ITP: pmud
d-devel & d-mentors, Hi. I'm not yet a developer, so I need a sponsor for this, my first package. 'pmud' is a daemon that monitors battery life on the Powerbook line of Apple computers. It's distributed under the GPL2, and available at http://www3.jvc.nl/linuxppc/ (as RPMs and SRPMS). - chad Source: pmud Section: admin Priority: optional Maintainer: Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Standards-Version: 3.0.1 Package: pmud Architecture: powerpc Depends: ${shlibs:Depends} Provides: apmd Recommends: hdparm Suggests: xserver,wish Description: Power management utilities for Powerbooks -- apmd for powerpc pmud is a system daemon that monitors battery status and events through the PMU on Apple Powerbooks. It supports several models, including the PB2400/3400/3500, 1999 G3 (Lombard), and earlier G3 Powerbooks (Wallstreet). Package: pmud-doc Architecture: powerpc Description: Documentation for pmud pmud is a system daemon that monitors battery status and events through the PMU on Apple Powerbooks. It supports several models, including the PB2400/3400/3500, 1999 G3 (Lombard), and earlier G3 Powerbooks (Wallstreet).
Re: gpg couldn't import pgp keys
On Mon, Jun 05, 2000 at 10:22:49AM +0100, Julian Gilbey wrote: > It's possible that GPG reads the keyrings in the reverse order to that > in which they are listed in the options file[...] It seems to. It is counterintuitive and undocumented. This is a bug in the code. In fact, the documentation states that a 'keyring' line in the config file _adds_ that kr to the list -- and that's not really true for the first. The personal keyring is implied, but ignored if there are any keyring lines, but none mentioning the personal keyring. This is a bug in the documentation. Anyone here develop gnupg upstream? - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic')
Re: NM : Dale Scheetz : is NM working fine ?
I've spoken with Dale Sheetz, and he's having hardware problems. The last storm smacked the magic smoke out of most of his internetting hardware, so it might take a few days for him to be back. He really is working hard at getting NM fully dequeued, tho. - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic') pgpIrSWF0kgI5.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: bugreports potato/woody
On Tue, Oct 10, 2000 at 05:17:35PM +, Gerd Knorr wrote: > What is the recommended way to deal with bugs which are present in > the potato package but already fixed in woody? If you're talking about reporting/bug-tracking, I just suggested a 'stableonly' BTS tag on debian-devel . (No one seemed to notice.) - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic')
Re: info on the autobuilder?
On Wed, Nov 22, 2000 at 03:22:55AM +0800, zhaoway wrote: > in particular, i'm wondering if a `closes: Bug#X' in changelog > could actually close a bug in BTS ? Is that the preferred way to > close bugs ? It does; it's a function of dinstall. The autobuilder doesn't come into it. hth. - chad (An NM, not mentor.) -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic')
Re: test followup (was Re: creating man pages)
On Thu, Dec 14, 2000 at 01:45:25PM +1100, Drew Parsons wrote: > It's still writing "drew" into the Followup-To header. I'll try unsetting > the mutt variable this time. Try: set nofollowup_to I think this might be buggy, in that it's prolly never correct to send a 'MFT: UserWithNoMailDomain' . I'm not confident enough to file a bug report on it, tho. - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic')
changes and arch?
Hi, all. I have a question about the subject of the following message. I built a freeradius binary .deb and ...powerpc.changes on a powerpc. Is the changes file really architecture-specific? I didn't think so, but the name is wierd. - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic') Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from troup by auric.debian.org with local (Exim 3.12 1 (Debian)) id 14FM2A-0004tH-00; Sun, 07 Jan 2001 15:03:18 -0500 From: Debian Installer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: radiusd-freeradius_0.0.20001227-1_powerpc.changes is NEW Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 15:03:18 -0500 (new) radiusd-freeradius_0.0.20001227-1.dsc standard net (new) radiusd-freeradius_0.0.20001227-1.tar.gz standard net (new) radiusd-freeradius_0.0.20001227-1_powerpc.deb standard net A high-performance and highly configurable RADIUS server A high-performance and highly configurable RADIUS server. freeradius is similar to Livingston's 2.0 and derived from Cistron's server, but has support for... - many vendor-specific attributes - proxying and replicating requests by any criteria - authentication on system passwd, MySQL, LDAP, users, PAM - multiple DEFAULT configurations - regexp matching in string attributes and lots more. Changes: radiusd-freeradius (0.0.20001227-1) unstable; urgency=low . * Initial revision. (closes: Bug#76476) Announcing to debian-devel-changes@lists.debian.org Closing bugs: 76476 Your package contains new components which requires manual editing of the override file. It is ok otherwise, so please be patient. New packages are usually added to the override file about once a week. You may have gotten the distribution wrong. You'll get warnings above if files already exist in other distributions.
Re: NM : Dale Scheetz : is NM working fine ?
I've spoken with Dale Sheetz, and he's having hardware problems. The last storm smacked the magic smoke out of most of his internetting hardware, so it might take a few days for him to be back. He really is working hard at getting NM fully dequeued, tho. - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic') PGP signature
Re: bugreports potato/woody
On Tue, Oct 10, 2000 at 05:17:35PM +, Gerd Knorr wrote: > What is the recommended way to deal with bugs which are present in > the potato package but already fixed in woody? If you're talking about reporting/bug-tracking, I just suggested a 'stableonly' BTS tag on debian-devel . (No one seemed to notice.) - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic') -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: info on the autobuilder?
On Wed, Nov 22, 2000 at 03:22:55AM +0800, zhaoway wrote: > in particular, i'm wondering if a `closes: Bug#X' in changelog > could actually close a bug in BTS ? Is that the preferred way to > close bugs ? It does; it's a function of dinstall. The autobuilder doesn't come into it. hth. - chad (An NM, not mentor.) -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic') -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: test followup (was Re: creating man pages)
On Thu, Dec 14, 2000 at 01:45:25PM +1100, Drew Parsons wrote: > It's still writing "drew" into the Followup-To header. I'll try unsetting > the mutt variable this time. Try: set nofollowup_to I think this might be buggy, in that it's prolly never correct to send a 'MFT: UserWithNoMailDomain' . I'm not confident enough to file a bug report on it, tho. - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic') -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
changes and arch?
Hi, all. I have a question about the subject of the following message. I built a freeradius binary .deb and ...powerpc.changes on a powerpc. Is the changes file really architecture-specific? I didn't think so, but the name is wierd. - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> URL: http://web.chad.org/ (GPG) "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced". First corollary to Clarke's Third Law (Jargon File, v4.2.0, 'magic') Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from troup by auric.debian.org with local (Exim 3.12 1 (Debian)) id 14FM2A-0004tH-00; Sun, 07 Jan 2001 15:03:18 -0500 From: Debian Installer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: radiusd-freeradius_0.0.20001227-1_powerpc.changes is NEW Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 15:03:18 -0500 (new) radiusd-freeradius_0.0.20001227-1.dsc standard net (new) radiusd-freeradius_0.0.20001227-1.tar.gz standard net (new) radiusd-freeradius_0.0.20001227-1_powerpc.deb standard net A high-performance and highly configurable RADIUS server A high-performance and highly configurable RADIUS server. freeradius is similar to Livingston's 2.0 and derived from Cistron's server, but has support for... - many vendor-specific attributes - proxying and replicating requests by any criteria - authentication on system passwd, MySQL, LDAP, users, PAM - multiple DEFAULT configurations - regexp matching in string attributes and lots more. Changes: radiusd-freeradius (0.0.20001227-1) unstable; urgency=low . * Initial revision. (closes: Bug#76476) Announcing to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Closing bugs: 76476 Your package contains new components which requires manual editing of the override file. It is ok otherwise, so please be patient. New packages are usually added to the override file about once a week. You may have gotten the distribution wrong. You'll get warnings above if files already exist in other distributions. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: directory permission not changed by dpkg
On Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at 03:58:42PM +0100, Bill Allombert wrote: > Is there a work around ? I can use postinst script, but how can I > handle downgrade ? {post,pre}{inst,rm} scripts receive the version number of the replaced and replacing versions as arguments, IIRC. Use 'dpkg --compare-versions' to decide what to do. Btw, I'm not addressing whether this is "legal", just that it's possible. -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.advogato.org/person/cmiller/> ``Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.'' -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Request for a sponsor (clisp)
On Fri, Mar 15, 2002 at 11:17:20PM +, Will Newton wrote: > A program I use (GNU Common Lisp) is currently orphaned (#123279) and has a > couple of RC bugs to it's name. I would like to adopt this package and also > become a Debian developer. Obviously for this I would require a sponsor, so > is anyone interested in sponsoring me for this package? I'm interested in having clisp actively maintained. I'm pretty new to it, but I can sponsor you. > BTW - I do realise that this package appears to be a portability PITA but I > think I can cope with that. :) Hope so! -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.advogato.org/person/cmiller/> ``Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.'' -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 1.2 after 1.2pre
On Tue, Apr 02, 2002 at 08:39:33PM +0200, Michael Banck wrote: > On Wed, Apr 03, 2002 at 03:08:49AM +0900, Oohara Yuuma wrote: > > The upstream of zblast released 1.2 after he released 1.2pre. > > The problem is that dpkg thinks 1.2 is older than 1.2pre. > > So I asked him what I should do. He picked 1.2.1 for > > the Debian package, saying "I very rarely use x.y.z > > versions, and I've never used them for zblast." > > > > Did I do something wrong here? I don't think an epoch > > is for such a case. > > AFAIK, it's exactly for that case. It would work this time (as 1:1.2 > 1.2pre), but the next time, should he bump the epoch again? I don't think so. 2:1.3 > 1:1.3pre > 1:1.3 . Yuuma's in a fix, and epochs will fix this case, but it's the wrong thing to plan on doing in general. I'd even try really hard to avoid it, using 1.2.0 this time, instead of prepending an epoch. Epochs are ugly. I usually use 1.2+MMDD for snapshots and 1.1+1.2preN for "prereleases". I did adopt a package (openjade) that has such a problem, though. - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.advogato.org/person/cmiller/> ``Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.'' -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: gpg key validity question
