[Debtags-devel] Re: where to post future data updates

[Giacomo A. Catenazzi]

Hello!

> From where shall a user get a data update?
> Options:
> 
>   (a) From my own web site.  However, tying
>       stable Debian usage to a personal web site
>       seems poor policy in principle.  What if I
>       were hit by a truck?  The man page would
>       stay in circulation but the web site would
>       disappear.
> 
>   (b) From the files area on alioth.  However,
>       this seems abusive of alioth, which is a
>       rally point for development not a download
>       mirror.
> 
>   (c) From the mirrors in the form of the
>       debram-data source package.  The user
>       would unpack the source, get the data
>       file `debram.txt', and put the latter
>       wherever he wanted it.  However, debram(1)
>       is a simple program usable by novices, for
>       whom such a procedure seems too complex.
> 
>   (d) From some other place I have not thought
>       of yet.  Maybe you can think of it.
> 

I see no problem with (a). If "you were hit by a truck",
we (Debian) should change the maintainer, so a upload
is needed. Anyway, it is not optimal for stable releases.

(c): you can implement a script to that.
see 'apt-file update'. But I see an other problem:
what version you should download? The stable should
be the same already installed. Unstable... than you
are bind to the "stable" interface and upgrades
will be difficult.
[maybe the solution is to have two files, the actual
data and the "sarge" data]

(d): sourceforge site. You could create a project and
so you can use the SF infrastructure.


IMHO, the 3 variant are equivalent, so you should choose the
better/easier variant for you.

two things to note:
- Redondancy is good, so IMHO you should include always the (a) solution
- Should work also with not networked computer, so you need some
   instruction where and how to install the file.

The better place for instruction is README.Debian,
that a short instruction in manpage is also good.


ciao
	cate