15:02:19 #startmeeting 15:02:19 Meeting started Thu Dec 3 15:02:19 2009 UTC. The chair is siretart`. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 15:02:19 Useful Commands: #action #agreed #help #info #idea #link #topic. 15:02:20 If the meeting hasn't started yet, I'd like to thank edrz for helping setup the meeting :-) 15:02:30 Eh started now 15:02:46 lool: glad to be of service. 15:02:49 First of all, a big thank you to every one who has managed to attend this meeting 15:03:04 and a big thanks to edrz of course for organizing 15:03:21 yeah, that was awesome 15:03:23 I guess since this is our first meeting we should start with a short introduction round 15:03:32 #topic introduction round 15:03:44 who wants to start? 15:03:54 * edrz suggests the DDs go first. 15:03:55 edrz: perhaps you would? 15:04:09 ok. i'm edrz. 15:04:21 hey, I'm Loïc Minier, I'm a DD since ~ 2004 and work for Canonical in the Foundations team; I used to do mostly GNOME for Debian, but less so nowadays 15:05:09 siretart`: Who are you anyway? 15:05:10 my debian involvement thusfar has been mostly in helping the DebConf videoteam (not yet a DD) 15:05:41 I'm Reinhard Tartler, I'm a DD since 2005 and work at the university of erlangen as researcher 15:05:56 * lool (thinks this is IRC and we can all introduce at the same time and read the backlog) 15:05:58 so, me? I'm Free Ekanayaka, work for Canonical as well (Landscape), I used to be the developer of 64 Studio, a Debian-based multimedia distro, but not really anymore, DD since 2004 15:06:19 I'm also an active ubuntu developer and try to minimize divergence in multimedia applications between these two distros 15:06:27 * edrz thinks free should mention also DeMuDi/Agnula. 15:06:49 edrz: oh, what is *way* back :) 15:06:56 s/what/that/ 15:07:00 LucidFox: around? 15:07:08 Yes 15:07:31 Fuddl wanted to attend as well, and he was sitting next to me a few minutes ago. oh well 15:07:42 hi, I am Benjamin Drung, a computer engineering student at TU Berlin, a DM (intend to become DD) and a Ubuntu Developer (since a half year), i maintain the audacity package and doing some merges 15:08:11 well, I'm Felipe Sateler, I've been involved in Debian since ~2006, but I'm not a DD yet. In real-life, I'm an Engineer student (and wannabe guitar player :p) 15:08:25 we had Linux Audio Conference in ... um, 2007 at TU Berlin. 15:08:27 I'm Maia Kozheva, a volunteer Ubuntu developer who contributes Ubuntu changes back into Debian whenever possible. I maintain the smplayer and smplayer-themes packages in the project. 15:08:40 I'm Helmut Grohne, no DD, maintaining two packages, japa inside -multimedia, mostly reporting bugs on any part of debian, and not attending this meeting, because I gotta go. 15:08:58 ouch 15:09:11 Do we have an URL to the agenda? 15:09:14 (and not likely to be present on any of the suggested places) 15:09:23 lool: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/Meetings 15:09:23 edrz: in 2007 i was only an user and not a developer 15:09:23 helmut: would another day time be better for you? 15:09:26 thanks 15:09:33 lool: but I think we should change the order a bit 15:09:49 so I currently count 4 DDs (fuddl is the forth one) and 5 non-DDs in this meeting, right? 15:09:57 free: well. as the topic is about rl meeting, it won't help me at all, since I most likely cannot attend. 15:10:04 I know that we have some more non-DD members active on the mailing list, though 15:10:44 yeah, Mira for instance (I think he's not here) 15:11:03 or Fabian Greffrath (not ircing at all in general) 15:11:06 helmut: we're talking about more than the reallife meeting, and i think free meant is there another time that's better for you for IRC meeting ... 15:11:22 that is a topic at the end of this meeting. 15:11:23 edrz: that's it 15:11:38 okay, let's keep on track 15:12:00 so, end of introductions, onto first topic? 