Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-20 Thread Scott Kitterman
One other option for dealing with getting fixes back to Debian that I don't 
recall seeing mentioned in this thread is to join a packaging team in Debian 
relevant to an interest area and then just push relevant fixes into the team 
VCS.  I did that with Debian Python Modules Team myself just yesterday.

Scott K

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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-19 Thread Lucas Nussbaum
On 18/06/08 at 13:34 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 18:48 +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> > On 18/06/08 at 10:12 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> > > Thanks for the examples, now i'm clearer on what you meant.
> > > 
> > > I also think this will we great, but to have a wiki page for every
> > > package and to edit it with every change it's not the best to do IMHO.
> > > On the other hand we can open a bug for the changes and explain
> > > everything there and just include the (LP: #X) part to it.
> > 
> > I didn't mean that there should be one wiki page per package. Only that
> > there should be one wiki page (or one section on the same wiki page) for
> > each class of change. In the case of libext-dev, there was probably at
> > least 20 packages affected by that change, where the exact same patch
> > (add libext-dev to build-deps) was needed.
> 
> Well, i still prefer to open a bug report instead of using a wiki page,
> it's easier and better for comments/discussion. 

Do you mean one bug report per package that needs to be changed, or one
global bug report, filed against Ubuntu, to track the changes
everywhere?

In the first case (one bug per package), I think that this creates a
huge overhead, and is not going to work. You will have problems
convincing people to file a bug each time they make a very simple change
that needs to be done in tens of packages.

In the second case, as long as there's a simple place with documentation
about the change, I'm happy. But I think that a wiki page is a better
solution because it's easier to summarize a problem (people can edit the
summary). With a bug report, you sometimes have to read a very long
discussion before you understand the current state of the issue.
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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Lucas Nussbaum
On 18/06/08 at 21:22 +0200, Emilio Pozuelo Monfort wrote:
> Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> > I didn't mean that there should be one wiki page per package. Only that
> > there should be one wiki page (or one section on the same wiki page) for
> > each class of change. In the case of libext-dev, there was probably at
> > least 20 packages affected by that change, where the exact same patch
> > (add libext-dev to build-deps) was needed.
> 
> For big transitions or things like this, IMHO I think it's better to do a MBF 
> in
> the BTS if that's going to affect Debian as well.

The problem is that sometimes, Ubuntu transitions earlier (or does
transitions that Debian doesn't even consider -- think of /var/run). In
that case, a MBF in Debian won't be useful, because the Debian
maintainers might simply ignore the bugs.

> And when it's specific to one
> package, it would be overkilling to put it in the wiki. The changelog should
> explain it.
> 
> So I agree with you in that Ubuntu changes should be better documented, but I
> don't like the wiki idea.

I agree that a wiki page should only be used for big transitions, not for
every small change. I now realize it wasn't clear earlier, sorry.
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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Emilio Pozuelo Monfort
Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> I didn't mean that there should be one wiki page per package. Only that
> there should be one wiki page (or one section on the same wiki page) for
> each class of change. In the case of libext-dev, there was probably at
> least 20 packages affected by that change, where the exact same patch
> (add libext-dev to build-deps) was needed.

For big transitions or things like this, IMHO I think it's better to do a MBF in
the BTS if that's going to affect Debian as well. And when it's specific to one
package, it would be overkilling to put it in the wiki. The changelog should
explain it.

So I agree with you in that Ubuntu changes should be better documented, but I
don't like the wiki idea.

Cheers,
Emilio



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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Nicolas Valcarcel
On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 18:48 +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> On 18/06/08 at 10:12 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> > Thanks for the examples, now i'm clearer on what you meant.
> > 
> > I also think this will we great, but to have a wiki page for every
> > package and to edit it with every change it's not the best to do IMHO.
> > On the other hand we can open a bug for the changes and explain
> > everything there and just include the (LP: #X) part to it.
> 
> I didn't mean that there should be one wiki page per package. Only that
> there should be one wiki page (or one section on the same wiki page) for
> each class of change. In the case of libext-dev, there was probably at
> least 20 packages affected by that change, where the exact same patch
> (add libext-dev to build-deps) was needed.

Well, i still prefer to open a bug report instead of using a wiki page,
it's easier and better for comments/discussion. 

I have open a wiki page [1] with some points about this conversation.

1. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GoodPractices

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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Lucas Nussbaum
On 18/06/08 at 09:13 -0700, Jordan Mantha wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 12:44 AM, Lucas Nussbaum
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On 17/06/08 at 20:11 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> >> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> > Linking to bugs is a good thing, but many changes are done without any
> > bug in launchpad (or the bug wasn't linked in the changelog). So
> > answering the "But why are you making this change? Should I merge it in
> > the Debian package?" question requires a lot of effort. I'm not asking
> > you to write a ten-line rationale for the patch. Often, 1 to 3 lines
> > should be enough. And you could link to a wiki page to provide a more
> > detailed explanation of the problem.
> 
> This of course assumes the person writing the changelog entry actually
> knows the answer to those questions. As you say, it requires a lot of
> effort on the part of the DD. I think it probably takes at least the
> same if not more effort on the part of the person writing the
> changelog. A fair amount of the time I don't think merger's really
> know why a change is needed or if it applies to Debian or not.
> 
> While I appreciate your suggestions here and think it should
> definitely be the goal push things back to Debian, many people simply
> won't know if something applies to Debian specifically or not. I can
> think of several Debian bugs I've seen over the years where an Ubuntu
> contributor mistakenly thought an Ubuntu change applied to Debian when
> in fact it did not. The Debian maintainer is definitely in the best
> position to figure out if it applies them or not. They know the
> package and they know Debian. We should certainly try to give the
> information a Debian maintainer needs. But, for instance, I feel quite
> uncomfortable telling a Debian maintainer (who has maybe worked on
> package for years) they should take a patch in a package I've never
> touched before and am just propagating Ubuntu changes in.

I hope that mergers understand the changes they merge, and understand if
they are still necessary or not (for Ubuntu). If not, that confirms
that there's an issue with documentation of the changes.

But I agree with you that the Ubuntu Developer is not in the best
position to judge whether a change is applicable or not to Debian.
Something you could do without giving the impression that you are giving
orders to the Debian maintainer, is to clearly mark Ubuntu-specific
changes, when they are only useful for Ubuntu. A simplistic example
could be:
 * Replace iceweasel with firefox in Depends.
   Ubuntu-only: firefox is renamed iceweasel in Debian.

> This is why I agree with Scott Kitterman that bugs in Debian's BTS are
> a much better place to discuss the appropriateness of Ubuntu changes
> for Debian than in changelog entries.

Sure. But that's a different issue: Ubuntu developers are never going to
open a bug in the BTS for every minor change they make to a Debian
package. I agree that bugs should be preferred, but that's not a reason
not to improve the way you communicate through debian/changelog.
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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Lucas Nussbaum
On 18/06/08 at 10:12 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> Thanks for the examples, now i'm clearer on what you meant.
> 
> I also think this will we great, but to have a wiki page for every
> package and to edit it with every change it's not the best to do IMHO.
> On the other hand we can open a bug for the changes and explain
> everything there and just include the (LP: #X) part to it.

I didn't mean that there should be one wiki page per package. Only that
there should be one wiki page (or one section on the same wiki page) for
each class of change. In the case of libext-dev, there was probably at
least 20 packages affected by that change, where the exact same patch
(add libext-dev to build-deps) was needed.
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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Nicolas Valcarcel
On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 09:13 -0700, Jordan Mantha wrote:
> 
> This of course assumes the person writing the changelog entry actually
> knows the answer to those questions. As you say, it requires a lot of
> effort on the part of the DD. I think it probably takes at least the
> same if not more effort on the part of the person writing the
> changelog. A fair amount of the time I don't think merger's really
> know why a change is needed or if it applies to Debian or not.
Yes, but mergers don't change anything, just apply some changes, we are
talking about changing things, and if you don't know these answers when
you make a change, then you are not able to do changes to ubuntu
packages.

About the "applies to debian" thing i'm with you, it's hard to know if
you don't have a debian system on hands, but if you know that it applies
also to debian, please write it there.

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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Jordan Mantha
On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 12:44 AM, Lucas Nussbaum
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 17/06/08 at 20:11 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
>> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> Linking to bugs is a good thing, but many changes are done without any
> bug in launchpad (or the bug wasn't linked in the changelog). So
> answering the "But why are you making this change? Should I merge it in
> the Debian package?" question requires a lot of effort. I'm not asking
> you to write a ten-line rationale for the patch. Often, 1 to 3 lines
> should be enough. And you could link to a wiki page to provide a more
> detailed explanation of the problem.

