I started to work on packaging. This is pretty stalled, as it is very hard to find adequate documentation or help. I am unsure how I can package the software I write to help Debian users to install and use it.
The problem I have now is: % debuild -us -uc … dpkg-source: info: local changes detected, the modified files are: bsdowl-2.2.1/config.log … Writing a config.log file is a normal side-effect of the configuration step. How do I tell the package building system about this? My favourite search engine could not help me, many users having a similar issue are redirected to “We use quilt for managing patches” which does not seem very suited to my problem. Side note #1 — Porting to FreeBSD or MacPorts I wrote ports of bsdowl for FreeBSD and MacPorts, it took me less than an hour for each port, while I already invested more than five hours (well six, after writing this!) on the Debian package without having reached an end. The bsdowl software uses bmake, the BSD version of make. Aside from that, it has a pretty standard installation procedure ./configure --prefix=/usr bmake -r bmake -r install No patch, etc. nothing. Understanding why I need to work more than five hours to get this simplistic software packaged in Debian is beyond me. To understand this difference, it seems important to note that FreeBSD and MacPorts enjoy: - A well identified official documentation For FreeBSD it is the Porter's handbook https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/porters-handbook For MacPorts is is the port documentation https://guide.macports.org/#development - A well written official documentation For MacPorts the documentation is extremely well written and very short. The introduction is very useful because it describes the phases I will go through to prepare my port (configure, build, etc.), which corresponds to what I do when I manually install software. It is therefore something familiar and useful to picture oneself's progresses. The documentation and the system are splendid, they make porting simple software just as simple as possible. For FreeBSD the documentation might be not so well written as MacPorts but is still clear and have a “Quick Porting” chapter which will let me quickly port simple software. I think the printed version of that chapter might be well under 5 pages. For Debian (in https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/first.en.html) I wether find a useful step-to-go-through list nor a minimal example that I can use. Also, there is so many tools and layers involved that minimal examples found elsewhere left me with esoteric error messages, which are not clearly related to the builld/install procedure or the command I used. Port systems used by FreeBSD and MacPorts are very thin, so most errors are fairly clear (ulp, it tried to copy the files in the worng directory!) and fixing them is most of the time straightforward. Side note #2 — About documentation: There is too many guides, too many tools, all of them lack information I can use to answer the question “Is this the document I have to read to package my software?”. Skimming through these documents looking for keywords related to my problem only added to my confusion. From the wiki, which looks to me as a kind of official documentation: 1. https://wiki.debian.org/Packaging 2. https://wiki.debian.org/HowToPackageForDebian 3. https://wiki.debian.org/IntroDebianPackaging There is also: 4. https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide These guides use various tools (debuild, debhelper and maybe more) so instead of completing themselves they just offer me alternative directions. Side note #3 — Community Some recommended help channels (such as #debian-mentors) are invitation only. This should be mentioned in https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide, where the recommendation is made. Best regards, Michael Grünewald -- Michael -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/544e2865.2070...@gmail.com