15:12:01 okay, so that would have already been point 6 on the agenda, now we know who is DD 15:12:07 Adrian Knoth, no DD, researcher for high performance computing at Jena University. I've been involved in digital media production for years, run a small recording label, play the piano and guitar, do a lot of music production right now. 15:12:15 edrz: ok. I'll keep here for a little longer than intended. 15:12:28 helmut: great 15:12:44 let's discuss sponsoring the non-DDs, okay? 15:12:56 #topic sponsoring and spreading the load among DDs 15:13:24 in general, I think that I'm a fairly regular uploader, but I know that there is still quite a backlog for packages 15:13:46 indeed 15:13:57 espc. for jack related packages, as I'm not really confortable with reviewing them. mostly because I don't use jack and am not familiar with these packages 15:14:14 do other's feel the same? 15:14:21 any ideas how we can improve the situation? 15:14:29 I personally almost never sponsor these days; mostly due to lack of time, and also because I'm reluctant to upload without testing and to test things I don't use regularly -- I know it's not ideal :-/ 15:14:39 is there someone, who uses jack? 15:14:47 I've been very close to jack for years 15:14:49 * adi uses it every day 15:14:56 once I get at least a minimal studio settup again (hopefully within the next week or two) I can help more with reviewing adi's work. 15:15:01 I feel comfortable with it, but I lack time for uplaods, as lool 15:15:24 siretart`: One related issue is that the spectrum of packages in pkg-multimedia is widening rapidly 15:15:28 adi: btw, thanks again for the wonderful job :) 15:15:47 lool: that's probably a side-effect of the merge of the multimedia teams 15:15:54 True 15:15:54 lool: we're also getting some new forces though 15:15:54 lool: indeed, I'd like to discuss this as next point: 'package lifecycle and scope' 15:15:58 so, i think one of the priorities needs to be getting more of us as DDs or DMs 15:16:15 siretart`: Ah perfect, thanks 15:16:15 edrz: I agree 15:16:16 edrz: Has a DM the rights to upload something? 15:16:19 I'm already in NM 15:16:22 adi: yes 15:16:22 but the topics seem pretty related. 15:16:29 adi: Only the packages which are flagged as such though 15:16:36 adi: yes (but only his own packages) 15:16:37 adi: yes, a DM can upload package he is a registered co-maintainer for 15:16:46 adi: i think that's the point of DMs, right? upload rights, but not voting rights. 15:16:49 adi: a DM cannot sponsor, though 15:16:54 ah 15:16:55 adi: so for instance I could register you as uploader for ardour and jack 15:17:00 I think we can define a couple of best practices to help sponsoring 15:17:23 becoming DM is a way lighter process than becoming DD 15:17:26 as for sponsoring in general, I'd really apprciate if sponsorees would explicitly state that and how they have tested the changes in the to be uploaded package 15:17:27 lool++ 15:17:28 One thing I care about when sponsoring is being able to easily understand and review individual changes 15:17:35 and I guess for many of us non-DD would suffice 15:17:40 this way I would feel much more comfortable with uploading packages 15:17:41 I really care about high quality changelogs and whenever possible fine grained commits 15:18:10 lool++ 15:18:18 lool++ 15:18:20 I often get large debdiffs with a new upstream version in the middle of random packaging updates; this makes it hard to review 15:18:34 Using a Vcs is of course recommended 15:18:49 lool: that is pkg-multimedia policy, now. 15:18:49 does anyone volunteer to compile such a 'best practice/guidelines' document? 15:18:51 I think we have a policy of only uploading packages in git right? 15:18:59 I think wiki would be fine 15:19:02 I much prefer bzr/git here because I can quickly diff all commits; I can live with SVN, but when reviewing commits it's painfully slow 15:19:07 siretart`: hhm, I have it already basically? 