• Debian Project News - December 11th, 2018

    From Donald Norwood@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 12 10:00:02 2018
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    The Debian Project https://www.debian.org/
    Debian Project News debian-publicity@lists.debian.org December 11th, 2018 https://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2018/04/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Welcome to this year's fourth issue of DPN, the newsletter for the
    Debian community. Topics covered in this issue include:

    * Welcome to the Debian Project News!
    * Internal News/Happenings
    * Events: Upcoming and Reports
    * Reports
    * Help needed
    * More than just code
    * Code, coders, and contributors
    * Outside News
    * Quick Links from Debian Social Media
    * Want to continue reading DPN?


    Welcome to the Debian Project News!
    -----------------------------------

    We hope that you enjoy this edition of the DPN.

    For other news, please read the official Debian blog Bits from
    Debian [1], and follow https://micronews.debian.org which feeds <(via
    RSS) the @debian> profile on several social networks too.

    1: https://bits.debian.org

    At the end of this Project News we've added a Quick Links section which
    links to a selection of the posts made through our other media streams.

    Debian's Security Team releases current advisories on a daily basis
    (Security Advisories 2018 [2]). Please read them carefully and subscribe
    to the security mailing list [3].

    2: https://www.debian.org/security/2018/
    3: https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/


    Internal News/Happenings
    ------------------------

    Updated Debian 9: 9.6 released

    The Debian project announced [4] the sixth update of its stable
    distribution Debian 9 (codename "Stretch") on 10 November 2018 to point
    release 9.6.

    4: https://www.debian.org/News/2018/20181110

    This point release added corrections for security issues along with a
    few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories have already
    been published separately and are referenced where available. Upgrading
    an existing installation to either revision can be achieved by pointing
    the package management system at one of Debian's many HTTP mirrors. A comprehensive list of mirrors is available at: https://www.debian.org/mirror/list


    Package Salvaging

    Tobias Frost announced [5] a new addition to the Debian Developer's
    Reference on Package Salvaging. Package Salvaging [6] allows packages
    not officially orphaned or abandoned to be maintained by other
    developers or new contributors after some eligibility factors are
    addressed.

    5: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/09/msg00003.html
    6: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/ch05.en.html#package-salvaging

    The process differs from MIA handling of packages in that it does allow
    for negelected or forgotten packages to be brought back into the fold.
    There is a set of guidelines [7] available which outline the phases of
    the process, along with additional information and FAQs on the Debian
    Wiki.

    7: https://wiki.debian.org/PackageSalvaging

    Reproducible Builds joins the Software Conservancy!

    Reproducible Builds [8] has joined the Software Freedom Conservancy [9],
    a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organisation that helps promote, develop and
    defend Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects. Through
    the SFC, member projects may receive donations earmarked for the benefit
    of a specific FLOSS project.

    8: https://reproducible-builds.org/
    9: https://sfconservancy.org/about/

    The Reproducible Builds project, which began as a project [10] within
    the Debian community, is also critical to the Conservancy’s own
    compliance work: A build that cannot be verified may contain code that
    triggers different license compliance responsibilities than the
    recipient is expecting.

    10: https://wiki.debian.org/ReproducibleBuilds/History

    As Reproducible Builds joins Conservancy, it is also receiving a
    donation of US$300,000 from the Handshake Foundation [11] which will
    propel the project’s efforts to ensure the future health and usability
    of free software.

    11: https://handshake.org/

    Rust available on 14 Debian Architectures

    John Paul Adrian Glaubitz announced and thanked the many contributors
    who helped to get Rust available on 14 Debian architectures [12]. The newest [13] supported architectures are: mips, mips64el, mipsel, and powerpcspe.

    12: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/11/msg00000.html
    13: https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=rustc&suite=unstable

    This work is the result of the combined effort of many talented people,
    and work on LLVM upstream which fixed many many bugs in the MIPSand
    PowerPC backends as well as adding support for the PowerPCSPE sub-
    target.

    Documenting copyright holders in debian/copyright

    The FTP team has issued clarifications [14] in regard to copyright
    attribution in debian/copyright; some of the main points:

    * Unless a license explicitly states that copyright attributions only
    apply to source distributions, they apply as well for the source and
    binary. The copyright must be documented in debian/copyright for license compliance reasons.
    * Be mindful of 2.3 Copyright considerations [15]: Every package must
    be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its copyright information and
    distribution license in the file /usr/share/doc/package/copyright.
    * On rare occasion the FTP masters have determined that full copyright attribution is both not feasible and, given the nature of the package,
    that an appropriate copyright notice does not need to list all copyright holders; in such cases this tolerance should not be assumed to apply to
    other packages.