On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 10:04:20AM -0400, christophe barb? wrote: > I wonder if it is acceptable to sign a key from someone that : > [irrelevent stuff] > But the key makes no references to his name. > > In my understanding the ID is useless but I have enough element to > believe he is the guy he said he is. You're not vouching for his real life identity! > I understand that if I sign his key I personnaly identify him and it > will be enough for him in regard to the identification part of the NM > process. > > Should I sign his key ? No! One doesn't really sign "keys". One signs identification. If you meet someone, your goal is to match the picture ID with the face, and the name on the ID with the UID in the keyring. Just because we meet, and I show you an ID doesn't mean you should accept any key I give you, else I could have you vouch for the identity of myself as "Bubba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>". Now, there's usually no good way to match the email address with the person, but as long as the name-part of the ID is okay, you might be comfortable signing those you're reasonably sure are okay, but only if they have the person's real name. "Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>" is hard to dispute in a bar, but you should make ABSOLUTELY SURE about the Chad Miller part. It's the "Chad Miller" part that you're signing. In short, meet someone. Match their face to their ID. Match their ID to the key UID they claim. Glance at the email address, to check that it's not obviously bogus. If any fail, then do nothing. - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: gpg key validity question
On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 11:22:50AM -0400, christophe barb? wrote: > IDs are easily forged. I am sure of that since I have see how it works To misquote Old Man Murray, it's better than relying on scent. IDs are the best thing we have for identifying the person's real name, and real names are _required_ for Debian. Email addresses come and go. Nicknames should be in comments of UIDs, not as real names. Speaking of the fickleness of email address, IMO, everyone should have an addressless UID on their keyrings, so that on the off chance that their ISP sinks, all their trust metrics don't as well. - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: new system uid/gid
On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 09:12:21AM +0100, Szilveszter Farkas wrote: > i would like to create a package which needs a system user and a group > to be added. which uid/gid shall i use? leave it over 1000 (default), > or should i set it under 1000? There's policy already set up for this, and "adduser --system" does the right thing. You nnedn't worry about choosing a UID. - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
How to be a great Debian Developer (was Re: Question about seeking (finding) a sponsor)
Hi, Thomas. I'm not directing this to you only. I'm giving general advice to all readers here who are thinking of joining Debian. On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 10:54:14PM +0100, Thomas Viehmann wrote: > - - Getting my GPG-Key signed, > - - Finding a sponsor, > - - Applying as new maintainer, and All of these are unrelated. You didn't find anything on the topic because order doesn't really matter. > - - Filing an ITP. This is something you should do if and when you're pretty sure that you don't want your work to be just exercise. There's nothing wrong with packaging something just for the experience, note; you don't have to be a package maintainer to be a developer. What Debian really needs is people who are more concerned with quality of the existing packages. One of those kinds of people is worth 100 new maintainers of single obscure "pet-packages." I'm not exagerating. If you (or any other potential Developer) want to make a name for your- self in Debian, then help the existing developers: - Find a package that is falling behind in its bug reports and ask the developer if he/she wants some help. Everyone falls behind eventually. Introduce yourself as someone who wants to help and ask her/him if a bug is fixed and offer a fix if the maintainer hasn't yet already worked on it. - Find a package that uses the "undocumented" pseudo-man-page and write a real page. - Help with the work on the next generation of boot-floppies. Right now, his is the MOST SIGNIFICANT way anyone can help Debian. This is what is holding up from us releasing Sarge _right_now_. When you go through the "New-Maintainer" process, point your application manager to your work you do for your technical requirements. Your AM will be relieved (s)he's not rubber-stamping yet another single-pet- package maintainer. Sure, all of these may not seem as "sexy" as uploading a package you create, but it sure helps Debian more. - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Sponsor for distributed computation daemon: protein folding
On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 08:38:10PM +0100, Daniel Bonniot wrote: > The original tar file is huge (22MB) because it contains the (big) > binaries for three architectures (i386, powerpc and hppa). But, the tarball comes with source, too, right? [Sorry -- too lazy and on too low-bandwidth to look.] - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to be a great Debian Developer