This of course assumes the person writing the changelog entry actually
knows the answer to those questions. As you say, it requires a lot of
effort on the part of the DD. I think it probably takes at least the
same if not more effort on the part of the person writing the
changelog. A fair amount of the time I don't think merger's really
know why a change is needed or if it applies to Debian or not.

While I appreciate your suggestions here and think it should
definitely be the goal push things back to Debian, many people simply
won't know if something applies to Debian specifically or not. I can
think of several Debian bugs I've seen over the years where an Ubuntu
contributor mistakenly thought an Ubuntu change applied to Debian when
in fact it did not. The Debian maintainer is definitely in the best
position to figure out if it applies them or not. They know the
package and they know Debian. We should certainly try to give the
information a Debian maintainer needs. But, for instance, I feel quite
uncomfortable telling a Debian maintainer (who has maybe worked on
package for years) they should take a patch in a package I've never
touched before and am just propagating Ubuntu changes in.

This is why I agree with Scott Kitterman that bugs in Debian's BTS are
a much better place to discuss the appropriateness of Ubuntu changes
for Debian than in changelog entries.

-Jordan

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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Nicolas Valcarcel
Thanks for the examples, now i'm clearer on what you meant.

I also think this will we great, but to have a wiki page for every
package and to edit it with every change it's not the best to do IMHO.
On the other hand we can open a bug for the changes and explain
everything there and just include the (LP: #X) part to it.

On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 09:44 +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> On 17/06/08 at 20:11 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > Secondly, you generally could improve a lot at documenting your changes.
> > > If you put more effort on properly documenting what you change in your
> > > packages, it would allow Debian developers to understand why you made a
> > > specific change, and they would be a lot more likely to merge the change
> > > in the Debian package (which means less work for you during the next
> > > merge). If a DD can't figure out why you made a change, it's likely that
> > > he won't ask you, and will just ignore the change.
> > 
> > Can you please give an example of that i don't think i'm fully understanding
> > your point (not a real example, just whatever comes to your mind first)
> 
> Sure. Here are a few examples:
> 
> +  * Merge from debian unstable, remaining changes:
> +- usbmount creates /var/run/usbmount if it does not exist.
> If you said that this breaks the package on systems where /var/run is
> emptied at boot time (which is FHS-compliant), it would probably help.
> (also, you might want to push that change to a release goal in Debian
> for lenny+1, that would allow to fix all those packages at the same
> time).
> 
> +  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev build-dependency (fixes
> FTBFS).
> If you said that this was going to be needed in Debian with libx11
> 2:1.1.4-2, I'm sure more maintainers who have merged it.
> 
> +  * debian/rules: Set ARCH_FLAG
> (where the diff in debian/rules is:)
> -ARCHFLAG =
> +ARCHFLAG = -B $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_ARCH)
> Everybody can see that you set ARCHFLAG (not ARCH_FLAG, btw). Why was
> that necessary? Which problem is it fixing? Is Debian affected as well?
> 
> +  * debian/patches/03_missing_includes.dpatch: Added. Fixes FTBFS
> Under which conditions does it FTBFS? Is Debian affected as well, or
> likely to become affected as well?
> 
> +  * Merge from debian unstable, remaining changes:
> +- Use dpatch
> +- debian/patches:
> +  * kubuntu_01_branch_patch.dpatch
> +  * kubuntu_02_installer_mode.dpatch
> +  * kubuntu_03_fix_desktop_file.dpatch
> +  * kubuntu_04_libparted17.dpatch
> +  * kubuntu_05_german.dpatch
> +  * kubuntu_06_english.dpatch
> +  * kubuntu_07_root_is_sudo.dpatch
> $ grep "^+## DP:" xx-3ubuntu1.patch 
> +## DP: No description.
> +## DP: No description.
> +## DP: No description.
> +## DP: No description.
> +## DP: Fix mistakes in German translation, thanks to Christian A.
> Reiter.
> +## DP: Fix mistakes in English strings.
> +## DP: Replace references to root and fix some sentence in the Catalan
> translation.
> Patches without description
> 
> > > It would be great if, in addition to listing the remaining changes in
> > > the last changelog entry, you could also list for each change:
> > > - the URL of the corresponding Ubuntu bug (if any)
> > > - the URL of the corresponding upstream bug (if any)
> > > - the URL of the corresponding Debian bug (if any)
> > > - a summary of the changes (pointing to URLs explaining the context of
> > >  the change, if possible/needed)
> > > - whether the change is Ubuntu-specific, or should be merged upstream
> > >  or in Debian (with a rationale if is Ubuntu-specific)
> > >
> > 
> > We already work like this, we use to use (LP: #) which means Launchpad
> > Bug report # as DD's use (Closes: #), so there is no much more to do
> > for LP Bugs (Ubuntu ones). For the upstream and debian bugs we link them on
> > the LP Bug report, so if the DD is interested on following links he can from
> > them, with this i'm not saying is the best to do and rejecting your
> > suggestions, just noticing it if you didn't know it, maybe is not as good as
> > it could and we can do it better, so if you have anything to add please do
> > it.
> 
> Linking to bugs is a good thing, but many changes are done without any
> bug in launchpad (or the bug wasn't linked in the changelog). So
> answering the "But why are you making this change? Should I merge it in
> the Debian package?" question requires a lot of effort. I'm not asking
> you to write a ten-line rationale for the patch. Often, 1 to 3 lines
> should be enough. And you could link to a wiki page to provide a more
> detailed explanation of the problem.
> 
> For example, instead of:
> +  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev build-dependency (fixes FTBFS).
> You could write:
> +  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev b-dep. See
> +http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Changes/libext-dev
> +Should be m

Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Nicolas Valcarcel
On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 01:25 -0700, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 09:44:56AM +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> > For example, instead of:
> > +  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev build-dependency (fixes FTBFS).
> > You could write:
> > +  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev b-dep. See
> > +http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Changes/libext-dev
> > +Should be merged in Debian.
> 
> For this last line, something terser would be preferrable and easier to
> synthetically parse (i.e. something that won't be likely to word-wrap).

Yes, but we lucas isn't saying "Do it that way" just giving some
recommendations to get into a "policy" or "good practices" document so
the relations between ubuntu and any upstream will improve.

> Bryce
> 

I'm working on a wiki page about good practices [1]. Feel free to add
whatever you want, but keep in mind that this must be a general upstream
collaboration guide, not just debian.

1. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GoodPractices

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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Lucas Nussbaum
On 18/06/08 at 04:44 -0400, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> In my experience, reactions to the diff available on PTS are rare.  If I 
> want something feed back to Debian, I almost invariably have to put a bug 
> in BTS with the patch.  I can explain the rationale there.

That's a chicken-and-egg problem. Changes are poorly commented, so
changes don't get merged in Debian, so you feel it's useless to improve
the documentation of the changes.

Of course, improving the description of the changes won't magically make
all DDs merge the changes proposed by Ubuntu. But I think it's still
worth trying.
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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Scott Kitterman
On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:46:46 +0200 Lucas Nussbaum 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On 17/06/08 at 22:10 -0400, Scott Kitterman wrote:
>> On Tuesday 17 June 2008 21:11, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> 
>> > > There's a wiki page on
>> > > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PatchTaggingGuidelines 
about
>> > > basically the same thing (it documents the changes in the patches, 
which
>> > > is not suitable if the changes are made directly in the source, 
without
>> > > using a patch system), but that policy doesn't seem to be in 
widespread
>> > > use, unfortunately.
>> >
>> > I didn't knew about that page and i'm sure a lot of people doesn't know
>> > also, are you interested on helping me dive into wiki pages to write a
>> > complete document with all of them and then try to spread the word 
about
>> > it/them? Did someone want to help?
>> 
>> We have https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ContributingToDebian that would 
presumably be 
>> the right place to start.
>
>I disagree: the change I'm suggesting is not about "being nice to
>Debian". If you improve the documentation of your changes, you will
>help yourself (Ubuntu) first. Almost two years ago, I proposed to switch
>from a simple "Merged with Debian" entry in changelog, to listing the
>various changes in the top changelog entry[0]. I think this was a
>success, and this only pushes things further.

I agree that was a success and a very good change for Ubuntu.  

As an Ubuntu developer (that's generally familiar with where to find bugs 
in Launchpad and BTS), I don't see a lot of benefit within Ubuntu for this 
last lot of suggestions.  Getting more stuff from Ubuntu back into Debian 
does benefit Ubuntu, but I don't think better debian/changelogs in Ubuntu 
will help much..

