[Pkg-parrot-devel] New version of parrot package is in mentors

[Jeremiah Foster]

On Apr 5, 2011, at 21:46, Kyle Willmon wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 05, 2011 at 08:39:15PM +0200, Dominique Dumont wrote:

[...]

>>> BTW, the next stable release of Parrot is in two weeks.
>> 
>> Considering that a new libparrot-3.x.y package will be created, the pacakage 
>> of the next parrot release will have to be reviewed manually by Debian FTP 
>> masters. 
> 
> Is it truly necessary for these packages to include the full version
> number as opposed to simply the major release number (or even just
> excluding the final part and using libparrot-3.x). If either of these is
> possible, it would create a more stable and maintainable package which
> would not require manual review quite so often.

There are a bunch of reasons why the version number in Debian packages is the way it is, and that the entire number is there. The version number allows the package management system (APT) to update to the correct, most recent version, for example. Chopping the section after the dash off, as in your example, would remove the debian packaging version from the version string and APT needs that info.

> As a side note, Rakudo and Rakudo star both have expected releases this
> month as well. It is probably worth knowing the version of Parrot that
> these releases will require. I believe that users would greatly benefit
> from a rakudo-star package in Debian and this will mean a dependency on
> an updated version of Parrot.

Making sure Parrot and the Rakudos are in good shape for Debian is crucial. Collaboration is the keyword here (as in all Debian packages). If there is a team or a loose group around parrot packaging then that burden can be shared - like in the Debian perl group. It is considered bad form to upload NMUs however and I'm sure that is something that everyone wants to avoid. 

Is there a formal team around parrot that people can join to contribute? An alioth page or similar?

Regards,

Jeremiah