[Pkg-electronics-devel] Reviving the fped package in Debian

[Carsten Schoenert]

Hello Paul,

Am 30.06.19 um 19:15 schrieb Paul Boddie:
> Hello,
> 
> I recently discovered that the fped package in Debian is about five years out 
> of date:
> 
> https://packages.debian.org/sid/fped
> 
> It turns out that the Vcs-Git field in the control file refers to the upstream 
> sources and not the packaging files:
> 
> https://qa.debian.org/cgi-bin/vcswatch?package=fped
> 
> These files have been moved to the following location:
> 
> https://github.com/xiangfu/deb-pkg/tree/master/fped
> 
> (I am not completely sure that the location is fully compatible with the 
> Debian infrastructure tools, though.)

this repo seems to only contain some files that are used in the debian/
folder somewhere. This repo isn't really useful for anything.

If the source isn't really available anymore in the big world wide web
we have to live with the existing source tarball. I believe the source
can now be found here:

http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/fped/source/tree/master/

But this repository has not tags or releases. You might want to contact
also Werner Almesberger to get further information on this.

> Since some people are still using fped in their projects, it might be nice to 
> provide an updated version in Debian. So far, I have looked into doing the 
> following:
> 
>  * Updating the control, copyright (and compat, source/format) files
>  * Incorporating the patch provided in bug #928321 [*] within patches
>  * Running dpkg-buildpackage to check that the package still builds

It's absolutely o.k. to rebuild packages like fped at least once in the
release preparation to adopt and update the packaging. So feel free to
work on this.

> There are a few other things that might be worth doing:
> 
>  * Introducing a watch file, although the download archives are not
>    particularly accessible to uscan

uscan is very flexible as long there is some url to look at something,
given the old fped git repo isn't alive anymore adding a watch is
depending on some new source url.

>  * Investigating the special changelog and clean scripts
>  * Updating the rules to adopt current practices
> 
> I'm not completely sure if the original package maintainer is still active, so 
> I have copied him on this message. I have also copied the original developer 
> on this message as well.

That's always a good idea to include the original maintainer in actions
like yours here. So you've done everything right here.

> I don't really want to take over maintenance of this package: I just want to 
> put it back on track within the automation provided by Debian so that newer 
> versions can eventually be provided.

Why you wont take over some maintenance? My guess is that nobody from
the electronics team will jump in here directly nor will also take over
the maintainer ship for this package. But I'd at least would sponsor the
upload of an updated package if needed and appropriate.

A package like this one are easy packages to get some or more packaging
practice, I bet this package won't ever get a new upstream version a
year. ;)

-- 
Regards
Carsten Schoenert