[Pkg-octave-devel] Octave 3.4

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 4 February 2011 03:29, Thomas Weber <tweber at debian.org> wrote:
> barring any unexpected last-minute issues, Octave 3.4 will be
> released this week-end. Please do NOT upload it immediately.

Does anyone besides yourself have upload privileges right now? Or do
you mean on the git repos?

> *** Naming ***
[...]
> So, we need a smooth transition from octave3.2-* to octave-*.

What sort of work does this require? Do we need to make dummy
transition packages?

> *** Packaging ***
> We have a long-standing bug with respect to the placement of
> Octave's libraries and corresponding SONAMES,

> http://bugs.debian.org/510579

I don't really understand what kind of work this entails either, but I
suppose that we'll have to start maintaining an octave.symbols file as
part of it.

> *** Git ***
> We currently keep only the debian/ directory in git. Jordi did
> change this for the symbolic package, but I think we should discuss

> a) whether we want to do this at all
> b) if yes, how to best tackle it.

Well, I think it should be obvious what I think about it. Pretty much
all of the other packagers who use git recommend having the upstream
source under git control as well and to keep the debian/ directory in
a separate git branch. I find it very convenient. It's a little bit of
work, but git-buildpackage eases the process, and I think that after
doing this for one package, it should be easier for me to do more, at
least for the 'Forge packages. I do think that the current scheme of
only having debian/ under source control is a holdover from the svn
days and doesn't need to be done anymore.

- Jordi G. H.