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Frequently Asked Questions

Here is a list of questions that are frequently asked by new contributors on #ubuntu-motu and the ubuntu-motu and ubuntu-motu-mentors mailing lists. If you don't find an answer to your question here, please add it along with the answer when you find out.

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Starting Points

I want to help out Ubuntu MOTU and learn packaging, where do I start?

Take a look at [wiki:MOTU/Contributing MOTU/Contributing], [https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/packagingguide/C/index.html the Packaging Guide] and generally acquaint yourself with the documentation under [wiki:MOTU MOTU].

How do I get a mentor?

Read the information about finding a guide at [wiki:MOTU/Mentoring/Contributor MOTU/Mentoring/Contributor]. You can also subscribe to the ubuntu-motu-mentors mailing list and join #ubuntu-motu on freenode for guidance.

I want to maintain a package

Here's what it means if a package has your name and mail address in the Maintainer: field in debian/control:

• You will take care of the package's bugs. It makes sense if you are bug contact for that package in Launchpad.
• You will liaise with upstream.
  • You track what's going on upstream.
  • You will try to build a good communication to the upstream developers.
• You will find out how to fix bugs appropriately. Uploading new upstream versions is just not enough. (Think of fixes in stable releases.)

How do I get my changed package into Universe/Multiverse?

Via the SponsorshipProcess

NOTE : If it's important enough to be shipped in the stable distro, read StableReleaseUpdates.

Packaging

What version number should my package have?

Ubuntu and Debian have slightly different package versioning schemes, for an explanation see https://help.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/packagingguide/C/basic-scratch.html#id2577623

Should my package have -0ubuntu1 appended to the end of the version number?

If the package is being newly packaged for Ubuntu and hasn't come from Debian then the Debian revision number should be 0 and the Ubuntu revision should be 1, so in that situation it would be -0ubuntu1. See the previous question for details.

How can I make multiple pbuilders? How can I make a pbuilder for <release name>?

You can read about setting up pbuilder (a system to easily build packages in a clean chroot environment) at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/PbuilderHowto

What options do I need for debuild to make a source package including tar.gz?

• debuild -S -sa

Upstream already provided a debian-dir in the orig.tar.gz, what now?

• Always ask upstream kindly to remove it.
• At your option (if you need to remove a file from the upstream debian-dir you will need to remove the upstream debian-dir from orig.tar.gz):
  • Remove it from the tarball, renaming the tarball while doing so. Example: foo_0.2.orig.tar.gz would then be foo_0.2repacked1.orig.tar.gz.
  • Just modify the package as usual.

I need to fix a bug in the upstream provided source, modify the source or add a patch?

• If the package already has a packaging system, make a patch and add it.
• If the package does not have a packaging system and the patch is small, you can modify the source. It is an Ubuntu goal to keep diffs with Debian small and so if modifying the source makes a smaller diff than adding a patch system you should generally modify the source.
• If your package uses cdbs, you ought to consider using simple-patchsys and use cdbs-edit-patch to make your patch in any case.

• See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/School/PatchingSources for more information on patching

What does XSBC-Original-Maintainer mean?

When a package is changed in Ubuntu, the Maintainer field (in debian/control) is changed to indicate the Ubuntu team responsible for the Ubuntu specific changes (often "Ubuntu MOTU Developers <ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com>" for universe packages). In order to ensure appropriate credit for the packaging work, the original maintainer is preserved in a new field: XSBC-Original-Maintainer. This is a user-defined field (X) which is included in the .dsc file for the source package (S), the .deb file for the binary package (B), and the .changes file (C).

When the Maintainer field is adjusted, the value of XSBC-Original-Maintainer should exactly match the previous value of Maintainer.

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