Uploading to multiple distros

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Thu, Jun 02, 2011 at 01:54:37PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Iain Lane writes ("Re: Uploading to multiple distros"):
> > For "normal" syncs we generally advise not using syncpackage, but it 
> > might make sense when doing simultaneous uploads.
> 
> Hrm.  So syncpackage generates a .changes for uploading to ubuntu from
> the .dsc (which presumably came out of the Debian build).  That does
> mean though that the Ubuntu target suite is not visible in the
> changelog of the ultimate Ubuntu package.

That's true for most Ubuntu packages anyway, since the source packages are
copied unmodified from Debian.  We've accepted this since the beginning, as
it's certainly not worth modifying the package just to have this be correct.

It's similar to how in Debian, the changelog says the package was uploaded
to unstable but now it's in testing or stable having propagated there
unmodified.

> And if the package is not accepted into the Debian archive for any reason,
> the changelog is very misleading because it looks like a sync from Debian.

True, but perhaps harmless.

> > This at least works when uploading packages prepared for Debian to 
> > Ubuntu. I'm not sure how well Debian's infrastructure would cope if the 
> > changelog specifies an Ubuntu release.
> 
> Debian's archive tools don't look at the changelog either, I think.
> But the .changes file is generated from it.  Both Debian and Ubuntu
> will reject a .changes file containing unrecognised suites.
> 
> One way to enable simultaneous uploads would be to arrange for
> dpkg-genchanges to filter out suites for "other" distros when
> generating the .changes file.  Then you would have the same files
> being uploaded but two different .changes files.

Yes, it seems like it would be straightforward enough to generate two
appropriate .changes files for this case, and it would do the right thing.

-- 
 - mdz