[Popcon-developers] popcon & derivatives

[Paul Wise]

On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 9:56 PM, Bill Allombert wrote:

> Using sed in a perl script is a bit backward...

Perhaps. The patch wasn't intended as the final version anyway, just a
way to start some discussion.

> What is the vendor field about ? Who set it ?

Please see the dpkg-vendor and deb-origin manual pages.

In Debian it is set by base-files.

In derivatives it is set by whoever is responsible for installing
/etc/dpkg/origins/default. Usually that means they patch base-files,
sometimes it means they have their own metapackage that installs it.

http://dex.alioth.debian.org/census/patches/b/base-files/

> What happen if the user decides to 'upgrade' to a different derivative ?

I don't think that happens often, but then they will probably get a
new dpkg origins file and the vendor reported by popcon will change.

> I suppose that you wrote theses patches with specific derivatives in mind.

No, just derivatives in general.

> What do they do with respect to the vendor field and popcon ?

None of the derivatives except Ubuntu (and its derivatives) and
DebianEdu have their own popcon servers (AFAICS). The others all send
popcon submissions to Debian if it is installed and enabled.

http://dex.alioth.debian.org/census/patches/p/popularity-contest/

> I wonder whether separating count by popcon version and count by vendor field to be
> helpful. It would probably more useful to count each pair (popcon version, vendor field)
> separately because that more or less match the notion of derivative releases

There are many derivatives that don't do releases, or release much
more often than Debian (some monthly). That might be useful for those
who are based on stable or have a slower release cycle though.

-- 
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise