Dear list, I am in the process on creating a new lirc packaging. The core reason is that current debian version is stalled at 0.9.0 as of 2011 whereas the upstream version is 0.9.3, with 0.9.4 under way. My plan is to try to package 0.9.4.
Besides the more practical issues here is a big configuration trouble. Up to 0.9.0, lirc has been configured using a file hardware.conf. This is a debianism which never has been upstreamed. This file just isn't compatible with modern lirc which partly relies on the systemd setup, partly on a file called lirc_options.conf. So, an upgrade will not support hardware.conf. Which basically breaks each and every installation. While we could (i. e., should) provide docs and perhaps some tooling to ease the process, I think some kind of manual intervention is unavoidable. Now, I'm new to the Debian community. What is the policy w r t this kind of upgrades? As hinted on debian-mentors, I'm seeking advice in this list. Thanks in advance, --alec