On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 03:37:59PM -0500, Matej Cepl wrote: > Well, I really do not care about sexyness of my work. I have just > participated in the development of the program (actually, it is > just a script for vim), which seems to be very interesting for > me (so I hoped it may be interesting for others as well). I have > created a Debian package for it and I thought, that it would be > nice if the package begun to be part of the official Debian > distribution so that other people won't have to reinvent the > wheel. I certainly do not have time to maintain more packages or > to do any other works just to allow it. If there is no other way, > I will maintain the package on my own website, but it seems silly > to me. > > What's so wrong with maintaing just one package? Are you more "loyal" to the package or to Debian? If your package couldn't be included, would you still develop for Debian? When you grow tired of working on the upstream, will your attention to the Debian package flag as well, until the release manager has to remove it because it's abandoned? Will you be willing to give up the maintainership of your program when someone more able and willing to maintain it wants to? If your purpose is to have your program in Debian, then you could file a Request-for-Packaging bug in the WNPP metabug in the bug-tracking system. If someone (whose judgement is unclouded by pride) reads your RFP and decides that it's worthy to go in the main archive, then it's probably worthy. Let me give a personal example: I wrote a program that uses the XMLRPC features of Advogato to edit one's diary there. People loved it. There are about two dozen people who regularly use it. I made it into a package, and put it in my personal repository, rather than upload it. Why? Because two dozen users isn't important enough to use Debian's FTP space. Our repository is HUGE, almost too big to rsync to some mirrors regularly. That hurts users. My ego and the convenience of a handful of people isn't worth wasting even more space. On the other hand, if you're more interested in being a slave to Debian than you are in having your own package in Debian, then you should apply. - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to be a great Debian Developer
Hi, Thomas. On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 08:55:32AM +0100, Thomas Viehmann wrote: > Taking your answer literally, the conclusion is that you think that debian > has enough package maintainers and the others should bother about the crums > that fall from the table that existing DDs are not interested in. I don't think Debian is necessarily better off for gaining more main- tainers. More maintainers who are productive are great, but maintaining a package currently means that no one else maintains it (6-month waits and NMUs aside), and that one person "owning" a package and poorly packaging it or neglecting it means that a package that is potentially very useful is useless. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell who is serious about Debian and who is, for instance, likely to do work for a month, decide RedHat is what they want to run at home, and never be seen again. A long NM process used to weed out people joining Debian on a whim (good), but it also weeded out good developers with a low tolerance for bureaucracy (very, very bad). Now that it's relatively simple again, I thought I'd send a cautionary note to new maintainers, asking them to consider carefully why they're applying. There _is_ more to do than "crumb"-work, but everyone has to do the work that is no fun at all, too. When newbies realize this, they're not as likely to stick around. >[...] > I've thought about packaging quite a few things before, but now I think I've > found something truely worthwhile. That's great. If you want to maintain it yourself, then welcome to Debian! > Why would you expect anyone to write the manpages the package maintainer > doesn't bother about? True, there are those maintainers that don't have the > time because they're doing very much for the project, but for the most part, > I cannot help but think that they just don't care. I did write two manpages > for my own package because that is the lintian warning that's still left, but > you should well know that a volunteer project needs to distribute the dull > jobs amongst those that are working for the main cause. No it's not fun work, but someone has to do it. I'm not claiming that all current maintainers do things correctly -- quite the opposite. (Some people in Debian suggest that N months of that sort of work should be a prerequisite for getting the ability to upload new packages. It's informal grumbling, so don't expect it in the NM rules soon.) I was pointing out that there are ways to help Debian for which one doesn't have to go through NM. > With wnpp matters are even worse, because for the most part, they are just > "ugly, pointless packages noone in the world would care about". (There are > notable exceptions every once in a while, but mostly this is the exact reason > they're abandoned in the first place.) This is true. A significant fraction of the packages you see are the tangible results of Joe Debian packaging his own software. More software authors filing RFP bugs instead of NM applications would help. The request/claim buffer of WNPP would keep out a lot of "useless" stuff. > In addition, "helping out maintainers" is something that strongly depends on > the willingness of maintainers to accept help. In my experience, the quality > of the packages is strongly correlated (maybe even causal, not coincidental) > to the willingness of maintainers to accept help and user comments and their > friendlyness to answer questions. Yes, and if you're on debian-mentor, you're probably a personality that doesn't mind getting help, so I have nothing to add here. >Let's face it, the main cause of problems in > debian are the problems of and with the present developers and do not relate > very well to future developers. I've said "these are the problems." Will readers of this contribute to the problems or help reduce them? >[...] Don't expect anyone to join > debian just to do the odd jobs and wanting to be "a slave to Debian". And > don't think that telling people "the contribution you want to offer is not > needed, please do the stuff we don't like" is a successful way of getting > anywhere. I guess that depends on what I consider "success". I don't want to send away good developers, but in my estimation when four people join, the first is productive, the second is an obstacle, and the third and forth (who could have been productive) are stuck cleaning up after the second. I really want a way to avoid #2. I fear there isn't one, though. - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: I'd like to help out - where should I start?
