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Revision 32 as of 2007-12-27 21:03:12
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Comment: News on symbols
Revision 33 as of 2007-12-27 21:13:47
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Comment: Issue 3 got released
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=== Updating libraries with symbols files ===

A few packages of libraries have already been updated to provide symbols files (like zlib1g, libxml2, libogg0, liburiparser1, libvorbis0a). The adoption rate is still slow but I expect it to increase now that dpkg-shlibdeps in dpkg 1.14.14 supports injection of versions extracted from build-dependencies in the real dependency. This is a [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2007/12/msg00036.html safety measure suggested by Loïc Minier].

For package like libgtk2-0 where symbol based dependency could generate a dependency weaker than what's really needed at run-time, it offers a way for the package using the library to provide a minimal version for the dependency. In the case of libgtk2-0, the version of libgtk2-dev required at build-time would be used a minimal version to put in the run-time dependency. For this the symbols file needs to indicate to dpkg-shlibdeps the name of the corresponding -dev package. This is done with a special header called "Build-Depends-Package" (see man dpkg-shlibdeps and man deb-symbols for details and precise syntax).

If you add symbols files to packages, please follow the guidelines provided [http://wiki.debian.org/UsingSymbolsFiles here] and feel free to contribute to this wiki page. I'm also looking for volunteers to identify the libraries with most reverse dependencies, to file bug reports on them and to coordinate the work to make it a release goal to have the most important libraries using symbols files.

-- Raphaël Hertzog

=== Mark easy bugs to let new contributors help you ===

Lucas Nussbaum discussed in his blog how Debian could be [http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=268 more friendly towards new contributors]. He also created a new [http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=269 wiki page]: http://wiki.debian.org/HelpDebian/Start

Another important point in his proposal is to mark easy bugs with a special tag so that new contributors can do real and useful work that gets quickly integrated. See the explanation on this page:
http://wiki.debian.org/qa.debian.org/GiftTag

-- Raphaël Hertzog

=== D-I i18n news ===

Christian Perrier gave [http://www.perrier.eu.org/weblog/2007/12/23#d-i_i18n-news some news] of the translation work of debian-installer. A new African language (Amharic) has been enabled, and the translations have been split in 5 levels according to the importance of each string (level 1 for strings always used and level 5 for strings used only in special case on non-mainstream architectures). This split means that translations can be activated sooner while still having a good coverage of most installation scenarios.

-- Raphaël Hertzog

=== packages.qa.debian.org (PTS) update ===

Well, you have probably already noticed, but the [http://packages.qa.debian.org PTS] has got a facelift: new layout and new css with (supposedly) Debian "social" colors.

-- Stefano Zacchiroli

=== bugs.qa.debian.org update ===

The [http://bugs.qa.debian.org/ QA bug-squashing web pages] have been belatedly updated for lenny, and their idea of the contents of the base system fixed so that it no longer needs to be updated manually.

-- Colin Watson

=== Fonts review updates ===

The [:Fonts:Debian Fonts Task Force] enabled weekly updates to the [http://pkg-fonts.alioth.debian.org/review/ review of fonts in Debian] and will use this to identify non-free fonts, duplicated fonts and fonts that need to be split into separate packages.

-- Paul Wise
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 * [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2007/12/msg000011.html Issue 3]

News for Debian developers

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