debtags defunct?

Enrico Zini enrico at enricozini.org
Fri Sep 3 05:48:01 UTC 2010


On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 04:57:09PM -0300, Tássia Camões wrote:
> 2010/8/27 MK <halfcountplus at intergate.com>:
> > The ...Packages files there do not have tag info in them, no.
> 
> I think it is part of debtags maintaince routines to keep the 'Tags: '
> field up to date in Debian Packages files. And I assume this info is
> not being propagated.
> 
> Considering that Ubuntu and other derivatives generate their own
> Packages files, and tags info is not part of the packages source, I
> would say that the only way for them to be aware of tags info is
> monitoring debtags database. And It seems that it is not happening at
> the moment.
> 
> Enrico, anythink to say about that issue?

I think you're correct, the problem seems to be that Ubuntu and GNUSense
do not add Tags information to their packages files.

Whenever I commit new tags to subversion, I generate what is called an
"override" file that I upload to Debian. The override file is used when
Packages files are created, to add the extra Tag: field.

I have no problems generating an override file for Ubuntu or GNUSense
when I do it for Debian. Or alternatively, I could set up a svn hook so
that people who manage Ubuntu or GNUSense get notified when svn updates
happen.

So far, both the tag database on alioth and the reviewed version in svn
are not distro-specific, which means they contain information for all
packages in Debian or Ubuntu regardless of architectures or of distro
version, so that would be feasible.

I reckon using an override file is not an ideal workflow, especially in
a cross-distro context, but at the moment the only alternative would be
to have tags in debian/control, which would put on the packagers the
burden of mastering a vast tag vocabulary.

I'm open to suggestions, and willing to do my best to bring tags in
other distributions' packages files. Please feel free to forward this to
the ftp-master equivalents of Ubuntu or GNUSense.


Ciao,

Enrico

-- 
GPG key: 4096R/E7AD5568 2009-05-08 Enrico Zini <enrico at enricozini.org>
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