Note on packaging workflows

• I use git-buildpackage workflow.
• I use gbp-pq to manage quilt patches.
• I typically use pristine-tar.
• When working with a packaging team, I try to adjust to match other packages that they maintain.

Initial setup

1. Create ~/.gbp.conf.
2. Add the following lines to the appropriate sections in your ~/.gbp.conf:

    [DEFAULT]
    sign-tags = True

    [buildpackage]
    ignore-branch = True    

    [dch]
    multimaint-merge = True

1. Add export DEBEMAIL=[email] and export DEBFULLNAME="[name]" to ~/.bashrc.

Starting a new package with upstream git history

1. git clone --no-checkout -o upstream [upstream-git-repo-url]
2. If needed, mv [upstream-name] [package-name]
3. cd [package-name]
4. If upstream has release tags: git checkout -b upstream [latest-release-tag]
   • Otherwise: git checkout -b upstream [upstream-main-branch]
5. Remove any unwanted upstream files:
   • If upstream .gitattributes is causing tests to be dropped:
     • git rm .gitattributes
     • git commit -m "upstream: Drop .gitattributes to keep tests"
   • Also remove any non-DFSG files or embedded libraries.
6. git tag -s -m "Upstream version [version]" upstream/<version>
   • If files were removed only for packaging reasons, append +ds.1 to the version.
   • If non-DFSG files were removed, append +dfsg.1 to the version.
7. git checkout -b debian/latest
8. Find a similar package, copy and adapt its debian/ files to the new package.
   • If no similar package is available, may want to try dh_make --indep --createorig -p [package]_[version].
   • Use dch --create to create debian/changelog template.
   • For Java packages that use Maven build system, try mh_make.
9. Add debian/ packaging files and commit.
10. gbp buildpackage --git-pristine-tar-commit --git-upstream-tree=BRANCH

Alternative: Using upstream tarball

1. Download the release tarball and rename to [packagename]-[version].tar.gz.
2. mkdir [packagename]
3. cd [packagename]
4. git init
5. gbp import-orig ../[packagename]-[version].tar.gz
   • Alternative: gbp import-orig --uscan --upstream-vcs-tag=...
6. Find a similar package, copy and adapt its debian/ files to the new package.
   • If no similar package is available, may want to try dh_make --indep --createorig -p [package]_[version].
   • Use dch --create to create debian/changelog template.
   • For Java packages that use Maven build system, try mh_make.
7. Add debian/ packaging files and commit.
8. gbp buildpackage

Best Practices

• Set the Custom CI config path to recipes/debian.yml@salsa-ci-team/pipeline.
• Use Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (= [compat-level]), and then you do not need the debian/compat file.
• Run github-debian-upstream from pkg-js-tools to generate debian/upstream/metadata.
• Run lintian-brush to check for problems.
• List upstream README and other docs in debian/docs.
• List upstream example files in debian/examples.
• If your packaging branch is named debian/latest or similar, create debian/gbp.conf to indicate this:

[DEFAULT]
debian-branch = debian/latest
pristine-tar = True
sign-tags = True

Setup and run autopkgtest

1. mkdir ~/autopkgtest
2. sudo autopkgtest-build-qemu unstable ~/autopkgtest/unstable
3. autopkgtest --apt-upgrade -B $(debc --list-debs) . -- qemu ~/autopkgtest/unstable

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