[buildd-tools-devel] sbuild maintenance, bug handling and patch review needed

[Roger Leigh]

On Sat, Aug 30, 2014 at 02:03:28PM -0700, Geoffrey Thomas wrote:
> On Wed, 12 Feb 2014, Roger Leigh wrote:
> 
> >Dear all,
> >
> >I'm afraid that at present I don't have the time or inclination to be able
> >to give sbuild any real support in terms to keeping up with bug reports,
> >including those with patches which need review.  There are a number which
> >could use some attention, particularly those with patches which need
> >applying and uploading.  I don't want to be a blocker for these things.
> >I'm also trying to reduce the amount of time I spend typing each day to
> >mitigate the RSI I'm currently suffering from, and this means the amount
> >of time I devote to Debian needs to be reduced.
> >
> >If anyone would be able to take over some of this stuff, I'd be very
> >grateful.  I'll continue to be available for answering questions and
> >helping where I am able, but I'm afraid I won't be able to continue as
> >one of the primary maintainers for the foreseeable future.
> 
> Hi Roger,
> 
> I haven't seen much response to this, and personally I'm awaiting
> seeing my --extra-package and --extra-repository patches (#700522,
> #714883) land in sbuild in Jessie. There are also a fair number of
> patches on the BTS awaiting merge. I'd like to do a team upload
> rolling up a bunch of the outstanding patches on the BTS. Does that
> sound good to you?

That would be wonderful, thank you.  I'd like to apologise for
dropping the ball on this, and not replying to all these bugs in
a timely manner, but typing has simply been too painful to keep
on top of everything.

In addition to the BTS, it might be worth checking the current
buildd git branch to pick up any changes (excluding buildd-
specific stuff), and if sbuild got NMUd without any git update
these changes will also need committing.

> Are there any particular patches where you know something nonobvious
> I should pay attention to before merging?

Not that I'm aware of.  I've looked over a few without merging or
testing, and I didn't see anything problematic.

> I'll send a request to join the Alioth project so I can commit this
> upload to git.

Thanks, you will be welcome to commit to git.

The only thing to be aware of when it comes to releasing a proper
stable release is that you need to (in a pristine clean git checkout):

- update NEWS with a summary of the new features and major changes
- update NEWS with the correct version on line 4 and commit it
- run ./bootstrap and configure (updates VERSION)
- run scripts/git-tag-release (signs upstream release tag)
- run debian/git-tag-debian (signs debian point release tag)
- run "make dist" to get the official release tarball which you can
  then rename to .orig.tar.gz
- build the .orig.tar.gz for upload

I usually then install the new sbuild packages and then build it
again with the installed sbuild to check it can build itself
with itself prior to uploading (as a final sanity check).

If you want to be really rigorous you can run the "testsuite" which
is done by building with "--enable-chroot-checks" and running 
"make check" (scripts under test/).  Should just require an
"unstable" chroot.


I hope I might be a bit more available in a few months--I recently
got a Kinesis Freestyle2 keyboard at work and this has made a
difference (so far as I can tell), and I've just ordered one for
home as well, so if things continue to improve I'll be able to do
more.  But for now I'm still stepping back from development outside
work.


Many thanks for this!
Roger

-- 
  .''`.  Roger Leigh
 : :' :  Debian GNU/Linux    http://people.debian.org/~rleigh/
 `. `'   schroot and sbuild  http://alioth.debian.org/projects/buildd-tools
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