[PKG-Openstack-devel] Packaging OpenStack command line clients

[Allison Randal]

Hi David,

Sorry to be slow to reply, it sounded like Thomas was taking things back 
over, but I haven't heard from him in a while, so I'm not sure what the 
status is. Anyway, I can mostly reply to your questions, even if I'm not 
entirely sure of the future of OpenStack packaging in Debian. :)

On 03/07/2017 03:16 PM, David Rabel wrote:
> On 04.03.2017 01:50, Allison Randal wrote:
>
> I am familiar with some debian packaging basics. I started packaging a
> few months ago.

Great! Debian packaging is mostly pretty straight-forward.

Unfortunately, the OpenStack packages in Debian have some unique/unusual 
customizations that can make them difficult to work with. And, Thomas is 
pretty much the only person who can explain these aspects of the packaging.

> I still have a few questions:
>
> Why is there a debian/newton branch? I thought, the command line clients
> have a different release cycle than the main openstack components.

It would probably be better to name the branches after the Debian 
release the packages are built for, rather than naming them after the 
OpenStack releases.

> postrm and prerm do nearly the same thing. Wouldn't one of them be enough?

One would probably be adequate. It's possible that neither is actually 
needed.

> I don't understand all of the adjustments to debian/rules. Where can I
> get information on pkgos-.. commands? Why are there commands that are
> not supposed to run?

The pkgos- commands come from a special package built for OpenStack 
Debian packaging, which isn't a standard part of either OpenStack or 
Debian. Take a look at the debian/newton branch of the code (the others 
aren't current):

https://github.com/openstack/deb-openstack-pkg-tools/tree/debian/newton

Allison