In +April, I started migrating orphaned Debian packages without any +version control system listed in debian/control to git. This morning, +my Debian QA page finally reached 200 QA packages migrated. In +reality there are a few more, as the packages uploaded by someone else +after my initial upload have disappeared from my QA uploads list. As +I am running out of steam and will most likely focus on other parts of +Debian moving forward, I hope someone else will find time to continue +the migration to bring the number of orphaned packages without any +version control system down to zero. Here is the updated recipe if +someone want to help out.
+ +To locate packages to work on, the following one-liner can be used:
+ ++ ++PGPASSWORD="udd-mirror" psql --port=5432 --host=udd-mirror.debian.net \ + --username=udd-mirror udd -c "select source from sources \ + where release = 'sid' and (vcs_url ilike '%anonscm.debian.org%' \ + OR vcs_browser ilike '%anonscm.debian.org%' or vcs_url IS NULL \ + OR vcs_browser IS NULL) AND maintainer ilike '%packages@qa.debian.org%' \ + order by random() limit 10;" +
Pick a random package from the list and run the latest edition of +the script +debian-snap-to-salsa +with the package name as the argument to prepare a git repository with +the existing packaging. This will download old Debian packages from +snapshot.debian.org. Note that very recent uploads will not +be included, so check out the package on tracker.debian.org. +Next, run gbp buildpackage --git-ignore-new to verify that +the package build as it should, and then visit +https://salsa.debian.org/debian/ +and make sure there is not already a git repository for the package +there. I also did git log -p debian/control and look for vcs +entries to check if the package used to have a git repository on +Alioth, and see if it can be a useful starting point moving forward. +If all this check out, I created a new gitlab project below the Debian +group on salsa, push the package source there and upload a new version. +I tend to also ensure build hardening is enabled, if it prove to be +easy, and check if I can easily fix any lintian issues or bug reports. +If the process took more than 20 minutes, I dropped it and moved on to +another package.
+ +If I found patches in debian/patches/ that were not yet passed +upstream, I would send an email to make sure upstream know about them. +This has proved to be a valuable step, and caused several new releases +for software that initially appeared abandoned. :)
+ +As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.
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