    14: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/10/msg00004.html
    15: https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-archive.html#copyright-considerations

    The FTP team affirms that documenting copyright holders in debian/
    copyright is a good idea.

    CTTE decision on vendor-specific patch series

    The technical committee passed a resolution [16] on whether to allow the
    use of vendor-specific patch series in the Debian archive, in summary:

    16: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/11/msg00004.html

    The Committee recognises a need for packages to behave differently when
    built on different distributions, but this should be done by using
    differing source packages, or as part of the build process using current
    and future practices such as patches with conditional behaviour or
    patching of files during the build rather than at source unpacking time.

    As this feature is used by several packages today, there is the need for
    a reasonable transition period. However, they will be considered buggy
    from when this resolution is accepted, but will not be considered severe
    enough to warrant immediate removal from Debian.

    After Buster is released, the presence of a vendor-specific patch series
    will be a violation of a MUST directive in Debian policy.

    The Committee therefore resolves: Any use of dpkg's vendor-specific
    patch series feature is a bug for packages in the Debian archive
    (including contrib and non-free).

    After Buster is released, use of the vendor-specific patch series
    feature is forbidden in the Debian archive.

    For additional information and the original discussion please see Bug #904302 [17].

    17: https://bugs.debian.org/904302

    Release Team: Upcoming freeze timeline, ways to help

    The Release Team is preparing [18] for the initial phase of the buster
    freeze.

    18: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/09/msg00004.html

    Developers are reminded to follow up on their plans and evaluate
    realistic timelines to accomplish for changes and inclusion into buster.

    Changes can be staged in experimental, to avoid disruption. Keep in mind
    that other volunteers may not have the same capacity to work on your
    goals. Any unfixed bugs are suggested to be fixed via NMU [19] now
    rather than later.

    19: https://wiki.debian.org/NonMaintainerUpload

    The official freeze time table for buster is: 2019-01-12 - Transition
    freeze 2019-02-12 - Soft-freeze 2019-03-12 - Full-freeze

    Please consult the buster freeze policy [20] and timeline for detailed information about the different types of freezes and what they mean for
    you.

    20: https://release.debian.org/buster/freeze_policy.html

    If you would like to help us to get buster out on time and are able to
    help fix RC bugs in testing prior to the transition freeze, you can do
    that now by looking at the list of RC bugs [21] or joining the #debian-
    bugs irc channel on irc.oftc.net.

    21: https://udd.debian.org/bugs/

    Bits from the Debian Anti-Harassment Team

    The Debian Anti-Harassment Team [22] is the point of contact for any
    community member who would like to help create a more welcoming and
    respectful environment in Debian, and is also the point of contact for
    reports or concerns about inappropriate behaviour or abuse. The team
    will send out small but regular reports to the community.

    22: https://wiki.debian.org/AntiHarassment

    Should you see interactions that you consider deserve attention, please
    let us know. Please do not wait until a problem becomes too big; we can
    assist as friendly de-escalators or as mediators. Members may also
    forward information for which no action is to be taken, but kept on file
    should a problem escalate some time in the future.

    The team may be contacted at <antiharassment@debian.org> [23].

    23: antiharassment@debian.org

    Some highlights of our recent activity:

    One request for intervention on a dispute about a package deemed
    offensive, we issued our recommendation: Bug #907199 [24]

    24: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=907199

    We had a request about removing messages from mailing list and
    responded.

    Several attendees at DebConf 18 served as a local anti-harassment team
    that handled disputes between attendees and a possible Code of Conduct violation, mediating in minor issues, and offering advice during the conference.

    A general reminder about the CoC was sent via micronews several times
    during DebConf18.

    We have been involved in the discussions about the photo policy for
    DebConf, and we plan to make a proposal soon.

    New Outreachy intern

    Debian welcomes Anastasia Tsikoza as our newest Outreachy intern [25].
    The Outreachy program provides internships for people from groups
    traditionally underrepresented in technology. Anastasia mentored by Paul
    Wise and Raju Devidas, will work on Improving the integration of Debian derivatives with the Debian infrastructure and the community.

    25:
    https://bits.debian.org/2018/11/welcome-outreachy-intern-2018-2019.html

    Misc Developer News

    Paul Wise posted [26] the most recent issue of Misc Developer News #46, highlights include: debhelper compat level 12 is open for beta testing
    and is expected to become stable in Debian buster.

    26: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/10/msg00002.html

    A new port for RISC-V flavour "riscv64" (64-bits little-endian) is now available in Debian Ports.

