[Debtags-devel] Re: debram: 100 % prelim for sarge

[Thaddeus H. Black]

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I happened to be on-line when your message came
in.  Unfortunately I will not be much available
for Debian during the coming three weeks.  This
is bad freeze timing, I know; but I cannot help
it now.  I am willing to get NMU help during
this period if needed.  On the other hand, for
my own part, I do feel content to let sarge
debram be released after sarge.

Giacomo wrote,

> If you can split the task, i.e. doing first the
> important priority and eventually also the standard
> priority packages, so that we can already upload something
> in sarge.

Fair enough.  With the Alpha autobuilder out of
action, though, I had thought that even our most
recent upload debram_0.4.2 was probably
impossible for sarge.  It is now 16 days old,
waiting on Alpha.  Hundreds of updates are
waiting on Alpha, not just ours.  Do you know
something about this which I do not know?

> Ev. you could prepare a README.Debian file where
> you refer to your work and where to find the
> complete sarge version when completed.

Okay.  Should the file just say to look for it
in sid?  Or is there something better it could
say?

I admit that I have never thought that sarge
debram would be in the sarge release.  This is
why it is Priority `extra': woody debram is in
the sarge release; debram is one release behind.
The debram has no practical mechanism yet to get
it into the same release it covers!  This is
because it needs a final release package list
before it itself can properly be packaged.  Few
other packages have such a need.  This is pretty
much a unique debtags/debram problem.

The problem is eventually surmountable, and I
would be surprised if Enrico did not have some
good ideas about how to handle it for sarge+1
(when debram will have merged into debtags); but
are we ready to tackle this problem yet?  This
is not just a development issue; it is also a
Debian Project operational issue.  I am not even
a DD yet; and debram is not established, widely
installed or broadly tested (popcon installed
85, vote 17).  The release team would be
unlikely to listen to me.  In fact, I doubt that
they have ever even heard of me, or the debram.
I cannot go there now.  The ground is not
prepared.  Under Enrico's debtags leadership, we
are drawing some big guns out onto the field of
battle, but it is going to be a while (how long,
Enrico? another year?) before we can really
advance with maximum force.

Now, if some DD with bigger free-software
shoulders than mine felt strongly enough that he
wanted to step in and personally make sarge
debram go for sarge; I would welcome his NMUs
and would assist him in any way that I could.
Otherwise, I remain content to release sarge
debram after sarge.  Because of the peculiar
nature and needs of debram, this is so much
simpler.

For sarge+1, debram is planned to be a part of
debtags, no longer a separate package.  I feel
confident that Enrico will have some good plans
for tackling the big Debian Project operational
issue then.

Anyway, Giacomo, you have mentored me well thus
far.  I appreciate this and I trust your advice.
If you want me to proceed differently, just let
me know.  Only remember that I will have limited
Debian availability for the next three weeks.

--=20
Thaddeus H. Black
P.O. Box 1020, Christiansburg, Virginia 24068
USA; +1 540 961 0920, t@b-tk.org

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