15:19:10 but what would be missing from the guidelines in the wiki? 15:19:12 s/I/we/ 15:19:27 siretart`: i do. i'll go back through the logs and do my best to translate to the wiki, request comments/review/additions/corrections, etc 15:19:30 free: link? 15:19:51 thanks 15:19:52 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/DevelopPackaging 15:20:05 fsateler: ah right, of course 15:20:18 siretart`: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/FAQ 15:20:26 #action edrz agrees to update wiki with stuff agreed in this meeting. 15:20:38 that list is rather about general recipes for packaging 15:20:57 I think lool meant more some sort of checklist, or at least a more terse document? 15:21:09 perhaps what needs to be done is reorganizing the information 15:21:12 siretart`: if you see the FAQ, it basically says we upload only packages under git 15:21:24 siretart`: Yup 15:21:31 Will be http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/Sponsoring 15:21:34 fsateler: it has grown a bit messy indeed 15:21:34 [link] http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/Sponsoring 15:21:39 * lool slaps bot 15:21:44 heh 15:21:54 fsateler: i agree. there is good info on the wiki, but in general it needs some attention. 15:22:05 to reorganize, update, etc. 15:22:05 fsateler: any idea how we can reorganize our wiki space? 15:22:38 should we recommend the new source format 3.0 (quilt)? 15:22:55 I guess this is a really hard task, and I don't really have a good idea how to approach it 15:22:56 I'd be agains 3.0, because it makes backporting harder. 15:22:59 lool: MeetBot uses command of the form #. 15:23:04 with single patches having a DEP-3 header? 15:23:16 lool: proper urls should get picked up automagically. 15:23:38 no, not really. I'm still not quite sure what classes of information we need in the wiki 15:23:43 bdrung: I tried format 3.0 (quilt) for one package, and I noticed that there are still quite some rough edges in git-buildpackage 15:24:00 bdrung: for this reason, I'd prefer to wait with mandating it for all packages 15:24:07 siretart: you can use debiuld instead (for example audacity) 15:24:18 can we delay recommending format 3.0 until squeeze is stable? 15:24:36 bdrung: true, that was the workaround. still not exactly what I'd expect from tools :/ 15:24:41 I see no hurry in going to 3.0/quilt 15:24:44 helmut: why? lenny does support 3.0 15:24:57 fsateler: lenny is oldstable then. ;-) 15:25:01 The immediate win I can see is avoidance of timestamp skews, that's all 15:25:03 oh ok 15:25:04 siretart`: has a bug for that been filed on git-buildpackage? 15:25:37 edrz: I haven't yet with the issue I've noted, I want to do some deeper analysis first 15:25:40 * fsateler thinks we have strayed from the topic 15:25:44 indeed 15:25:56 fsateler++ 15:25:59 the current topic would be 15:26:06 #topic improving packaging guidelines 15:26:26 lets summarize that we'd like to mandate DEP-3 headers and defer switching to format 3.0? 15:26:33 then we could move on to the next topic :-) 15:26:35 siretart`++ 15:26:40 agreed 15:26:43 siretart++ 15:26:50 #agreed we'd like to mandate DEP-3 headers and defer switching to format 3.0 15:26:55 excellent 15:27:07 #topic Package lifecycle and scope of the team 15:27:25 so what does the topic mean exactly? 15:27:32 we already mentioned this before, some feel that the scope of our team is too broad 15:27:33 Sorry back to packaging: do we recommend any of dh 7 or CDBS? 15:27:57 siretart`: the scope or the number of packages involved? 15:28:10 I think the world is moving to "dh" at this point; I've started using it and it's great; I wouldn't go out of my way to repack existing CDBS stuff, but I do repack some dh_* stuff into dh 15:28:12 I'd prefer dh 7 15:28:18 lool: good question. I think it is a matter of preference. but TBH, I think it helps if it matches the preference of the uploader/sponsor :-) 15:28:19 i would recommend debhelper (>= 7) 15:28:40 lool: there is not currently a policy, but, in disucssing earlier with siretart` it came out that most likely DDs only review/sponsor stuff managed w/ helpers they use themselves. 