Den 17.02.2025 kl. 13.11 skrev Robin Candau:
On 2/16/25 8:21 AM, Dan "Strit" Johansen wrote:
# Package Maintainer Application
Hi everyone
My name is Dan Johansen, but known around the interwebs, Matrix and
AUR as
Strit, and I am sending in my application to become an Arch Linux
Package
Maintainer.
Hey Dan,
Thanks for applying as a Package Maintainer, good luck!
Thank you!
Morten Linderud (Foxboron) and Carl Smedstad (carsme) have kindly
agreed to
be my sponsors in this adventure.
I’m a family man, with a wife and 2 kids, we are from Denmark and
currently
living in the southern region.
My first run-in with Linux was just over 20 years ago at school where
I was
tasked to setup a firewall using Red Hat. Then I had a break for
about 10
years and came back in around 2013, where I started on Ubuntu, then
switched
to Manjaro in 2015-2016, where I became part of the dev team and a
package
maintainer of the ARM branch of the distribution and started
maintaining some
AUR packages. In 2021 I then switched to regular Arch and have been
enjoying
my time ever since.
Interesting journey!
You experience with ARM will surely be beneficial for our eventual
future endeavors :)
My PKGBUILDs in the AUR are not perfect, so I am still learning
standards and
best practices. But I’ve been eager to contribute to Arch any way I
can. I
tend to help open source projects with bug reports, support
assistance and
translations where ever I can.
Actually, your PKGBUILDs generally looks pretty good! I haven't done
an "in-depth" review off all of them (as you maintain quite a bunch)
but, after a quick glance, they generally look to be high quality and
seem to apply the "recent" expected standards, such as SPDX license
identifiers!
I could still spot some things here and there that could be improved,
from the quick review I made:
- Declaring the same packages both in the "depends" and "makedepends"
array (e.g. in gretd-qtgreet [1]) serves no purpose. If such packages
are needed at both buildtime and runtime, listing them in the
"depends" array is enough [2].
I will look into that, but I think I did it because namcap would not
accept it otherwise. I'll have to look into it again.
- Creating config files during the `prepare()` function by redirecting
"echoed" output into it (e.g. as done in tui-mines [3] & tui-sudoku
[4]) isn't so "elegant" in my opinion. I would personally distribute
them as a local file within the AUR repo, which would allow for a
better readability of the PKGBUILD and an increased transparency /
security, as said files can then be locked & verified checksum wise
(like other element of the source array).
I agree. I'll do this when I get the chance to update them.
- Apart from some specific cases, doing modifications on users' system
via an install script is unexpected and discouraged. For instance, the
"intune-portal-bin" [5] install script replacing the `/etc/os-release`
file by an Ubuntu one on people's system without any prior notice is
pretty unconventional and unexpected (despite being necessary for the
software to work properly). In my opinion, it should (at best) give
instructions about it, but not perform the action itself (specifically
without any form of notice beforehand, which could lead to unexpected
issues for users).
The intune-porta-bin package has bothered me for a while. I was trying
to make the software "usable" without needing user intervention for it
to function. But you are right. The package should not edit system files
that belong to other packages, so I will have to make the user do this
change manually by notifying them in the .install file.
But again, generally your PKGBUILDs look good and seem to be high
quality! :)
In my personal life, I work for a cloud company that specializes in
Microsoft
software, but I am full Linux nerd at home. Even my home server is
running
Arch. I was invited to join the community dinner at FOSDEM 2024 where
I met
some of the team members.
Oh, so we probably met there actually!
Very likely, I'm just introverted. ;)
I’m not very forward and a bit shy when I am around
other people, but I believe I am a kind and helpful person. I’m a
huge movie
fan[1], I play TTRPGs like D&D, World of Darkness and other small
games. In
the recent couple of years I’ve also been out “viking-camping”[2],
which is a
nice break from technology and notifications.
Here is a list of all my current AUR packages [3].
As package maintainer I would like to include and maintain the following
packages:
• `python-tmdbsimple` (a python package to access the TMDB api)
• `gpu-viewer` (a python application to view GPU information)
• `greetd-qtgreet` (a qt based greeter for greetd)
• `dfl-*` (a set of libraries written in qt for use in building
desktop
environments)
As time goes on and I get more experience I would like to also include:
• `CoreApps` (a lightweight qt based application suite)
• `watchmate` (companion app for PineTime watch)
• `wayfire` and some AUR packages that depend on it
Wayfire seems quite popular, sounds like it would be an appreciated
addition to the official repo :)
It would enable lots of stuff. But it seems like a complicated piece of
software, so time will tell.
I would also like to co-maintain:
• `griffith` (as I am responsible for the source of that
application at
this time)
Oh oh, this sounds like it would allow for an easy communication
between upstream and downstream! ;)
:D
I have also found the following orphaned packages in the repository
that I
would be able to maintain:
• `aspell-da`
• `reflector`
• `stress`
• `vcdimager` (if needed)
• `xdhg-desktop-portal-xapp` (maybe)
Thanks for taking a look at orphan packages as well :D
In Manjaro I was packaging some Qt and Electron based apps, so I
would like
to help in that realm as well.
I hope this application is worth consideration and that I have
described who
I am to a satisfactory degree, if not you are always welcome to ask.
Given that Dan was present at our FOSDEM 2024 dinner, we most likely
met but probably didn't get a chance to discuss unfortunately (as far
as I remember at least...). It's a shame because, after reading Dan's
application, he definitely seems like a nice and interesting person
that would have had valuable input and experience to bring to the
table (pun *semi-*intended I guess :P).
I have no doubt that Dan's packaging skill and past experience with
ARM will be beneficial and I think he would be a great addition to the
team!
@Dan, again, thanks for applying and good luck!
Thank you for the very kind words!
GPG Public key: `084A 7FC0 035B 1D49`
Links:
[1]: https://movies.strits.dk
[2]: https://blog.strits.dk/2023-viking-season-highlights/
[3]: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages?
O=0&SeB=m&K=Strit&outdated=&SB=p&SO=d&PP=50&submit=Go
[1] https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=greetd-qtgreet
[2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PKGBUILD#depends
[3] https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=tui-mines
[4] https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=tui-sudoku
[5] https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/intune-portal-bin
--
Med venlig hilsen / Kind Regards
Dan Johansen
