Debian Science Policy migrated to Wiki

About Debian Science

The main goal of the Debian Science project is to provide a system with all the most important free scientific software in each scientific field.

Debian Science will also manage the debian-science's metapackages.

How to Contribute

A list of packages has been created using Debian Pure Blend. This website contains a long list of software packages in Debian and yet to be packaged. You can help by packaging them in coordination with the Debian Science.

In the meantime, you can also help us by updating the debian-science's metapackages.

Becoming a Member

Before becoming a member you need to have on account on Alioth. If you do not have an account already, you can register one.

To request membership, login to salsa.debian.org and join Debian Science Team. Your application will be processed quickly.

Debian Control Files

The following sections describe the changes to the control files stored in the source package's debian/ directory.

debian/changelog

Changes in the Debian version of the package should be briefly explained in the Debian changelog file. The debian/changelog file consists in a series of entries detailing the changes. The format of the entries is described in the Debian Policy.

Not yet uploaded packages should have only a single changelog entry closing the ITP bug. Indeed, when a package is submitted only the latest paragraph is parsed by the Debian bug tracking system. Therefore do not add new changelog entries when updating an unrealeased package, the VCS logs are enough to track the changes.

When a sponsor is uploading a package for you, mark the package target as UNRELEASED. The sponsor will change it as appropriate before uploading the package.

debian/control

Section and Priority Fields

The Section field of the source package should be set to "science", unless a more specific section such as "math" is applicable.

The Priority field should be set to "optional" if this is permitted by the Debian Policy, or set to "optional" otherwise.

Maintainer and Uploaders Fields

The Maintainer field should be "Debian Science Maintainers <debian-science-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>".

You should also add yourself to the Uploaders field. Doing so shows your involvement and interest in the package. Developers listed in Uploaders will take care of maintenance, bug reports and other QA work, helped by the Debian Science team.

Vcs-Git and Vcs-Browser Fields

If you have your package under version control in the Debian Science Repository, you must set the Vcs-Git and Vcs-Browser fields.

The Vcs-Git field should contain the package repository URL, namely "https://salsa.debian.org/science-team/YourPackage.git".

The Vcs-Browser field should point to the web view of your package repository, namely "https://salsa.debian.org/science-team/YourPackage.git".

Homepage Field

If an upstream homepage exists, the Homepage field should be set to the upstream homepage URL.

Config::Model

It is a very good idea to use Config::Model to unify the formatting of debian/control. To do so make sure you have installed

apt-get install cme libconfig-model-dpkg-perl libconfig-model-itself-perl and than you can simply call

cme fix dpkg-control to get a properly formatted, sanity checked debian/control file. Please note that sometimes you need to call this more than once.

debian/copyright

If possible, the machine-readable format should be used.

The license of the packaging work should either match the license of the upstream sources or have a license that is even more free than the upstream license. For example, you should avoid licensing your packaging work under GPL if the upstream license is BSD, even though they are compatible.

debian/watch

If possible, a debian/watch file should be added so upstream releases can be tracked automatically.