On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 07:00:15PM -0500, Greg Leffler wrote: > [...] The main concern I have with the OS is that there is an awful lot of > documentation missing or that could be made better, just from my run-ins > with stuff. [...] > [...] but want I want to begin with is by helping update or create > documentation - the problem is that I don't know where to start. I'd > like to ask for your guidance on where I can get started and how I can > help the project. Thanks, Greg. There is a "to-do" list for Debian's upcoming release, but you may not need it. Those very things that you found to be lacking would certainly need work. Also, take a look at the BTS and find bugs that you think you can handle. Participate in the upcoming bug-squishing parties. There was a discussion on debian-devel today about the Installation Manual and what needed to be written. Unfortunately, "triaging" problems is almost as much work as fixing them, so you'll mostly have to work undirected unless you ask about specific items. - chad pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: pgp 2.6.3i vs pgp5i vs gnupgp
On Mon, Mar 17, 2003 at 02:57:26PM -0600, Drew Scott Daniels wrote: > I would like to setup a key to eventually be used for Debian related > activities (the kind nm's need). I would like to use an existing version > of pgp on a set of solaris systems I have access to, the problem is they > have PGP version 2.6.3i. I'm unsure as to whether this is a secure version > of PGP and what kinds of bugs it has in it. I think you'll want to consider using GnuPG. PGP's future is pretty uncertain, and it was pretty bleak until extremely recently. About this Solaris machine, beware that you shouldn't be running anything that you want to keep secure on a multi-user machine. Most of us keep our keys on machines that are unreachable from the internet. A single unpatched Solaris bug could expose your key to the world, and if you're able to upload packages to Debian based on that key, then millions of people could be affected by your single fsck-up. - chad pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: pgp 2.6.3i vs pgp5i vs gnupgp
On Mon, Mar 17, 2003 at 04:05:50PM -0600, Drew Scott Daniels wrote: > How about for validation of PGP messages. Is the version on the solaris > system good enough for validation? [...] Yes, probably. > I've also found useful information at pgpi.org since my last post. It > seems that the IDEA algorithm is not in 2.6.x, but is in 5.0i and some > other versions. I also found pointers to the non-free "free" pgp 8 for > windows (yes, most of "my" single user machines are stuck with windows). > It's license is DFSG non-free to the point at which I'm questioning it's > value over GnuPG. I don't know whether IDEA adds much value yet. None at all. Idea is available for GnuPG, we're just not allowed to distribute it. I haven't needed it in several years, anyway. If you must have it, Google: "gnupg idea plugin" - chad pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [OT] A question for programmers - Inspiration
On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 05:12:32PM -0800, deFreese, Barry wrote: > For example. I see a lot of questions on debian-user about configuring IP > addresses, so I thought, hey I'll write a quick Python app to configure > /etc/interfaces and /etc/resolv.conf. Of course doing an apt search > produces etherconf, linuxconf, and several other utilities for configuring > interfaces. Would you write the app anyway just for the experience?? How > did you get from the middle ground to guru-dom?? Or is the answer that if I > need to ask, I will never be a hacker!!?? :-) I think you made two mistakes, Barry: The first is looking to other people for problems to be solved. You'll never find the inspiration in solving problems that don't affect you. Since you don't feel the itch, you don't get much satisfaction from the scratch. Speaking for myself, I picked up a programming manual for my first computer and started reading; well before I was finished, I had two dozen ideas for programs to write. Those programs and their spinoffs kept me busy for a couple of years, and I loved it. Second, when an itch hits you, don't research to see if someone has already solved the problem. Solve it yourself. Mathematical texts aren't filled with answers right beside the problems; they teach you by making you work out the answers yourself. Some unsolicited advice: Don't limit yourself to one or two (or even three!) programming language. If you're not immersing yourself in a new language at least every six months, then you're stagnating. Learning the idioms of a few dozen languages will teach you to think of problems in completely different ways. Go use Scheme for a year, and when you come back, you'll be ten times better at programming in Python than you are now. Creating a linux distribution is a group activity, but creating art is fundamentally a solitary, private experience. Turn off your internet connection; sit in a dark room, with nothing but the glow of a monitor, the warmth and hum of your computer, and the ideas will flow: Sometimes a trickle, sometimes a torrent. We wish you luck. - chad pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: directory permission not changed by dpkg
On Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at 03:58:42PM +0100, Bill Allombert wrote: > Is there a work around ? I can use postinst script, but how can I > handle downgrade ? {post,pre}{inst,rm} scripts receive the version number of the replaced and replacing versions as arguments, IIRC. Use 'dpkg --compare-versions' to decide what to do. Btw, I'm not addressing whether this is "legal", just that it's possible. -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.advogato.org/person/cmiller/> ``Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.''
Re: Request for a sponsor (clisp)
On Fri, Mar 15, 2002 at 11:17:20PM +, Will Newton wrote: > A program I use (GNU Common Lisp) is currently orphaned (#123279) and has a > couple of RC bugs to it's name. I would like to adopt this package and also > become a Debian developer. Obviously for this I would require a sponsor, so > is anyone interested in sponsoring me for this package? I'm interested in having clisp actively maintained. I'm pretty new to it, but I can sponsor you. > BTW - I do realise that this package appears to be a portability PITA but I > think I can cope with that. :) Hope so! -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.advogato.org/person/cmiller/> ``Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.''
