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8 <a accesskey="h" href="http://www.debian.org/"> UP </a>
10 <a accesskey="H" href="http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Policy"> HOME </a>
13 <title>Debian Policy</title>
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16 <meta name="generated" content="2009-09-15 15:48:45 CDT"/>
17 <meta name="author" content="Manoj Srivastava And Russ Allbery"/>
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123 <h1 class="title">Debian Policy</h1>
126 <div id="outline-container-1" class="outline-2">
127 <h2 id="sec-1">Infrastructure </h2>
128 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
133 Website:: <a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#policy">http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#policy</a>
136 Mailing list:: debian-policy@lists.debian.org lists
142 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/dbnpolicy/policy.git
145 Browser: <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=dbnpolicy/policy.git">http://git.debian.org/?p=dbnpolicy/policy.git</a>
150 Unix group:: dbnpolicy
153 Alioth Project:: <a href="http://alioth.debian.org/projects/dbnpolicy">http://alioth.debian.org/projects/dbnpolicy</a> (exists
154 to manage the repository but not otherwise used)
161 <div id="outline-container-1.1" class="outline-3">
162 <h3 id="sec-1.1">Interacting with the team </h3>
163 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-1.1">
168 Email contact:: <a href="mailto:debian-policy@lists.debian.org">mailto:debian-policy@lists.debian.org</a>
171 Request tracker:: <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-policy">http://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-policy</a>
176 <p>Debian Policy uses a formal procedure and a set of user tags to manage
177 the lifecycle of change proposals. For definitions of those tags and
178 proposal states and information about what the next step is for each
179 phase, see <a href="./Process.html">Policy changes process</a>.
182 Once the wording for a change has been finalized, please send a patch
183 against the current Git master branch to the bug report, if you're not
184 familiar with Git, the following commands are the basic process:
189 <pre class="src src-Sh">git clone git://git.debian.org/git/dbnpolicy/policy.git
190 git checkout -b <local-branch-name>
192 # edit files, but don't make changes to upgrading-checklist or debian/changelog
193 git add <files>
195 # repeat as necessary
197 # update your branch against the current master
201 # If there are changes in master that make the branch not apply cleanly:
202 : git checkout -b temp master; git merge <local-branch-name>
203 # If error, reset temp, merge master into local; else skip these three lines
204 : git reset --hard HEAD;
205 : git checkout <local-branch-name>;
207 # get rid of the temp branch:
210 # Checkout the local branch, to create the patch to send to the policy
211 git checkout <local-branch-name>
213 git format-patch -o $dir -s master
214 # check out the patches created in $dir
215 git send-email --from <span style="font-style: italic;">"you <<a href="mailto:your@email">your@email</a>>"</span> \
216 --to debian-policy@lists.debian.org \
224 <local-branch-name> is some convenient name designating your local
225 changes. You may want to use some common prefix like local-. You can
226 use git format-patch and git send-email if you want, but usually it's
234 <div id="outline-container-2" class="outline-2">
235 <h2 id="sec-2">Usual Roles </h2>
236 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
240 The Debian Policy team are official project delegates (see the DPL
241 delegation). All of the Policy team members do basically the same
242 work: shepherd proposals, propose wording, and merge changes when
243 consensus has been reached. The current delegates are:
259 Colin Watson (cjwatson)
264 <p>The special tasks of Policy delegates are:
268 Commit access to the Git repository and uploads of the debian-policy
269 package itself, which makes them responsible for debian-policy as a
270 package in Debian and for making final decisions about when a new
271 version is released and what bits go into it.
274 Rejecting proposals. Anyone can argue against a proposal, but only
275 Policy delegates can formally reject it.
278 Counting seconds and weighing objections to proposals to determine
279 whether the proposal has sufficient support to be included.
284 <p>Everything else can be done by anyone, or any DD (depending on the
285 outcome of the discussion about seconding). We explicitly want any
286 Debian DD to review and second or object to proposals. The more
287 participation, the better. Many other people are active on the Policy
288 mailing list without being project delegates.
294 <div id="outline-container-3" class="outline-2">
295 <h2 id="sec-3">Task description </h2>
296 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
300 The Debian Policy team is responsible for maintaining and coordinating
301 updates to the technical Policy manuals for the project. The primary
302 output of the team is the Debian Policy Manual and the assorted
303 subpolicies, released as the debian-policy Debian package and also
304 published at <a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/">http://www.debian.org/doc/</a>.
