Adrian 'Dagurashibanipal' von Bidder wrote:
> I've just started http://wiki.debian.net/SoftwarePackaging, intended to
> collect thoughts of packagers how upstream developers can make the life of
> a packager easier.
>
> I'm sure all packagers have wondered about "brain-dead" upstream developers
> who have not put much thought into how their software might be distributed
> in a pre-compiled/pre-configured package. Compile-time options are one
> example, user-modifiable files outside of /etc are another, to name the two
> that I could think of just now.
What comes to my mind:
- public version control (cvs, arch, svn) by upstream
- public development mailing list
- public availability of old and new versions at a defined location
(for watch files etc.)
- clean clean target
- don't distribute auto-generated files except for configure/autofoo
but add rules to the Makefile to generate them on-demand
- add a private mail address of the lead developer to the distributed
files (contrary to only a mailing list, this is important for security
problems that need to be discussed off the public first)
- configurability of path names (so that the pkg can be made FHS compatible
easily without loads of patches)
- an announce list and a packager list may also be helpful to notify
packages of new versions / security problems (private)
Regards,
Joey
--
Testing? What's that? If it compiles, it is good, if it boots up, it is perfect.
Please always Cc to me when replying to me on the lists.