Re: 1.2 after 1.2pre
On Tue, Apr 02, 2002 at 08:39:33PM +0200, Michael Banck wrote: > On Wed, Apr 03, 2002 at 03:08:49AM +0900, Oohara Yuuma wrote: > > The upstream of zblast released 1.2 after he released 1.2pre. > > The problem is that dpkg thinks 1.2 is older than 1.2pre. > > So I asked him what I should do. He picked 1.2.1 for > > the Debian package, saying "I very rarely use x.y.z > > versions, and I've never used them for zblast." > > > > Did I do something wrong here? I don't think an epoch > > is for such a case. > > AFAIK, it's exactly for that case. It would work this time (as 1:1.2 > 1.2pre), but the next time, should he bump the epoch again? I don't think so. 2:1.3 > 1:1.3pre > 1:1.3 . Yuuma's in a fix, and epochs will fix this case, but it's the wrong thing to plan on doing in general. I'd even try really hard to avoid it, using 1.2.0 this time, instead of prepending an epoch. Epochs are ugly. I usually use 1.2+MMDD for snapshots and 1.1+1.2preN for "prereleases". I did adopt a package (openjade) that has such a problem, though. - chad -- Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.advogato.org/person/cmiller/> ``Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.'' -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: gpg key validity question
On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 10:04:20AM -0400, christophe barb? wrote: > I wonder if it is acceptable to sign a key from someone that : > [irrelevent stuff] > But the key makes no references to his name. > > In my understanding the ID is useless but I have enough element to > believe he is the guy he said he is. You're not vouching for his real life identity! > I understand that if I sign his key I personnaly identify him and it > will be enough for him in regard to the identification part of the NM > process. > > Should I sign his key ? No! One doesn't really sign "keys". One signs identification. If you meet someone, your goal is to match the picture ID with the face, and the name on the ID with the UID in the keyring. Just because we meet, and I show you an ID doesn't mean you should accept any key I give you, else I could have you vouch for the identity of myself as "Bubba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>". Now, there's usually no good way to match the email address with the person, but as long as the name-part of the ID is okay, you might be comfortable signing those you're reasonably sure are okay, but only if they have the person's real name. "Chad Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>" is hard to dispute in a bar, but you should make ABSOLUTELY SURE about the Chad Miller part. It's the "Chad Miller" part that you're signing. In short, meet someone. Match their face to their ID. Match their ID to the key UID they claim. Glance at the email address, to check that it's not obviously bogus. If any fail, then do nothing. - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: gpg key validity question
On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 11:22:50AM -0400, christophe barb? wrote: > IDs are easily forged. I am sure of that since I have see how it works To misquote Old Man Murray, it's better than relying on scent. IDs are the best thing we have for identifying the person's real name, and real names are _required_ for Debian. Email addresses come and go. Nicknames should be in comments of UIDs, not as real names. Speaking of the fickleness of email address, IMO, everyone should have an addressless UID on their keyrings, so that on the off chance that their ISP sinks, all their trust metrics don't as well. - chad -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: new system uid/gid
On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 09:12:21AM +0100, Szilveszter Farkas wrote: > i would like to create a package which needs a system user and a group > to be added. which uid/gid shall i use? leave it over 1000 (default), > or should i set it under 1000? There's policy already set up for this, and "adduser --system" does the right thing. You nnedn't worry about choosing a UID. - chad
How to be a great Debian Developer (was Re: Question about seeking (finding) a sponsor)
Hi, Thomas. I'm not directing this to you only. I'm giving general advice to all readers here who are thinking of joining Debian. On Sun, Jan 26, 2003 at 10:54:14PM +0100, Thomas Viehmann wrote: > - - Getting my GPG-Key signed, > - - Finding a sponsor, > - - Applying as new maintainer, and All of these are unrelated. You didn't find anything on the topic because order doesn't really matter. > - - Filing an ITP. This is something you should do if and when you're pretty sure that you don't want your work to be just exercise. There's nothing wrong with packaging something just for the experience, note; you don't have to be a package maintainer to be a developer. What Debian really needs is people who are more concerned with quality of the existing packages. One of those kinds of people is worth 100 new maintainers of single obscure "pet-packages." I'm not exagerating. If you (or any other potential Developer) want to make a name for your- self in Debian, then help the existing developers: - Find a package that is falling behind in its bug reports and ask the developer if he/she wants some help. Everyone falls behind eventually. Introduce yourself as someone who wants to help and ask her/him if a bug is fixed and offer a fix if the maintainer hasn't yet already worked on it. - Find a package that uses the "undocumented" pseudo-man-page and write a real page. - Help with the work on the next generation of boot-floppies. Right now, his is the MOST SIGNIFICANT way anyone can help Debian. This is what is holding up from us releasing Sarge _right_now_. When you go through the "New-Maintainer" process, point your application manager to your work you do for your technical requirements. Your AM will be relieved (s)he's not rubber-stamping yet another single-pet- package maintainer. Sure, all of these may not seem as "sexy" as uploading a package you create, but it sure helps Debian more. - chad
Re: Sponsor for distributed computation daemon: protein folding
On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 08:38:10PM +0100, Daniel Bonniot wrote: > The original tar file is huge (22MB) because it contains the (big) > binaries for three architectures (i386, powerpc and hppa). But, the tarball comes with source, too, right? [Sorry -- too lazy and on too low-bandwidth to look.] - chad
Re: How to be a great Debian Developer
