Today I discovered a relatively new project called "Debian User Repository" [1].
It's similar to the AUR, and much more than just in principle. Packages are defined as PKGBUILD files and built via makepkg [2], the tool used in the AUR. The packages are then converted to binary debs using makedeb [3]. Overall, the build process is designed to avoid "standard" Debian packaging as much as possible. I was trying to find out who made it - and this project is not related to Debian at all (the creator, Hunter Wittenborn, is not in Debian's contributor database). Also, it's goal is not creating an "AUR" for Debian, but a central replacement PPAs for Ubuntu LTS [4, 5]. For those of you who want to see my conversation with the creator, it's in a public (though encrypted) Matrix room [6]. Why do I think this is relevant for Debian? This was not the first attempt of building a "DUR" [7], and at least I personally think the name has too much weight for a project that is not related to Debian. Thus, I think we should discuss whether we should ask the creator to change the name (he is open for that, I asked him). The creator responded quite nicely and I think we shouldn't actively oppose the project itself. I think the project *can* be beneficial to Debian (at least until someone creates a DUR that actually uses the Debian build process). - Stephan [1] https://dur.hunterwittenborn.com/ [2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/makepkg [3] https://github.com/hwittenborn/makedeb [4] https://docs.hunterwittenborn.com/makedeb/debian-user-repository/intro [5] https://docs.hunterwittenborn.com/makedeb/debian-user-repository/dur-user-guidelines/package-relationships [6] https://matrix.to/#/!MlOxXUNnNLifAJrRHM:hunterwittenborn.com/$-0F8SG0pk8RH3cPkhifBCT3lnyYiZdEn1XC3sE6WxRg?via=hunterwittenborn.com&via=matrix.org&via=grin.hu [7] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2019/04/msg00064.html
