[PKG-Openstack-devel] [MoM] Packaging manila

[Andreas Tille]

Hi Malihe,

On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 01:59:38AM +0430, Malihe Asemani wrote:
> > This "someone" can be any member of the team - in other words you can do
> > it yourself.
> 
> I couldn't even guess I have the permission to create an official git repo
> on the server :P. I though permissions are so limited for newcomers. Thanks
> for the hint.

The permission to create a repository does not create any harm.  Uploading
a package to the Debian mirror is something else. :-)
 
> > No, I think a usual repository is the best way to go.  If you want to
> > become a fully qualified team member of the OpenStack team I see no
> > reason to start in a sandbox. :-)
> >
> > Please try the script and tell me if anything might create trouble.
> >
> Every thing is okay.

Good.

> I created the repository using the script, and pushed the source code of
> current-stable release of Manila on Master branch.

I have checked out the repository and I now have some remarks about
Debian packaging specifics (now we get to the real MoM work ;-)).  I
also admit that the following conventions do not seem to be common
policy in the openstack team[1] and after a quick view into 
  ssh://git.debian.org/git/openstack/cinder.git
are not used in (all) openstack repositories.  However, as far as I'm
informed they are best practice for using git-buildpackage and thus I
feel obliged to teach you this way.

When using git-buildpackage you usually have three branches:

   upstream:     plain upstream source as imported from upstream tar
   debian:       upstream branch + debian packaging
   pristine-tar: some auto-generated metainformation to enable md5
                 equivalent tarball (usually you do not manually deal
                 with this)

How do you get the said layout.  Here I would like to refer to the
Debian Med policy[2].  It recommends

   git import-orig --pristine-tar /path/to/package_version.orig.tar.gz

which would import the orig.tar.gz (which does *not* contain any debian/
dir in normal cases) into the repository and automatically creates the
needed branches.  Than you manually create the debian/ dir add the files
that you need and commit these in the master branch.

> There is a newer version
> of Manila on Ubuntu repository too. which one is the best? current stable
> one
> <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/manila/2014.1~git20140220-0ubuntu13> on
> Utopic, or pre-release one
> <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/manila/2015.1~b3-0ubuntu1> on Vivid?

I admit that I have no idea what might be best (did I told you that I
have no idea about the software itself ;-)).  So my usual advise in
these cases to my MoM student is:  You are the expert.  Please pick the
version you want to see in Debian.  Perhaps zigo might have a say about
the version here.  I would usually package what upstream consideres the
latest stable release.

> I should mention that I left the commented (hook-related) lines in
> /git/openstack/setup-repository script unchanged.

That's correct.  As I mentioned in my last mail I would recommend to
create a openstack-commit list where the commits could be forwarded.
As long as this list does not exist the comments should remain.

> BTW, I read that there are different branches on Debian git repo for
> upstream, and Debian releases.

Ahh, you found about this yourself.  Fine.

> Despite all of these, I have uploaded the
> Ubuntu source-code of Manila on our Master branch. Is that OK?

It is probably what I said in my advise which was simply not precise.
Sorry about this.  My idea was more like this.  After dget-ing the
full source package use

   git import-orig --pristine-tar /path/to/manila_*.orig.tar.gz

and after this copy the debian/ dir over and add it to the master
branch.  Would you mind trying this approch again (either after
recreating the Git repository from scratch, cleaning up the current git
dir or even trying to force this over the current Git dir which would
require to create the upstream branch manually).

Please feel free to ask if something remains unclear.

BTW, I have some additional data point about the choice of the
version to package.  I would package the latest version that is
reported by

   uscan --verbose --report

- at least usually.  Uscan is using debian/watch to parse the upstream
location for a certain regular expression (we will come to this).  The
thing I noticed is that debian/watch points to launchpad.net which is
a bit suspicious since I the download location should be

   https://github.com/openstack/manila/releases

could you please confirm this download location?  If yes than I would
probably revert what I said above and would ask you to *not* use the
Ubuntu download tarball.  In this case we first fix the watch file,
download via watch file from github and inject what we find there.

> Hope this helps

... and is not to confusing due to different advises depending from
your own expertise in this field. :-)

Kind regards

        Andreas.
 

[1] https://openstack.alioth.debian.org/
[2] http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/docs/policy.html

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