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Re: Bits from past DPL

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Hi Andreas,

This is very well written and I enjoyed reading the mail and the amazing progress during your
tenure quite a lot.

Thank you for serving as DPL for 2 terms and kudos on the progress! And as I said on matrix
chan - welcome back to Debian Med!


On 06/05/26 1:56 pm, Andreas Tille wrote:
> Dear Debian community,
> 
> This is Bits from a past DPL.
> 
> 1. Congratulations to Sruthi
> ============================
> 
> I'm glad to see that so many Debian Developers have placed their trust
> in Sruthi. I share the view that she will do an excellent job in this
> role.
> 
> Dear Sruthi, I wish you all the best for your term as Debian Project
> Leader.
> 
> Fun fact: Indian media reported on the new DPL with a delay of about two
> days[c01]. By coincidence, I saw this while a German TV crew was
> recording my screen--over two years after I had started as DPL, and after
> my term had already ended.
> 
> [c01] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2079IJSx6g
> 
> 
> 2. Looking back
> ===============
> 
> Different people will remember my tenure for different reasons. Some may
> associate it with the creation of the DFSG team and the introduction of
> an annual review of delegations[b01]. Others gave feedback they
> appreciated how certain difficult situations were handled along the
> way[b02].
> 
> On a more personal note, I'm pleased that during this time the publicity
> team decided to stop posting on X[b03]. That felt like a step aligned with
> Debian's values.
> 
> There were also several important developments in Debian during this
> period, such as the adoption of tag2upload and the release of Trixie.
> These achievements were driven by the work of many contributors across
> the project. My role in them was limited, but I want to acknowledge and
> thank everyone involved.
> 
> One topic I cared about was improving diversity in Debian, particularly
> regarding gender and geographic representation. This is not an area
> where results can easily be measured, and change tends to happen slowly.
> 
> Seeing a woman from India as the next DPL is an encouraging development.
> I have confidence that this perspective will help keep the topic on the
> agenda.
> 
> Not everything I had hoped for could be completed. In particular, I
> would have liked to see progress on improving the MIA process.
> 
> And while it did not quite happen during my tenure, I still look forward
> to the day when we might announce Debian-powered robots on the
> moon.[b04]
> 
> After looking back, you might wonder what my future involvement in
> Debian will look like. That question is easy to answer: I have promised
> the Debian Med team that I will return to working with them--and that is
> exactly what I intend to do.
> 
> [b01] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2026/04/msg00235.html
> [b02] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2026/01/msg00392.html
> [b03] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2025/02/msg00001.html
> [b04] https://www.federico.io/pdf/DeLaCroix.Rossi.ea.AERO24.pdf
> 
> 
> 3. Some statistics
> ==================
> 
> 3.1. Bug of the Day
> -------------------
> 
> One initiative during my tenure was the "Bug of the Day" project[s01].
> The goal was to provide approachable entry points for newcomers, and I
> have received some indications that this worked in individual cases.
> 
> At the same time, the effort also served as a QA and integration
> activity. Since 2024-08-01, more than 600 packages have been processed.
> These packages were migrated from various version control systems--many
> still referencing Alioth, but also other VCS or none at all--to Salsa.
> 
> For each package, at least one bug was closed. In addition, we evaluated
> whether packages are still needed, or whether removal would be a better
> use of limited maintainer time.
> 
> 
> 3.2. Salsa Migration of Teams
> -----------------------------
> 
> In January 2025, it was observed that a significant number of
> team-maintained packages were still not (visibly) hosted on Salsa[s02].
> At that time, more than 600 packages still referenced Alioth in their
> Vcs fields, despite Alioth having been shut down years earlier. This did
> not even include packages with missing Vcs fields, which likely added
> another ~100 cases.
> 
> I worked with the respective teams to improve this situation. Today, the
> picture looks very different.
> 
> For illustration, the following query (expanded to also include missing
> Vcs fields and excluding known exceptions) now returns only very few
> remaining cases:
> 
> SELECT maintainer_name, COUNT(*)
> FROM ( SELECT DISTINCT ON (source) * FROM sources WHERE release = 'sid' ORDER BY source, version DESC ) s
> WHERE
>     (vcs_url ~* '/(git|svn|alioth|anonscm).debian.org' or vcs_url is null or vcs_url = '')