In my experience, reactions to the diff available on PTS are rare.  If I 
want something feed back to Debian, I almost invariably have to put a bug 
in BTS with the patch.  I can explain the rationale there.

Scott K

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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Bryce Harrington
On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 09:44:56AM +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> For example, instead of:
> +  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev build-dependency (fixes FTBFS).
> You could write:
> +  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev b-dep. See
> +http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Changes/libext-dev
> +Should be merged in Debian.

For this last line, something terser would be preferrable and easier to
synthetically parse (i.e. something that won't be likely to word-wrap).

Bryce


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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Lucas Nussbaum
On 17/06/08 at 20:11 -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Secondly, you generally could improve a lot at documenting your changes.
> > If you put more effort on properly documenting what you change in your
> > packages, it would allow Debian developers to understand why you made a
> > specific change, and they would be a lot more likely to merge the change
> > in the Debian package (which means less work for you during the next
> > merge). If a DD can't figure out why you made a change, it's likely that
> > he won't ask you, and will just ignore the change.
> 
> Can you please give an example of that i don't think i'm fully understanding
> your point (not a real example, just whatever comes to your mind first)

Sure. Here are a few examples:

+  * Merge from debian unstable, remaining changes:
+- usbmount creates /var/run/usbmount if it does not exist.
If you said that this breaks the package on systems where /var/run is
emptied at boot time (which is FHS-compliant), it would probably help.
(also, you might want to push that change to a release goal in Debian
for lenny+1, that would allow to fix all those packages at the same
time).

+  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev build-dependency (fixes
FTBFS).
If you said that this was going to be needed in Debian with libx11
2:1.1.4-2, I'm sure more maintainers who have merged it.

+  * debian/rules: Set ARCH_FLAG
(where the diff in debian/rules is:)
-ARCHFLAG =
+ARCHFLAG = -B $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_ARCH)
Everybody can see that you set ARCHFLAG (not ARCH_FLAG, btw). Why was
that necessary? Which problem is it fixing? Is Debian affected as well?

+  * debian/patches/03_missing_includes.dpatch: Added. Fixes FTBFS
Under which conditions does it FTBFS? Is Debian affected as well, or
likely to become affected as well?

+  * Merge from debian unstable, remaining changes:
+- Use dpatch
+- debian/patches:
+  * kubuntu_01_branch_patch.dpatch
+  * kubuntu_02_installer_mode.dpatch
+  * kubuntu_03_fix_desktop_file.dpatch
+  * kubuntu_04_libparted17.dpatch
+  * kubuntu_05_german.dpatch
+  * kubuntu_06_english.dpatch
+  * kubuntu_07_root_is_sudo.dpatch
$ grep "^+## DP:" xx-3ubuntu1.patch 
+## DP: No description.
+## DP: No description.
+## DP: No description.
+## DP: No description.
+## DP: Fix mistakes in German translation, thanks to Christian A.
Reiter.
+## DP: Fix mistakes in English strings.
+## DP: Replace references to root and fix some sentence in the Catalan
translation.
Patches without description

> > It would be great if, in addition to listing the remaining changes in
> > the last changelog entry, you could also list for each change:
> > - the URL of the corresponding Ubuntu bug (if any)
> > - the URL of the corresponding upstream bug (if any)
> > - the URL of the corresponding Debian bug (if any)
> > - a summary of the changes (pointing to URLs explaining the context of
> >  the change, if possible/needed)
> > - whether the change is Ubuntu-specific, or should be merged upstream
> >  or in Debian (with a rationale if is Ubuntu-specific)
> >
> 
> We already work like this, we use to use (LP: #) which means Launchpad
> Bug report # as DD's use (Closes: #), so there is no much more to do
> for LP Bugs (Ubuntu ones). For the upstream and debian bugs we link them on
> the LP Bug report, so if the DD is interested on following links he can from
> them, with this i'm not saying is the best to do and rejecting your
> suggestions, just noticing it if you didn't know it, maybe is not as good as
> it could and we can do it better, so if you have anything to add please do
> it.

Linking to bugs is a good thing, but many changes are done without any
bug in launchpad (or the bug wasn't linked in the changelog). So
answering the "But why are you making this change? Should I merge it in
the Debian package?" question requires a lot of effort. I'm not asking
you to write a ten-line rationale for the patch. Often, 1 to 3 lines
should be enough. And you could link to a wiki page to provide a more
detailed explanation of the problem.