On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 03:37:59PM -0500, Matej Cepl wrote: > Well, I really do not care about sexyness of my work. I have just > participated in the development of the program (actually, it is > just a script for vim), which seems to be very interesting for > me (so I hoped it may be interesting for others as well). I have > created a Debian package for it and I thought, that it would be > nice if the package begun to be part of the official Debian > distribution so that other people won't have to reinvent the > wheel. I certainly do not have time to maintain more packages or > to do any other works just to allow it. If there is no other way, > I will maintain the package on my own website, but it seems silly > to me. > > What's so wrong with maintaing just one package? Are you more "loyal" to the package or to Debian? If your package couldn't be included, would you still develop for Debian? When you grow tired of working on the upstream, will your attention to the Debian package flag as well, until the release manager has to remove it because it's abandoned? Will you be willing to give up the maintainership of your program when someone more able and willing to maintain it wants to? If your purpose is to have your program in Debian, then you could file a Request-for-Packaging bug in the WNPP metabug in the bug-tracking system. If someone (whose judgement is unclouded by pride) reads your RFP and decides that it's worthy to go in the main archive, then it's probably worthy. Let me give a personal example: I wrote a program that uses the XMLRPC features of Advogato to edit one's diary there. People loved it. There are about two dozen people who regularly use it. I made it into a package, and put it in my personal repository, rather than upload it. Why? Because two dozen users isn't important enough to use Debian's FTP space. Our repository is HUGE, almost too big to rsync to some mirrors regularly. That hurts users. My ego and the convenience of a handful of people isn't worth wasting even more space. On the other hand, if you're more interested in being a slave to Debian than you are in having your own package in Debian, then you should apply. - chad
Re: How to be a great Debian Developer
Hi, Thomas. On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 08:55:32AM +0100, Thomas Viehmann wrote: > Taking your answer literally, the conclusion is that you think that debian > has enough package maintainers and the others should bother about the crums > that fall from the table that existing DDs are not interested in. I don't think Debian is necessarily better off for gaining more main- tainers. More maintainers who are productive are great, but maintaining a package currently means that no one else maintains it (6-month waits and NMUs aside), and that one person "owning" a package and poorly packaging it or neglecting it means that a package that is potentially very useful is useless. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell who is serious about Debian and who is, for instance, likely to do work for a month, decide RedHat is what they want to run at home, and never be seen again. A long NM process used to weed out people joining Debian on a whim (good), but it also weeded out good developers with a low tolerance for bureaucracy (very, very bad). Now that it's relatively simple again, I thought I'd send a cautionary note to new maintainers, asking them to consider carefully why they're applying. There _is_ more to do than "crumb"-work, but everyone has to do the work that is no fun at all, too. When newbies realize this, they're not as likely to stick around. >[...] > I've thought about packaging quite a few things before, but now I think I've > found something truely worthwhile. That's great. If you want to maintain it yourself, then welcome to Debian! > Why would you expect anyone to write the manpages the package maintainer > doesn't bother about? True, there are those maintainers that don't have the > time because they're doing very much for the project, but for the most part, > I cannot help but think that they just don't care. I did write two manpages > for my own package because that is the lintian warning that's still left, but > you should well know that a volunteer project needs to distribute the dull > jobs amongst those that are working for the main cause. No it's not fun work, but someone has to do it. I'm not claiming that all current maintainers do things correctly -- quite the opposite. (Some people in Debian suggest that N months of that sort of work should be a prerequisite for getting the ability to upload new packages. It's informal grumbling, so don't expect it in the NM rules soon.) I was pointing out that there are ways to help Debian for which one doesn't have to go through NM. > With wnpp matters are even worse, because for the most part, they are just > "ugly, pointless packages noone in the world would care about". (There are > notable exceptions every once in a while, but mostly this is the exact reason > they're abandoned in the first place.) This is true. A significant fraction of the packages you see are the tangible results of Joe Debian packaging his own software. More software authors filing RFP bugs instead of NM applications would help. The request/claim buffer of WNPP would keep out a lot of "useless" stuff. > In addition, "helping out maintainers" is something that strongly depends on > the willingness of maintainers to accept help. In my experience, the quality > of the packages is strongly correlated (maybe even causal, not coincidental) > to the willingness of maintainers to accept help and user comments and their > friendlyness to answer questions. Yes, and if you're on debian-mentor, you're probably a personality that doesn't mind getting help, so I have nothing to add here. >Let's face it, the main cause of problems > in > debian are the problems of and with the present developers and do not relate > very well to future developers. I've said "these are the problems." Will readers of this contribute to the problems or help reduce them? >[...] Don't expect anyone to join > debian just to do the odd jobs and wanting to be "a slave to Debian". And > don't think that telling people "the contribution you want to offer is not > needed, please do the stuff we don't like" is a successful way of getting > anywhere. I guess that depends on what I consider "success". I don't want to send away good developers, but in my estimation when four people join, the first is productive, the second is an obstacle, and the third and forth (who could have been productive) are stuck cleaning up after the second. I really want a way to avoid #2. I fear there isn't one, though. - chad
Re: I'd like to help out - where should I start?