15:28:41 * siretart` prefers debehlper (both pre and post 7) over cdbs 15:28:46 I fee the same as lool 15:28:55 I'm fine sponsoring non-crazy packaging, but I see that people make less mistakes with CDBS or dh 7, even if they might not understand the low level details 15:28:57 s/fee/fell/ 15:28:58 I'd prefer letting this choice for the one maintaing a package. 15:29:10 helmut: maintaining or uploading? 15:29:19 siretart`: maintaining, not uploading. 15:29:34 Huu? I found cdbs pretty useful, it took care about changed files like autoconf. If dh would provide this, too, then I'm fine with it. 15:29:39 siretart`: of course the choice may have impact on the number of uploaders. ;-) 15:29:46 helmut: exactly 15:29:49 adi: dh 7 does it 15:30:01 I'm fine leaving room to the maintainer, but I see the same mistakes over and over every time I sponsor and have to train people every time, it's really a waste of time when compared to picking a higher level abstraction :-/ 15:30:02 but no need to rush for dh 7, IMHO 15:30:06 letting the maintainer decide between dh 7 and debhelper (recommending a clear rules file) 15:30:16 siretart`: then a summary of which sponsors support which tools would be helpful. 15:30:46 Let's list it on the sponsoring page 15:30:49 okay, I already stated my preference. What about other sponsors/uploaders? 15:30:54 perhaps the team can adopt a reccomendation of one or 2 (perhaps dh7, cdbs) but, not mandate it? 15:31:01 I'll list mine 15:31:07 * lool just edited the page 15:31:47 great 15:31:54 ah, excellent 15:31:57 look which one exactly? 15:32:04 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/Sponsoring 15:32:12 At this point, I also feel more confortable with packages using debian/patches rather than committing changes directly in the git repo 15:32:17 oh okay 15:32:33 #action DDs will list their packaging tool preference on http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/Sponsoring 15:32:40 lool: I think that's a guideline we have 15:32:43 lool: I'd like to amend this with recommending or even mandating quilt over other patch systems 15:32:52 siretart`: +1 15:32:59 siretart`++ 15:33:02 siretart`++ 15:33:03 siretart`: quilt is already mandated, yes? 15:33:15 #agreed quilt is mandated. 15:33:20 its a "should" 15:33:23 I see "#" 15:33:24 Packages should use git, as mentioned above. Desirable is being able to use git-buildpackage. 15:33:28 I believe not explicitly, but I really hope that we don't have too many packages with other patch systems than quilt 15:33:29 # 15:33:30 quilt should be used for patch management, and the master branch should only differ from the upstream branch in files inside the debian/ directory. This means no direct changes to the source in the master branch. 15:34:19 maybe we should define "should" and "must"s in the team policy 15:34:25 how is "format 1, maintained with git with quilt is strongly recommended, exceptions may be made if the regular sponsor/uploader agrees"? 15:34:43 siretart`: Sounds good 15:34:50 siretart`: cool 15:34:50 A general note here: I always try to lower the amount of debian specific patches. Though this cannot work for all packages, I find it way easier to let upstream correct the code. ;) 15:35:06 siretart`: what about existing packages deviating from this? do they have to be converted for the next upload? 15:35:17 do we recommend lintian (-iIE --pedantic) clean packages? 15:35:21 siretart`: s/strongly recommended/required/ 15:35:34 Oh we could require usage of the DEP on patch-descriptions 15:35:44 As well as submitting patches upstream before you upload a package with them 15:36:12 This is an idea which came up after the openssl issue, and also when we looked at avoiding some delta between Ubuntu and Debian 15:36:19 lool++ 15:36:30 lool++ 15:37:13 are there any tools for working with DEP-3 yet? 15:37:27 fsateler: I remember a patch for lintian is being discussed for this 15:37:32 git-format-patch or something like that? 15:37:45 bdrung: lintian > sounds like a sponsor-thing I think 15:37:54 lintian complains about a missing patch header 15:37:59 ah no, that was for DEP-5 (copyright files). anyway, lintian sounds like the correct place for this 15:38:14 #info require DEP in patch-descriptions, submit patch upstream before upload. 