For example, instead of:
+  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev build-dependency (fixes FTBFS).
You could write:
+  * debian/control: add missing libxext-dev b-dep. See
+http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Changes/libext-dev
+Should be merged in Debian.
And then, explain on the wiki that Ubuntu ships a more recent libx11,
where the dep on libext-dev was removed, so many packages needed to be
updated, and the change will arrive in Debian too, so it's better if the
Debian maintainer fixes it as well.
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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-18 Thread Lucas Nussbaum
On 17/06/08 at 22:10 -0400, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> On Tuesday 17 June 2008 21:11, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> > > There's a wiki page on
> > > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PatchTaggingGuidelines about
> > > basically the same thing (it documents the changes in the patches, which
> > > is not suitable if the changes are made directly in the source, without
> > > using a patch system), but that policy doesn't seem to be in widespread
> > > use, unfortunately.
> >
> > I didn't knew about that page and i'm sure a lot of people doesn't know
> > also, are you interested on helping me dive into wiki pages to write a
> > complete document with all of them and then try to spread the word about
> > it/them? Did someone want to help?
> 
> We have https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ContributingToDebian that would presumably be 
> the right place to start.

I disagree: the change I'm suggesting is not about "being nice to
Debian". If you improve the documentation of your changes, you will
help yourself (Ubuntu) first. Almost two years ago, I proposed to switch
from a simple "Merged with Debian" entry in changelog, to listing the
various changes in the top changelog entry[0]. I think this was a
success, and this only pushes things further.

[0] 
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2006-August/000182.html
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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-17 Thread Nicolas Valcarcel
On Tue, 2008-06-17 at 22:10 -0400, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> On Tuesday 17 June 2008 21:11, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> > > There's a wiki page on
> > > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PatchTaggingGuidelines about
> > > basically the same thing (it documents the changes in the patches, which
> > > is not suitable if the changes are made directly in the source, without
> > > using a patch system), but that policy doesn't seem to be in widespread
> > > use, unfortunately.
> >
> > I didn't knew about that page and i'm sure a lot of people doesn't know
> > also, are you interested on helping me dive into wiki pages to write a
> > complete document with all of them and then try to spread the word about
> > it/them? Did someone want to help?
> 
> We have https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ContributingToDebian that would presumably be 
> the right place to start.

Yes i knew this one, but there are more things to keep in mind, like
keeping track of links and evidence. Also, we have this document but not
everyone knows/follows it.

> Scott K

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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-17 Thread Scott Kitterman
On Tuesday 17 June 2008 21:11, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> > There's a wiki page on
> > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PatchTaggingGuidelines about
> > basically the same thing (it documents the changes in the patches, which
> > is not suitable if the changes are made directly in the source, without
> > using a patch system), but that policy doesn't seem to be in widespread
> > use, unfortunately.
>
> I didn't knew about that page and i'm sure a lot of people doesn't know
> also, are you interested on helping me dive into wiki pages to write a
> complete document with all of them and then try to spread the word about
> it/them? Did someone want to help?

We have https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ContributingToDebian that would presumably be 
the right place to start.

Scott K

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Re: About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-17 Thread Nicolas Valcarcel
Hi,

On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 5:52 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> As you might have read in [1], I worked on exporting more info about
> packages in Ubuntu to the Debian infrastructure, specifically the Debian
> PTS[2] and the Debian Developer Packages Overview[3].
>
> [1] http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=295
> [2] http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/dpkg.html
> [3]
> http://qa.debian.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]&ubuntu=1
>
> However, I'd like to use that opportunity to discuss a few points:
>
> I know you are over-busy, etc., and that your #1 priority can't be to
> push changes back to Debian.  But those changes should not replace
> submitting bugs to the Debian BTS, like the patches on patches.u.c
> should not replace submitting patches to the BTS. Most Debian Developers
> will probably only rarely have a look at the bugs in LP. If I hear
> Ubuntu Developers saying "but there was no need to report it to Debian,
> you already should have known about it since there was a link on
> PTS/DDPO!", I will strongly regret pushing that change.
>

This is true, it doesn't take a long time to report a Bug tu debian, and we
can't be lazy and say "the patch is there, if the DD want's it, he/she can
download it from there" since we want our changes in there for easier
maintainment of our packages, DD's only care about their Bugs, not ours.