On Wed, Mar 12, 2003 at 07:00:15PM -0500, Greg Leffler wrote: > [...] The main concern I have with the OS is that there is an awful lot of > documentation missing or that could be made better, just from my run-ins > with stuff. [...] > [...] but want I want to begin with is by helping update or create > documentation - the problem is that I don't know where to start. I'd > like to ask for your guidance on where I can get started and how I can > help the project. Thanks, Greg. There is a "to-do" list for Debian's upcoming release, but you may not need it. Those very things that you found to be lacking would certainly need work. Also, take a look at the BTS and find bugs that you think you can handle. Participate in the upcoming bug-squishing parties. There was a discussion on debian-devel today about the Installation Manual and what needed to be written. Unfortunately, "triaging" problems is almost as much work as fixing them, so you'll mostly have to work undirected unless you ask about specific items. - chad pgpLmUpymAY0U.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: pgp 2.6.3i vs pgp5i vs gnupgp
On Mon, Mar 17, 2003 at 02:57:26PM -0600, Drew Scott Daniels wrote: > I would like to setup a key to eventually be used for Debian related > activities (the kind nm's need). I would like to use an existing version > of pgp on a set of solaris systems I have access to, the problem is they > have PGP version 2.6.3i. I'm unsure as to whether this is a secure version > of PGP and what kinds of bugs it has in it. I think you'll want to consider using GnuPG. PGP's future is pretty uncertain, and it was pretty bleak until extremely recently. About this Solaris machine, beware that you shouldn't be running anything that you want to keep secure on a multi-user machine. Most of us keep our keys on machines that are unreachable from the internet. A single unpatched Solaris bug could expose your key to the world, and if you're able to upload packages to Debian based on that key, then millions of people could be affected by your single fsck-up. - chad pgpAhmdAQyVuY.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: pgp 2.6.3i vs pgp5i vs gnupgp
On Mon, Mar 17, 2003 at 04:05:50PM -0600, Drew Scott Daniels wrote: > How about for validation of PGP messages. Is the version on the solaris > system good enough for validation? [...] Yes, probably. > I've also found useful information at pgpi.org since my last post. It > seems that the IDEA algorithm is not in 2.6.x, but is in 5.0i and some > other versions. I also found pointers to the non-free "free" pgp 8 for > windows (yes, most of "my" single user machines are stuck with windows). > It's license is DFSG non-free to the point at which I'm questioning it's > value over GnuPG. I don't know whether IDEA adds much value yet. None at all. Idea is available for GnuPG, we're just not allowed to distribute it. I haven't needed it in several years, anyway. If you must have it, Google: "gnupg idea plugin" - chad pgpnMDxB2vUsG.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [OT] A question for programmers - Inspiration
On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 05:12:32PM -0800, deFreese, Barry wrote: > For example. I see a lot of questions on debian-user about configuring IP > addresses, so I thought, hey I'll write a quick Python app to configure > /etc/interfaces and /etc/resolv.conf. Of course doing an apt search > produces etherconf, linuxconf, and several other utilities for configuring > interfaces. Would you write the app anyway just for the experience?? How > did you get from the middle ground to guru-dom?? Or is the answer that if I > need to ask, I will never be a hacker!!?? :-) I think you made two mistakes, Barry: The first is looking to other people for problems to be solved. You'll never find the inspiration in solving problems that don't affect you. Since you don't feel the itch, you don't get much satisfaction from the scratch. Speaking for myself, I picked up a programming manual for my first computer and started reading; well before I was finished, I had two dozen ideas for programs to write. Those programs and their spinoffs kept me busy for a couple of years, and I loved it. Second, when an itch hits you, don't research to see if someone has already solved the problem. Solve it yourself. Mathematical texts aren't filled with answers right beside the problems; they teach you by making you work out the answers yourself. Some unsolicited advice: Don't limit yourself to one or two (or even three!) programming language. If you're not immersing yourself in a new language at least every six months, then you're stagnating. Learning the idioms of a few dozen languages will teach you to think of problems in completely different ways. Go use Scheme for a year, and when you come back, you'll be ten times better at programming in Python than you are now. Creating a linux distribution is a group activity, but creating art is fundamentally a solitary, private experience. Turn off your internet connection; sit in a dark room, with nothing but the glow of a monitor, the warmth and hum of your computer, and the ideas will flow: Sometimes a trickle, sometimes a torrent. We wish you luck. - chad pgpo5Ixxi5fVB.pgp Description: PGP signature