307 In addition to the main technical manual, the team currently also maintains:
311 <a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/menu-policy/">Debian Menu sub-policy</a>
314 <a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/perl-policy/">Debian Perl Policy</a>
317 <a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/mime-policy/">Debian MIME support sub-policy</a>
320 <a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/debconf_specification.html">Debconf Specification</a>
323 <a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/virtual-package-names-list.txt">Authoritative list of virtual package names </a>
328 <p>These documents are maintained using the <a href="./Process.html">Policy changes process</a>, and
329 the current state of all change proposals is tracked using the
330 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-policy">debian-policy BTS</a>.
336 <div id="outline-container-4" class="outline-2">
337 <h2 id="sec-4">Get involved </h2>
338 <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-4">
342 The best way to help is to review the <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-policy">current open bugs</a>, pick a bug
343 that no one is currently shepherding (ask on
344 <a href="mailto:debian-policy@lists.debian.org">debian-policy@lists.debian.org</a> if you're not sure if a particular bug
345 is being shepherded), and help it through the change process. This
346 will involve guiding the discussion, seeking additional input
347 (particularly from experts in the area being discussed), possibly
348 raising the issue on other mailing lists, proposing or getting other
349 people to propose specific wording changes, and writing diffs against
350 the current Policy document. All of the steps of <a href="./Process.html">Policy changes process</a>
351 can be done by people other than Policy team members except
352 the final acceptance steps and almost every change can be worked on
353 independently, so there's a lot of opportunity for people to help.
356 There are also some other, larger projects:
360 Policy is currently maintained in DebianDoc-SGML, which is no longer
361 very actively maintained and isn't a widely used or understood
362 format. The most logical replacement would be DocBook. However,
363 DocBook is a huge language with many tags and options, making it
364 rather overwhelming. We badly need someone with DocBook experience
365 to write a style guide specifying exactly which tags should be used
366 and what they should be used for so that we can limit ourselves to
367 an easy-to-understand and documented subset of the language.
370 Policy contains several appendices which are really documentation of
371 how parts of the dpkg system works rather than technical
372 Policy. Those appendices should be removed from the Policy document
373 and maintained elsewhere, probably as part of dpkg, and any Policy
374 statements in them moved into the main document. This project will
375 require reviewing the current contents of the appendices and feeding
376 the useful bits that aren't currently documented back to the dpkg
377 team as documentation patches.
380 Policy has grown organically over the years and suffers from
381 organizational issues because of it. It also doesn't make use of the
382 abilities that a current XML language might give us, such as being
383 able to extract useful portions of the document (all <b>must</b>
384 directives, for example). There has been quite a bit of discussion
385 of a new format that would allow for this, probably as part of
386 switching to DocBook, but as yet such a reorganization and reworking
387 has not been started.
392 <p>If you want to work on any of these projects, please mail
393 <a href="mailto:debian-policy@lists.debian.org">debian-policy@lists.debian.org </a> for more information. We'll be happy to
394 help you get started.
399 <div id="outline-container-4.1" class="outline-3">
400 <h3 id="sec-4.1">Maintenance procedures </h3>
401 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4.1">
408 <div id="outline-container-4.2" class="outline-3">
409 <h3 id="sec-4.2">Repository layout </h3>
410 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4.2">
414 The Git repository used for Debian Policy has the following branches:
418 master:: the current accepted changes that will be in the next release
421 bug<number>-<user>:: changes addressing bug <number>, shepherded by <user>
424 rra:: old history of Russ's arch repository, now frozen
427 srivasta:: old history of Manoj's arch repository
435 <div id="outline-container-4.3" class="outline-3">
436 <h3 id="sec-4.3">Managing a bug </h3>
437 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4.3">
441 The process used by Policy team members to manage a bug, once there is
442 proposed wording, is:
446 Create a bug<number>-<user> branch for the bug, where <number> is
447 the bug number in the BTS and <user> is a designator of the Policy
448 team member who is shepherding the bug.
451 Commit wording changes in that branch until consensus is
452 achieved. Do not modify debian/changelog or upgrading-checklist.html
453 during this phase. Use the BTS to track who proposed the wording and
457 git pull master to make sure you have the latest version.
460 Once the change has been approved by enough people, git merge the
461 branch into master immediately after making the final commit adding
462 the changelog entry to minimize conflicts.