15:38:21 Could someone take action to update policy? 15:38:51 I'll edit DevelopPackaging 15:38:52 I can try this. 15:38:59 ah, excellent, fsateler was faster :-) 15:39:09 I added lintian to the sponsoring best practices 15:39:13 #action siretart` fsateler agree to update DevelopPackaging on wiki 15:39:26 great 15:39:31 shall we move on? :-) 15:39:36 lool: recommend to check with "-iIE --pedantic", too 15:39:39 Yes, time is running out 15:39:42 We could also think about automated package testing. Not instantly, but I think something like "debian/rules test" would be good to catch common errors 15:39:50 bdrung: I'm using different flags and I think other sponsors will do as well 15:39:51 siretart`: we didn't quite address the scope of team issue. 15:39:51 adi: out of scope for first meeting 15:39:55 ACK 15:40:00 right 15:40:04 bdrung: For instance I also list overrides and am not intersted in the pedantic tags 15:40:20 * lool uses lintian -I -E --show-overrides --color auto 15:40:34 please move on 15:40:38 Thre reason why I added the topic are teh following question: 15:40:50 which requirements has a new propsed package to be adopted by the team 15:40:52 and 15:41:01 siretart`: Please secure at least the last 5 minutes to discuss next meeting 15:41:09 under which situations do we want to consider orphaning or removing the package from the team and/or debian 15:41:25 lool: OK 15:41:55 Would it make sense for at least 2 people to agree to maintaining the package in the team before adding packages as "team maintained" 15:42:10 i recommend to have one person, who is the contact partner for the package 15:42:10 Also, at least one DD should be ok to sponsor the package in the two maintainers aren't DD 15:42:25 bdrung++ 15:42:33 One person sounds like this will allow for people to push their pet packages in the repo without limit on team-useful packages 15:42:44 we may have a wiki with this information 15:42:51 I like lools idea. if we agree on this, I think we should document this fact by adding the two persnos in the Uploaders field in the package 15:43:14 lool: I think the real problem is "what kind of packages are acceptable for the team" 15:43:37 do we have packages that we feel are border-line, ATM? 15:43:40 requiring 2 people creates a problem with an understaffed team like ours 15:43:51 fsateler: It's kind of the intended goals 15:43:54 fsateler: lool suggestions works around answering this question by testing interest of team members. I actually like this 15:44:08 fsateler: Do packages which are only relevant to a single person belong in the team? 15:44:15 the thing is, how do we deal if the people listed start to lack interest in the package? 15:44:30 siretart`: is the definition of "team member" people with alioth accounts added to the team? 15:44:30 hmm, it depends on the goals of the team 15:44:35 or something else 15:44:42 edrz: That would be ok I think 15:45:03 edrz: I agree with look. accounts are granted pretty easily, after all 15:45:10 fsateler: Yes, but if a single person is interested the package can be pushed to e.g. collab-maint and similar effects as the pkg-mm team can be achieved 15:45:41 lool: I'm not sure non-DD can write to collab-maint 15:45:51 free: they can apply for the collab-maint team 15:45:52 free: they can 15:45:53 #info a team member is a person with an alioth account who has been added to pkg-multimedia-maintainers team 15:45:53 They can but need to be added 15:47:20 so does the idea to use the 'Uploaders' field to list the regular sponsor and at least one supporter has potential to reach consensus? 