Ubuntu derivative package naming guidelines

[Scott Ritchie]

One thing to take advantage of is the use of the ~ character, which APT
treats as "lower" than a package not containing it.  This allows version
"2.4~unofficial-backport" to be replaced by version "2.4"

When derivative packages are being made with the expectation that the
user will eventually replace them (say, when a newer version of Ubuntu
comes out), then the use of the ~ can avoid breakages.

Thanks,
Scott Ritchie

On Thu, 2007-03-15 at 18:24 -0500, David Farning wrote:
> One of the challenges of creating the Derivative Team [1] is managing
> the chaos introduced by the large variety of distributions[2].
> 
> As such, I would like to discuss some package naming guidelines for
> Ubuntu based derivatives.
> 
> The two basic uses cases are customized packages and new packages.
> 
> 1a. The French localization team is interested in customizing a package
> to make it local specific.
>  
> 1b. The Newbuntu organization is interested in shipping a non-standard
> version of a package.
> 
> 2. The Newbuntu organization is interested in shipping a package that is
> not in the Ubuntu archives.
> 
> The catalyst for this discussion is avoiding the difficulties presented
> when debugging and upgrading automatics packages. 
> 
> 1. We want to make it obviously clear where a particular packages came
> from for debugging purposes.
> 
> 2. We want to make it obviously clear when upgrading that a non standard
> upgrade path is being taken.
> 
> Would it be appropriate to establish a standard where customized,
> non-standard, or new packages are prefaced by their distribution name.
> 
> For example:
> 
> firefox becomes Newbuntu-firefox
> mplayer becomes automatic-mplayer
> 
> This follows that established pattern of ubuntu-desktop becoming
> kubuntu-desktop.
> 
> 1. wiki.ubuntu.com/DerivativeTeam
> 2. wiki.ubuntu.com/DerivativeTeam/Derivatives
> 
> thanks
> -- 
> David Farning <dfarning at gmail.com>
> 
>