>
> Secondly, you generally could improve a lot at documenting your changes.
> If you put more effort on properly documenting what you change in your
> packages, it would allow Debian developers to understand why you made a
> specific change, and they would be a lot more likely to merge the change
> in the Debian package (which means less work for you during the next
> merge). If a DD can't figure out why you made a change, it's likely that
> he won't ask you, and will just ignore the change.
>

Can you please give an example of that i don't think i'm fully understanding
your point (not a real example, just whatever comes to your mind first)


>
> It would be great if, in addition to listing the remaining changes in
> the last changelog entry, you could also list for each change:
> - the URL of the corresponding Ubuntu bug (if any)
> - the URL of the corresponding upstream bug (if any)
> - the URL of the corresponding Debian bug (if any)
> - a summary of the changes (pointing to URLs explaining the context of
>  the change, if possible/needed)
> - whether the change is Ubuntu-specific, or should be merged upstream
>  or in Debian (with a rationale if it's Ubuntu-specific)
>

We already work like this, we use to use (LP: #) which means Launchpad
Bug report # as DD's use (Closes: #), so there is no much more to do
for LP Bugs (Ubuntu ones). For the upstream and debian bugs we link them on
the LP Bug report, so if the DD is interested on following links he can from
them, with this i'm not saying is the best to do and rejecting your
suggestions, just noticing it if you didn't know it, maybe is not as good as
it could and we can do it better, so if you have anything to add please do
it.


>
> There's a wiki page on
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PatchTaggingGuidelines about
> basically the same thing (it documents the changes in the patches, which
> is not suitable if the changes are made directly in the source, without
> using a patch system), but that policy doesn't seem to be in widespread
> use, unfortunately.
>

I didn't knew about that page and i'm sure a lot of people doesn't know
also, are you interested on helping me dive into wiki pages to write a
complete document with all of them and then try to spread the word about
it/them? Did someone want to help?


>
> Thank you,
> --
> | Lucas Nussbaum
> | [EMAIL PROTECTED]   http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ |
> | jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG: 1024D/023B3F4F |
>
> -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)
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About forwarding bugs and patches to Debian and documenting your changes

2008-06-17 Thread Lucas Nussbaum
Hi,

As you might have read in [1], I worked on exporting more info about
packages in Ubuntu to the Debian infrastructure, specifically the Debian
PTS[2] and the Debian Developer Packages Overview[3].

[1] http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=295
[2] http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/dpkg.html
[3] http://qa.debian.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]&ubuntu=1

However, I'd like to use that opportunity to discuss a few points:

I know you are over-busy, etc., and that your #1 priority can't be to
push changes back to Debian.  But those changes should not replace
submitting bugs to the Debian BTS, like the patches on patches.u.c
should not replace submitting patches to the BTS. Most Debian Developers
will probably only rarely have a look at the bugs in LP. If I hear
Ubuntu Developers saying "but there was no need to report it to Debian,
you already should have known about it since there was a link on
PTS/DDPO!", I will strongly regret pushing that change.

Secondly, you generally could improve a lot at documenting your changes.
If you put more effort on properly documenting what you change in your
packages, it would allow Debian developers to understand why you made a
specific change, and they would be a lot more likely to merge the change
in the Debian package (which means less work for you during the next
merge). If a DD can't figure out why you made a change, it's likely that
he won't ask you, and will just ignore the change.

It would be great if, in addition to listing the remaining changes in
the last changelog entry, you could also list for each change:
- the URL of the corresponding Ubuntu bug (if any)
- the URL of the corresponding upstream bug (if any)
- the URL of the corresponding Debian bug (if any)
- a summary of the changes (pointing to URLs explaining the context of
  the change, if possible/needed)
- whether the change is Ubuntu-specific, or should be merged upstream
  or in Debian (with a rationale if it's Ubuntu-specific)

There's a wiki page on
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PatchTaggingGuidelines about
basically the same thing (it documents the changes in the patches, which
is not suitable if the changes are made directly in the source, without
using a patch system), but that policy doesn't seem to be in widespread
use, unfortunately.

Thank you,
-- 
| Lucas Nussbaum
| [EMAIL PROTECTED]   http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ |
| jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED] GPG: 1024D/023B3F4F |


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