Packaging with version control systems
Channel: DebConf Videos
Date: 2017-11-24

by martin f. krafft

At: DebConf8
http://penta.debconf.org/dc8_schedule/events/233.en.html
https://debconf8.debconf.org/

Workflow considerations

Version control systems are becoming more popular for package maintenance. In this talk, I present an overview of current practices and recent developments. I also report on the work of the vcs-pkg.org effort, which tries to identify a workflow for package maintenance which could yield better cross-distro collaboration.

A lot of Debian is already using version control for the task, but everyone cooked up something of their own, more or less. We think the situation is similar in the other distros: the current approach to package maintenance doesn’t scale too well, given today’s needs (teams, offline work, increasing number of users and increased use of the bug trackers), and discussions of how to improve things are on the way, but have not yet carried fruit.

Furthermore, maintainers of a specific package in all distros basically have the same task. We could benefit from each other if we joined forces: less workload, improved access to patches in use by other distros, more structured communication, a wider spread of innovation, etc..

The goal of the vcs-pkg.org project is to integrate version control with distro package maintenance. We want to recognise all involved in the process, from upstream, the package maintainers of the various distributions, their security and release teams, and power users, who aren’t afraid to fix their own bugs, and give maximum flexibility to them.

vcs-pkg.org is a (D)VCS-agnostic effort, so you don't have to fear advocacy. Instead, I would like to deliver to you the status quo and hope to get your valuable feedback. We've made good progress, but we haven't reached our goal, so your input will make a difference.

Room: Salon del mar
Scheduled start: 2008-08-11 16:00:00