On Tue, Mar 29, 2005 at 05:26:45PM +0200, Frank K?ster wrote: > After a short discussion on debian-mentors, I have written a section for > developers reference that explains what to do when a package is not > useful, or cannot be built on all architectures. The text is based on > Jeroen's text at http://www.wolffelaar.nl/~jeroen/P-a-s-HOWTO.txt. > Therefore a Cc of this mail goes to him, and we need his approval for > inclusion because the copyright is his.
Oh, you may assume my text to be in the public domain -- do with it whatever you, or anybody else, wants. > There is still one thing I do not like about the patch: There doesn't > seem to be a generic address for contacting the "maintainers" of > Packages-arch-specific, and the text lists James Troup and LaMont Jones > by name and personal e-mail-address, instead of some role address. But > it seems that there is no such thing. I suspect that the people who can > change might be just "the buildd admins", but if this is not the same as > the DSA, there isn't a role account for this group, either. A role address would be nice, currently asking whether the involved people mind it... > + <sect1 id="packages-arch-specific">When your package is <em>not</em> > portable > + <p> > +Some packages still have issues with building and/or working on some > +of the architectures supported by Debian, and cannot be ported at all, > +or not with a reasonable amount of time. An example is a package that > +is SVGA-specific (only i386), or uses other hardware-specific features > +not supported on all architectures. > + </p> > + <p> > +In order to prevent broken packages from being uploaded to the archive, and > +wasting buildd time, you need to do a few things: > + </p> > + <p> > + <list> > + <item> > + <p> > +First, make sure your package <em>does</em> fail to build on > +architectures that it cannot support. There are a few ways to achieve > +this. One way that you should always use if it is possible, is to have > +a small testsuite during build time, that will test the functionality, > +and fail if it doesn't work. This is a good idea anyway, it can > +prevent some broken uploads. > + </p> > + <p> > +Additionally, if you believe the list of supported architectures is > +pretty constant, you should change 'any' to a list of supported > +architectures in debian/control. This way, the build will fail also, > +and indicate this to a human reader without actually trying. > + </p> > + <item> > + <p> > +In order to prevent autobuilders from needlessly trying to build your > +package, it must be included in <file>packages-arch-specific</file>, a it's Packages-arch-specific, and the current version is at: http://cvs.debian.org/srcdep/Packages-arch-specific?rev=HEAD&cvsroot=dak&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup > +list used by the <prgn>wanna-build</prgn> script. Mail the > +Packages-arch-specific maintainers for including your package, > +together with why it fails to build. Currently, the people that can > +change that file include LaMont Jones <email>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</email> > +and James Troup <email>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</email> Maybe as long as there is no role address, better tell people to look at the header of this file, than to duplicate information suspectible to change over here. > + </p> > + </list> > + </p> > + <p> > +Please note that it is insufficient to only add your package to P-a-s expand acronym in documentation, I'd say. > +without making it fail to build on the unsupported architectures: A > +porter or any other person trying to build your package might > +accidently upload it without noticing it doesn't work. If in the past > +some binary packages were uploaded on unsupported architectures, > +request there removal by filing a bug against > +<package>ftp.debian.org</package> > + </p> > + </sect1> Looks otherwise fine to me. Thanks for writing the patch! --Jeroen -- Jeroen van Wolffelaar [EMAIL PROTECTED] (also for Jabber & MSN; ICQ: 33944357) http://Jeroen.A-Eskwadraat.nl -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