15:47:49 i am unsure if the 'Uploaders' field is the right place. 15:48:03 bdrung: why? 15:48:23 there can be people, who are inactive in the list 15:48:45 inactive people should be removed from the list as soon as we are aware of that fact 15:48:57 but that's a general rule AFAIUI 15:49:08 k 15:49:11 we should enforce it then, though 15:49:32 free, lool, what do you think? 15:49:53 I'm fine with uploaders 15:50:01 enforce is a bit tough IMO 15:50:02 it's just for lintian and maintainers anyway 15:50:13 i suggest to have your proposed rules plus an wiki page with one contact person 15:50:18 but if the majority agrees, I'm fine 15:50:21 * fsateler thinks my packages will have to move away from the team repo :( 15:50:23 for each package 15:50:28 I think we don't need very strict rules to handle MIA maintainers and abandonned packages 15:50:36 free: let's discuss the "enforcment" (we haven't had that part yet) 15:50:37 We can have a list discussion to cover these when we discover them 15:51:00 lool: ++ 15:51:10 I imagine that if a package has less than two interested people, we note the package on a 'red list' 15:51:11 This is no different than random packages in the archive, we should adapt to each situation, depending on whether the package is important or not etc. 15:51:26 if the package is on the list longer than N months, we consider orphaning/removing it 15:51:39 as N I would suggest something like 6 or so 15:51:50 s/orpahning/moving to collab-maint/ 15:52:06 oh, that sounds great as well! 15:52:11 if there is still 1 person intersted 15:53:00 so, then can we state and agreement? 15:53:05 *an 15:53:14 Fine with me 15:53:15 7 minutes left 15:53:16 anyone who disagree or has concerns? 15:53:34 Let's move to discussing the next meeting date/time/location after this topic 15:53:42 two interested people = two people listed as uploader? 15:53:43 I'm fine with the N months solution 15:54:07 undiscussed agenda items: debimedia and pulseaudio promotion. do I miss something? 15:55:07 the closing of the abandoned 'debian-multimedia' alioth project can be carried on the mailing list, I think. I believe its uncontroversial 15:55:28 okay, how regular do we want to do these meetings? 15:55:32 how does monthly sound? 15:55:43 #info topics postponed to next meeting: debimedia, pulseaudio, mentoring sessions. 15:55:54 monthly sounds good to me 15:56:10 yup 15:56:12 or even two weeks in the first period 15:56:13 okay, the next meeting would be then early january 15:56:28 shall I set up a new poll on doodle? 15:56:32 I'd suggest that we use doodle again for the first two weeks in januar to find a time? 15:56:36 I think that meeting policy should be related to the amount of items to discuss 15:56:45 two weeks, if we have not enough to discuss, we can make it monthly 15:56:54 fsateler: do you suggest an earlier meeting? 15:57:48 siretart`: at least to cover the items we have postponed 15:58:11 I believe that before christmas, it might be difficult to find a time, but we can of course try 15:58:24 i was going to say something similar. 15:58:49 if it were a different time of year i might agree with fsateler + bdrung 15:58:59 so let's make it in january 15:59:03 agreed 15:59:09 I agree this is an unfortunate period of the year 15:59:16 edrz: can you setup the doodle poll again? 15:59:17 agreed 15:59:38 true 15:59:50 if not, no problem, I can take over 15:59:50 #agreed edrz will create a new doodle poll for next meeting polling for dates/times in first 2 weeks of 2010. 15:59:55 excellent 16:00:16 well, then let's adjorn the meeting, Thanks to all again for attending! 16:00:28 who's going to FOSDEM? 16:00:35 aaah, right that's important 16:00:36 siretart`: can you tell meetbot? 16:00:40 #stopmeeting 16:01:01 lool: I'm still strongly considering 16:01:10 siretart`: it's endmeeting 16:01:11 but I have no ticket and hotel yet 16:01:23 #endmeeting