465 add the debian/changelog and upgrading-checklist.html changes, and
469 Push master out so other people may merge in their own bug branches
473 Tag the bug as pending and remove other process tags.
476 Delete the now-merged branch.
481 <p>The Git commands used for this workflow are:
485 <pre class="src src-Sh">git checkout -b bug12345-rra master
489 git push origin bug12345-rra
491 # update your local master branch
494 # If there are changes in master that make the branch not apply cleanly:
495 : git checkout -b temp master; git merge bug12345-rra
497 : git reset --hard HEAD;
498 : git checkout bug12345-rra; git branch -D temp
501 git merge bug12345-rra
502 # edit debian/changelog and upgrading-checklist.html
503 git add debian/changelog upgrading-checklist.html
505 git push origin master
506 git branch -d bug12345-rra
507 git push origin :bug12345-rra
514 For the debian/changelog entry, use the following format:
518 <pre class="example">* <document>: <brief change description>
519 Wording: <author of wording>
520 Seconded: <seconder>
521 Seconded: <seconder>
522 Closes: <bug numbers>
533 <pre class="example">* Policy: better document version ranking and empty Debian revisions
534 Wording: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
535 Seconded: Raphaƫl Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
536 Seconded: Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>
537 Seconded: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>
538 Closes: #186700, #458910
548 <div id="outline-container-4.4" class="outline-3">
549 <h3 id="sec-4.4">Updating branches </h3>
550 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4.4">
554 After commits to master have been pushed, either by you or by another
555 Policy team member, you will generally want to update your working bug
556 branches. The equivalent of the following commands should do that:
561 <pre class="src src-Sh">for i in `git show-ref --heads | awk '{print $2}'`; do
563 if [ <span style="font-style: italic;">"$j"</span> != <span style="font-style: italic;">"master"</span> ]; then
564 git checkout $j && git merge master
567 git push --all origin
574 assuming that you haven't packed the refs in your repository.
580 <div id="outline-container-4.5" class="outline-3">
581 <h3 id="sec-4.5">Making a release </h3>
582 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4.5">
586 For a final Policy release, change UNRELEASED to unstable in
587 debian/changelog and update the timestamp to match the final release
588 time (dch -r may be helpful for this), update the release date in
589 upgrading-checklist.html, update Standards-Version in debian/control,
590 and commit that change. Then do the final release build and make sure
591 that it builds and installs.
594 Then, tag the repository and push the final changes to Alioth:
599 <pre class="src src-Sh">git tag -s v3.8.0.0
601 git push --tags origin
608 replacing the version number with the version of the release, of course.
611 Finally, announce the new Policy release on debian-devel-announce,
612 including in the announcement the upgrading-checklist section for the
619 <div id="outline-container-4.6" class="outline-3">
620 <h3 id="sec-4.6">Setting release goals </h3>
621 <div class="outline-text-3" id="text-4.6">
625 Policy has a large bug backlog, and each bug against Policy tends to
626 take considerable time and discussion to resolve. I've found it
627 useful, when trying to find a place to start, to pick a manageable set
628 of bugs and set as a target resolving them completely before the next
629 Policy release. Resolving a bug means one of the following:
633 Proposing new language to address the bug that's seconded and approved by
634 the readers of the Policy list following the <a href="./Progress.html">Policy changes process</a> (or
635 that's accepted by one of the Policy delegates if the change isn't
636 normative; i.e., doesn't change the technical meaning of the document).
639 Determining that the bug is not relevant to Policy and closing it.
642 Determining that either there is no consensus that the bug indicates
643 a problem, that the solutions that we can currently come up with are
644 good solutions, or that Debian is ready for the change. These bugs
645 are tagged wontfix and then closed after a while. A lot of Policy
646 bugs fall into this category; just because it would be useful to
647 have a policy in some area doesn't mean that we're ready to make
648 one, and keeping the bugs open against Policy makes it difficult to
649 tell what requires work. If the problem is worth writing a policy
650 for, it will come up again later when hopefully the project
651 consensus is more mature.
656 <p>Anyone can pick bugs and work resolve them. The final determination to
657 accept a wording change or reject a bug will be made by a Policy
658 delegate, but if a patch is already written and seconded, or if a
659 summary of why a bug is not ready to be acted on is already written,
660 the work is much easier for the Policy delegate.
663 One of the best ways to help out is to pick one or two bugs (checking
664 on the Policy list first), say that you'll make resolving them a goal
665 for the next release, and guide the discussion until the bugs can
666 reach one of the resolution states above.
671 <p class="author"> Author: Manoj Srivastava And Russ Allbery
672 <a href="mailto:srivasta@debian.org"><srivasta@debian.org></a>
674 <p class="date"> Date: 2009-09-15 15:48:45 CDT</p>
675 <p class="creator">HTML generated by org-mode 6.30trans in emacs 23</p>