can find a
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