build-from-branch into the primary archive

[Scott Kitterman]

Martin Pool <mbp at canonical.com> wrote:

>I'd like to do a new feature in Launchpad to help Ubuntu, which is to
>allow packages to be built directly from source package branches.
>This would address one of the messy parts of source package branches
>at the moment, which is the need to upload the package, mark it
>uploaded, and also push the branch.  This will build on things that
>seems to be quite popular and successful with ppa building from
>recipes, and help us simplify some redundantc
>
>Most of what we need to do this already exists, so I'm hoping that
>we'll be able to get it up quite quickly.
>
>I would like to start on this soon by just offering it as an adjunct
>to regular dput uploads, for a limited set of packages. For packages
>in that set, when someone commits to the branch, a part of Soyuz will
>automatically assemble a source package and queue it for building.
>This will let people try it out while still having the option to keep
>using regular dput uploads.
>
>We have a Launchpad Enhancement Proposal (LEP) about this at
><https://dev.launchpad.net/LEP/BuildFromBranchIntoPrimary>.  I'd
>appreciate hearing of
>
> * any problems you can spot in this
> * any missing constraints or likely snags we ought to consider
> * anyone or any packages who'd like to be first to try it

A few thoughts for you on this:

1. From the LEP: Disabling dput uploads is not a nice to have. It's a misfeature that violates (AIUI) one of the core assumptions given to Ubuntu developers when this project was started: That we are free to ignore it.  I find it very troubling that it's listed as a goal of any kind (the discussion about being able to enforce the use of merge proposals convinces me this is not accidental).

2. From my recollection of recent mail list discussions: I recall an issue where an existing branch can be made official, but the owner of the branch could retain access to the branch even if they didn't have upload rights for the package. This must be fixed before build from branch is enabled in the main archive.

3. From my earlier experiments with UDD: I recall issues with the md5sum of the generated tarball matching upstream in preference to matching Debian. Debian is (mostly) our immediate upstream and needs to be the preferred source (it may be reasonable to provide an option to pull from upstream in cases it's preferred).

There's probably more, but that's what comes immediately to mind.

Scott K