The syncing process and syncpackage (or: How to speedup the syncing process)

[Scott Kitterman]

> Hi,
>
> We have the syncpackage script in the ubuntu-dev-tools branch [1] and I
> extended the script. The script produces a .changes file that you can
> upload to Ubuntu. If you want to sync xmms2 from Debian unstable you
> could run
>
> syncpackage xmms2
>
> If you want to sync it from testing, you can run
>
> syncpackage xmms2 -d testing
>
> If you want to sync a specific version:
>
> syncpackage xmms2 -V 0.7DrNo-7
>
> If you are the maintainer in Debian and want to release the same package
> to Ubuntu, you can run syncpackage on a local (or remote) .dsc URL
>
> syncpackage abraca_0.5.0-3.dsc
>
> To sponsor a sync request, you could specify the uploader and let
> Launchpad close the sync request bug:
>
> syncpackage shutter -u "Artur Rona <ari-tczew at tlen.pl>" -b 581273
>
> BTW, the script can detect mismatching source tarballs and do a
> fakesync.
>
> So what do you think about this script? Is it ready for wider audience?
> Should we allow syncpackage for syncing as alternative to subscribing
> archive-admins or can we change the sync process to use syncpackage
> instead of subscribing archive-admins? Archive Admins, what do you
> think?
>
> Having a sync button in Launchpad would be nice, but can it sponsor
> syncs and will it available via launchpadlib?

I agree there are times when this sort of thing is useful, but generally
syncs are not urgent except in the eyes of impatient developers.  We did
do a proper sync run on Monday or Tuesday before the Lucid release.  Now
that Universe is much better integrated in the release process, I think
the need for such a script is less than in the past.

Manually running syncpackage does add chances for errors.  This is why
it's use has been discouraged in the past.  I think this is still a good
reason to minimize it's use.

The real answer is a sync button in the LP U/I.  Now that Soyuz has Debian
branches locally, this shouldn't be too difficult for someone to
implement.

Scott K