[Popcon-developers] popcon & derivatives

[Bill Allombert]

On Tue, May 07, 2013 at 10:24:21PM +0800, Paul Wise wrote:
> 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.

They did not contain the relevant informations.

> 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/

This link gives quite a good picture what the vendor field is used for,
thanks.

> > 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/

So essentially the derivatives either use Debian version or Ubuntu version.

Do you have data on how much their Packages files differ from Debian ?

The computation of the popcon vote relies on the dependencies graphs. Without
the knowledge of the derivatives Packages files, the votes are not computed 
accurately.

But anyway, all the more reason to add a vendor field, I guess.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe at debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.