PROPOSED: slight change to wnpp procedures

[Branden Robinson]

See  for reference.

When a package that has been ITP'ed is finally packaged, I'd like to
suggest that it be reassigned to ftp.debian.org.  The package changelog
can and should still use "Closes: #", so that the bug is
closed automatically, but this way it is clear that the matter is out of
the (prospective) package maintainer's hands, or those of the WNPP
group, and in that of the FTP maintainers.

If a package is rejected by the FTP admins, they should email the bug
number and explain why.  If by its very nature a package can't be
accepted into the project, perhaps the bug should retitled "UTP" [unable
to package] and reassigned to wnpp.

Advantages:

1) This better reflects the actual process by which packages get into
Debian, and who is responsible for a package at a given stage of its
life-cycle.

2) This gives the FTP admins a place to put information relevant to the
process of accepting (or not) a new package into the archive.  For
instance, here's part of the output of ls -hlrt on auric's incoming
directory:

-rw-r--r--1 philhDebian   1.2k Jul  3 02:31 
memoization_1.0-4_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 viralDebian   1007 Jul  3 13:49 
kernel-patch-folk_1.10-1_hppa.changes
-rw-rw-r--1 troupDebian   1.0k Jul  6 13:25 
mnews_1.22PL5-1_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 troupDebian   1000 Aug 29 16:50 
sword-comm-mhcc_1.1-1_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 troupDebian   1019 Aug 29 17:01 
sword-dict-naves_1.1-1_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 was  Debian988 Sep  1 22:21 
csmash-demosong_1.0_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 chanop   Debian   1.2k Sep 15 02:59 
libjpeg-mmx_0.1.3-1_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 chanop   Debian   1.3k Sep 15 03:03 
libmpeg3_1.4-1_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 chanop   Debian   1.1k Sep 15 07:43 
bcast_2000c-1_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 branden  Debian   1.5k Sep 18 09:43 
xmailtool_3.1.2b-1.4_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 gibreel  Debian   1.9k Sep 19 12:43 
j2se1.3-powerpc_1.3.0-1_powerpc.changes
-rw-r--r--1 gibreel  Debian   2.1k Sep 20 13:28 
j2se1.3-i386_1.3.1-1.1_i386.changes
-rw-r--r--1 marillat Debian   1.3k Sep 21 10:46 rte_0.3.1-1_i386.changes

Some of those packages have been there quite a while.  Some of them,
like the FOLK collection of kernel packages, and Broadcast 2000, are
quite interesting, but I'm not sure where to look for information about
why they haven't been accepted yet (other new packages have been in the
meantime).  After xmailtool sat in the incoming queue for several days,
I filed a bug against ftp.debian.org .

"Hi,

xmailtool is one of those de facto unmaintained packages that hasn't
seen an upload since potato released.

I uploaded an NMU on September 18th that fixes a serious bug in the
package (it has a file overlap with xlibs, which might actually be a
grave bug, not just serious).

Please add xmailtool to the katie database.  madison knows about the
version in stable, if that's any help."

The bug was quickly closed by one of the FTP admins:

"xmailtool is a NEW package.  It will be processed as normal. You are
not going to harass us into special casing you by filing hysterical
bug reports."

So I replied:

"Please quote to me the part of the report that was hysterical, so I can
avoid using such language in the future."

The FTP admins' only further reply was to the BTS control bot:

"tags 113360 wontfix
severity 113360 wishlist
thanks

Bored now."

Clearly not a very productive exchange.  Apparently the package is never
to be accepted into Debian, and the FTP admins have not explained why.

Disadvantages:

I can't think of any.

Comments?  WNPP guys, what do you think?

-- 
G. Branden Robinson|I just wanted to see what it looked
Debian GNU/Linux   |like in a spotlight.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |-- Jim Morrison
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |


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Re: PROPOSED: slight change to wnpp procedures

[Aaron Lehmann]

On Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 08:15:08PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> When a package that has been ITP'ed is finally packaged, I'd like to
> suggest that it be reassigned to ftp.debian.org.

Branden, stop making hysterical comments.

Re: PROPOSED: slight change to wnpp procedures

[Jason Thomas]

On Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 07:05:13PM -0700, Aaron Lehmann wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 25, 2001 at 08:15:08PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> > When a package that has been ITP'ed is finally packaged, I'd like to
> > suggest that it be reassigned to ftp.debian.org.
> 
> Branden, stop making hysterical comments.

Thats not really fair now is it!  Branden is trying to make the
procedure better if his suggestions are wrong how about making
constructive criticism.


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Re: PROPOSED: slight change to wnpp procedures

[Aaron Lehmann]

On Wed, Sep 26, 2001 at 12:54:15PM +1000, Jason Thomas wrote:
> > Branden, stop making hysterical comments.
> 
> Thats not really fair now is it!  Branden is trying to make the
> procedure better if his suggestions are wrong how about making
> constructive criticism.

Tell that to James Troup.

Re: PROPOSED: slight change to wnpp procedures

[Scott Dier]

* Aaron Lehmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [010925 22:43]:
> > Thats not really fair now is it!  Branden is trying to make the
> > procedure better if his suggestions are wrong how about making
> > constructive criticism.
> Tell that to James Troup.

Perhaps next time let him make the comment instead.

-- 
Scott Dier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.ringworld.org/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

"History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of
urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure."
- Justice Thurgood Marshall (1989)

Re: PROPOSED: slight change to wnpp procedures

[Junichi Uekawa]

Branden Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> immo vero scripsit

> When a package that has been ITP'ed is finally packaged, I'd like to
> suggest that it be reassigned to ftp.debian.org.  The package changelog
> can and should still use "Closes: #", so that the bug is
> closed automatically, but this way it is clear that the matter is out of
> the (prospective) package maintainer's hands, or those of the WNPP
> group, and in that of the FTP maintainers.

Rather than making it to be reassigned to something else,
it might be better to retitle it to make it look 

"ITP-uploaded: package - description"

or

"Uploaded: package - description"

and still assigned to wnpp.


It will make clearer which packages are still in preparation
and which are not (which is not obvious in the current state),
and not make ftp.debian.org overloaded with bugs.



But it's one more step to the procedure, and 
I guess it will add to the confusion / manual mistakes.

thanks,
junichi

-- 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer