"Ubuntu Packaging Guide"

[Scott Kitterman]

On Friday, June 03, 2011 10:25:28 AM Stefano Rivera wrote:
> Hi Scott (2011.06.03_15:51:00_+0200)
> 
> > you'll find no mention of the 'normal' tools and processes that I (and
> > I believe most) Ubuntu developers use.
> 
> I think it's useful to develop documentation aimed at where we want to
> be, a little more than where we are, as the documentation takes a while
> to mature.

This is fine as long as it is correctly characterized.

> However, I agree that the documenting the "normal" tools is entirely
> necessary. You can't understand Debian packaging well, without
> understanding the processes it was designed for.
> 
> In the beginning, when you don't have a clue what you are doing, having
> simple abstractions can help a lot. But soon enough, the packager will need
> to understand the concept of source packages and all the tools for
> dealing with them.

I agree, but the simple abstractions to be handing to new users today is not 
based on the UDD toolset (see Mackenzie's message re Quilt and .pc files for 
just one example of why).

Currently trying to package using UDD is more complex and (IMO) harder to 
understand than the traditional approach.  I think UDD documentation aimed at 
people who understand packaging would be more useful now (one small example on 
this is the current documentation does not cover what to do after you upload a 
package).  I'm not sure how complete the current draft is relative to the 
planned content coverage but so far it lacks a lot of information that was in 
the old wiki pages that I found useful when trying to use IDD.

Scott K