git workflows (was: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :()

From	Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.devel
Subject	git workflows (was: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :()
Date	2021-08-13 00:40 +0200
Message-ID	<CLrwK-5XL-7@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
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Hello Romain, others,

On Thu 12 Aug 2021 at 02:06PM +02, Romain Porte wrote:

> I think this is a major point. I am a new Debian contributor after a
> good time of ArchLinux PKGBUILD writing. I find Debian technically
> superior on the packaging side, and would not trade it for PKGBUILD. But
> there are so many ways to do things. After a lot of exploration, I have
> found that the tooling that I was the most comfortable with was:
>
>   * Salsa VCS
>   * GBP for git + patching (+ DEP-conformant branch names)
>   * dh
>
> However there are so many other ways to do things. Some packages are not
> on Salsa. Some packages use manually generated diff files. Different
> branch names everywhere (debian/latest vs. debian/master vs.
> debian/unstable vs. master…). I think progressive enforcing of a
> workflow would help new maintainers to not be lost in the packaging jungle.
>
>> I still trust Debian to be the most technically excellent distribution,
>> but that's not all it makes to stay relevant. My point is that it would
>> help to reduce the technical liberties we take in Debian. However, I
>> don't think that's who we are.
>
> Maintainers like their freedoms, but enforcing some tools at some point
> could make it easier for everyone to contribute and not relearn the
> packaging process for every package, because currently every package is
> different. We are getting there by looking at the number of "3.0
> (quilt)" packages and "dh" usage, but when a package does not conform to
> this norm, it triggers a mental freeze on my side (and I want to migrate
> it all to dh/3.0 quilt etc.).

I understand your frustration and I appreciate you persevering with
involvement in Debian -- thank you!  I'd like to offer a brief
counterpoint to some of what you say, however.

In many cases, indeed, the reasons why things like dh are not in use is
simply that no-one has taken the time to update the package yet, as you
say.  However, in other cases it is because the maintainer has thought
through the options and decided against using those particular tools and
workflows for principled reasons.

For example, there are those of us who think that the downsides of the
combination of 3.0 (quilt) and patches stored unapplied in git are
significant, and so we have made attempts to provide alternatives, such
as git-debrebase.  Contributing to Debian would be a lot less fun if we
were asked to just set these reasons aside and use something which to us
is clearly technically inferior.

-- 
Sean Whitton

Thread

Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Samuel Henrique <samueloph@debian.org> - 2021-07-17 14:50 +0200
  Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Andrey Rahmatullin <wrar@debian.org> - 2021-07-17 16:00 +0200
  Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Luca Boccassi <bluca@debian.org> - 2021-07-17 17:20 +0200
    Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Sandro Tosi <morph@debian.org> - 2021-08-10 19:40 +0200
      Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Andrey Rahmatullin <wrar@debian.org> - 2021-08-10 19:40 +0200
        Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> - 2021-08-11 03:00 +0200
          Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Calum McConnell <calumlikesapplepie@gmail.com> - 2021-08-11 07:10 +0200
            Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Marc Haber <mh+debian-devel@zugschlus.de> - 2021-08-11 08:50 +0200
              Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Steffen Möller <steffen_moeller@gmx.de> - 2021-08-11 11:40 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Vincent Bernat <bernat@debian.org> - 2021-08-11 16:10 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu> - 2021-08-11 18:10 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Timothy M Butterworth <timothy.m.butterworth@gmail.com> - 2021-08-12 05:30 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> - 2021-08-12 06:50 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2021-08-14 08:50 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Moritz Mühlenhoff <jmm@inutil.org> - 2021-08-14 09:20 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> - 2021-08-16 16:30 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Romain Porte <debian@microjoe.org> - 2021-08-12 16:40 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Andreas Tille <andreas@an3as.eu> - 2021-08-12 23:10 +0200
                Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Jonas Smedegaard <jonas@jones.dk> - 2021-08-13 00:00 +0200
                git workflows (was: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad  news for Debian :() Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name> - 2021-08-13 00:40 +0200
                Re: git workflows (was: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad  news for Debian :() Jonathan Dowland <jmtd@debian.org> - 2021-08-14 09:00 +0200
                Re: git workflows (was: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad  news for Debian :() Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name> - 2021-08-15 07:10 +0200
  Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( "Thaddeus H. Black" <thb@debian.org> - 2021-07-18 02:20 +0200
  Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> - 2021-07-18 03:00 +0200
    Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Hanno 'Rince' Wagner <wagner@debian.org> - 2021-07-18 10:40 +0200
      Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> - 2021-07-19 04:30 +0200
        Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian :( Simon McVittie <smcv@debian.org> - 2021-07-19 22:30 +0200
  Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian? Simon McVittie <smcv@debian.org> - 2021-07-19 23:40 +0200
    Re: Steam Deck: good news for Linux gaming, bad news for Debian? Samuel Henrique <samueloph@debian.org> - 2021-07-20 00:30 +0200

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