To fix a typo.

[Alessandro Menti]

Il 17/08/2012 07:02, John Kim ha scritto:
> Hello,
>
> I'm a new contributor to motu, ready to fix a typo in a package.
>
> There is a typo error <http://paste.ubuntu.com/1151992/> in the package
> libpurple0
> Notice that suggests has 8.5, though the "suggested for increased
> functionality" has 8.4. I want to fix this typo.
>
> Using BugFixingInitiatives as my guide, I see two ways to tackle this.
>
>     1. Fix the typo within the terminal.  What was the tool that allows text
>     editing directly within the terminal.
>     2. "Edit the control file" - The control file from the latest Pidgin
>     package shows this <http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/1152001/> for
>     libpurple0.  The two files are different.  What and how should I edit?
>
> Thanks very much. Some guidance will be very much appreciated.
>
>
>
Hi John,
you should definitely edit the control file (the first paste you 
mentioned is the "real" file, autogenerated from the second one, so you 
should edit the latter).

To fix the bug, follow these steps (I'm referring to [1], read that page 
for further details, ask here on the list or join #ubuntu-motu on IRC).

1) First, check if the bug is present in the development version of 
Ubuntu (Quantal). In this case, if you go to [2], download the file 
"pidgin_2.10.6-0ubuntu1.debian.tar.gz" (the part containing the control 
files), decompress it and open debian/control, you can see the problem 
is still there, so we need to check if it occurs in Debian as well.
2) If you repeat the same process as above, this time going to [3], you 
will notice that the bug has been fixed in Debian. Therefore, you'll 
need only to prepare the patch for Ubuntu.
3) From [2] we can see that the source package for libpurple0 is 
"pidgin", so we get a copy of the latest source in Ubuntu by opening a 
terminal and typing:
sudo apt-get install bzr bzr-builddeb
bzr whoami "John Kim <johnkim.ubuntu at gmail.com>"
bzr launchpad-login launchpad-login-id    # Edit with your Launchpad ID
bzr branch lp:ubuntu/pidgin
bzr branch pidgin pidgin.fix-12345
(where "12345" is the bug number in Launchpad; if there's no bug report 
for this typo, open a new one and set its status to "Confirmed" first).
4) cd into pidgin.fix-12345. There, edit debian/control with a text 
editor and replace the "  * tcl8.4, tk8.4:" line under the section for 
the libpurple0 package.
5) Type the following commands in the terminal to edit the changelog for 
the package:
export DEBEMAIL="johnkim.ubuntu at gmail.com"
export DEBFULLNAME="John Kim"
dch -i
A text editor will open (usually nano) - insert an appropriate changelog 
message detailing your work, save and close (if you're on nano, pressing 
Ctrl+X followed by Y and Enter will do the "exit and save" thing).
Make sure you mention the bug number in the changelog: appending "(LP: 
#12345)" at the end of the message will do.
6) Run "debcommit" to commit the changes to the branch you created. 
debcommit will prepare a patch for your changes and ask you to "tag" it, 
that is, to add relevant information about it. Just follow the instructions.
7) Make sure you have added an SSH key to your Launchpad account and 
then push the changes:
bzr push lp:~launchpad-login-id/ubuntu/quantal/pidgin/fix-for-12345
bzr lp-open
8) Click on "Propose for merging into another branch" and choose 
"lp:ubuntu/pidgin" as the other branch.
9) If you can't directly upload to the Ubuntu branches, seek sponsorship 
by opening the bug report, clicking on "Subscribe someone else" on the 
right and subscribing "ubuntu-sponsors".

This will merge your fix into the current development version of Ubuntu. 
As this bug is a simple typo, your fix will (most probably) be included 
in the stable version only among other important ones; I personally 
think the best way to do that would be to wait for a security fix for 
Pidgin to appear and to contact the person in charge for fixing in 
private, but I'd like to hear other opinions from the members of this 
list as well. (The process is very similar and detailed at [4]).

Hope this helps,
Alessandro Menti

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/HowToFix
[2] http://packages.ubuntu.com/quantal/libpurple0
[3] http://packages.debian.org/sid/libpurple0
[4] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdate
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