>     AND maintainer ~* '(team|group|lists|force|maintainers)'
>     AND extra_source_only IS NOT True
>     AND maintainer_name not in ('PCP Development Team', -- maintain Debian packaging in the upstream PCP git repo
>                                 'Linaro Packagers', -- Uploader declared to prefer staying outside Salsa
>                                 'GRUB Maintainers', 'Debian EFI team', -- auto generated source
>                                 'XFS Development Team' -- maintained by upstream at git.kernel.org
>                                )
>     AND s.source NOT IN ( -- No packages scheduled for removal
>               SELECT affected_sources FROM bugs WHERE bugs.source = 'ftp.debian.org' AND title LIKE 'RM:%' AND done = '' -- do not include packages with removals pending
>     )
> GROUP BY maintainer_name
> ORDER BY count DESC;
>         maintainer_name         | count 
> --------------------------------+-------
>  Debian LibreOffice Maintainers |     3
>  Debian GCC Maintainers         |     2
>  Debian Mirror Team             |     1
>  Debian VSquare Team            |     1
>  Debian Wine Party              |     1
>  Debian Mactel                  |     1
>  Ayatana Packagers              |     1
> (7 rows)
> 
> The result currently lists only seven teams with a total of ten
> affected packages. This suggests that the issue has been largely
> resolved.  This reduces friction for collaboration and lowers the
> barrier for contributions across teams.
> 
> 
> 3.3. More numbers
> -----------------
> 
> Some of the goals I set at the beginning of my term can be illustrated
> with figures based on numbers from trends.debian.net.
> 
> The number of packages not hosted on Salsa has decreased significantly:
> 
>  * 2024-03-01: 4801
>  * 2026-03-01: 2083
> 
> At the time of writing, this number has dropped below 2000, which was
> the target I had set for the end of my term.
> 
> Looking at version control more broadly, the situation has also
> improved. Today, fewer than ten packages are maintained in a version
> control system other than Git, and roughly 1000 packages still lack any
> VCS. I intend to continue checking whether maintainers actively prefer
> alternative approaches or whether support for migration would be helpful
> to enable easier collaboration.
> 
> Beyond hosting, there has also been progress in simplifying and unifying
> packaging tooling. For example, the use of cdbs has effectively been
> phased out (from 1571 packages on 2024-03-01 to none today). Similarly,
> packages using old long debhelper have been reduced from 891 to around
> 500.
> 
> Moving towards a smaller set of well-understood and actively maintained
> tools helps reduce complexity and makes it easier to adapt Debian
> packaging to future needs.
> 
> 
> [s01] https://salsa.debian.org/qa/tiny_qa_tools/-/wikis/Tiny-QA-tasks#bug-of-the-day
> [s02] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2025/01/msg00148.html
> 
> 
> 
> 4. Conclusions
> ==============
> 
> The past two years have been a valuable experience for me, both within
> Debian and beyond (confirmed by my wife ;-) ).
> 
> One thing I learned is that it is worth tackling tasks even if they
> initially seem too large. Progress may be gradual, but it is often
> possible with persistence and support from others. In that regard, I
> have also learned that I can rely on my fellow Debian Developers. The
> willingness to collaborate, to step in, and to move things forward
> together remains one of Debian’s strongest qualities.
> 
> On a personal level, I learned that changes in role can reveal a lot
> about how we relate to each other. I came to particularly value those
> who treat others consistently, independent of any position or title.
> 
> A reassuring takeaway for me is seeing how projects continue to thrive
> beyond individual involvement. Debian Med, which has been close to me
> for most of my time in Debian, continues to progress without my direct
> participation.  The same applies to work in the R packaging team.
> Stepping back can create space for others to contribute, and that is a
> healthy and necessary dynamic in a volunteer-driven project.
> 
> Serving as DPL also reinforced that the role requires both dedication
> and a clear vision. Equally important is communicating that vision in a
> way that others can engage with and build upon.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who contributed, collaborated, disagreed
> constructively, and kept Debian moving forward. These two years have
> enriched my life, and a major reason for that has been the cooperation
> within this community.
> 
> 
> Kind regards
>     Andreas.
> 

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Re: Bits from past DPL Nilesh Patra <nilesh@debian.org> - 2026-05-08 23:00 +0200
  Re: Bits from past DPL Richard Lewis <richard.lewis.debian@googlemail.com> - 2026-05-09 13:30 +0200

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