    With the recent release of debcargo 2.0.0 to crates.io, Debian packages
    can be created from your favorite Rust crate and uploaded to the Debian archive.

    devscripts 2.18.5 has been released and brings some new uscan features
    such as verifying signed tags in git and auto value for dversionmangle.

    Chris Lamb called for more volunteers for the FTP Team.


    Events: Upcoming and Reports
    ----------------------------

    Upcoming events

    MiniDebConf Marseille 2019

    A miniDebConf will take place in Marseille (France) from 25 to 26 May,
    with two days of talks, lightning talks, keysigning party, lunch, and...
    beer event Read the announcement [27] and visit the wiki page of the event [28] where you can get all the details, register for the event,
    and help in the organisation.

    27: https://france.debian.net/pipermail/minidebconf/2018-November/000159.html
    28: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEvents/fr/2019/Marseille

    Buster (bug) Squashing Parties!

    There are many Bug Squashing Parties coming up on our calendars that are focusing efforts on addressing and fixing release critical bugs that
    will delay the release of Debian 10 (buster). BSPs are open to everyone
    who wants and is able to get involved. Come on by and help us to make
    this release a success!

    Netherlands, Venlo, 12 January to 13 January 2019

    Hosted at Transceptor Technology and insign.it.

    Feel welcome if you want to contribute to Debian, whatever your
    experience level. You don't need to be an existing Debian contributor.
    Just trying to reproduce a bug and documenting your experience is
    already useful.

    Announcement for Venlo BSP [29]

    29: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/11/msg00005.html

    BSP Wiki for Venlo [30]

    30: https://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2019/01/nl/Venlo

    Canada, Montreal, 19 January to 20 January 2019

    Hosted at Eastern Bloc, Montreal, Canada.

    Unlike the one we organised for the Stretch release, this BSP will be
    over a whole weekend, so hopefully folks from other provinces in Canada
    and from the USA can come.

    You can register on the wiki page where you will find information
    regarding transport, accommodation, food and other useful things.
    Expenses to attend this BSP should be sponsored by the Debian Project

    Announcement for Montreal BSP [31]

    31: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/12/msg00000.html

    BSP Wiki for Montreal [32]

    32: https://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2019/01/ca/Montreal

    Germany, Bonn, 22 to 24 February 2019

    Tarent solutions GmbH, Rochussstr. 2, 53123 Bonn, Germany

    The BSP is scheduled right between the soft freeze and the full freeze,
    thus giving a perfect opportunity for a really efficient and
    concentrated RC bug squashing sprint.

    The venue offers enough room for up to 20 people, separate rooms for
    those who want to hack in a smaller team, and also room for socialising.

    Announcement for Bonn BSP [33]

    33: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/11/msg00001.html

    BSP Wiki for Bonn [34]

    34: https://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2019/02/de/Bonn

    Austria, Salzburg 05 April to 07 April 2019

    The offices of Conova Communications GmbH [CONOVA], located close to
    Salzburg Airport W.A. Mozart.

    We are happy to invite you to the 6th Debian Bug Squashing Party in
    Salzburg, Austria.

    A short registration on the wiki page [BSPSBG] is required to ease the organisation of the event. On the same page you will find information
    regarding transport, (sponsored) accommodation and other useful things.

    Announcement for Salzburg BSP [35]

    35: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/11/msg00006.html

    BSP Wiki for Salzburg [36]

    36: https://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2019/04/Salzburg


    Reports
    -------

    LTS Freexian Monthly Reports

    Freexian issues monthly reports [37] about the work of paid contributors
    to Debian Long Term Support.

    37: https://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/Freexian+LTS/

    Reproducible Builds status update

    Follow the Reproducible Builds blog [38] to get the weekly reports on
    their work in the "Buster" cycle.

    38: https://reproducible-builds.org/blog/


    Help needed
    -----------

    Packages needing help

    Currently [39] 1311 packages are orphaned [40] and 157 packages are up
    for adoption [41]: please visit the complete list of packages which need
    your help [42].

    39: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2018/11/msg00733.html
    40: https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/orphaned
    41: https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/rfa
    42: https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/help_requested

    Newcomer bugs

    Debian has a "newcomer" bug tag, used to indicate bugs which are
    suitable for new contributors to use as an entry point to working on
    specific packages. There are currently 212 [43] bugs available tagged "newcomer".

    43: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?tag=newcomer


    More than just code
    -------------------

    Carl Chenet opined, You Think the Visual Studio Code binary you use is a
    Free Software? Think again. [44] He points out some of the licensing
    practices used in regard to the MIT license, a permissive Free Software license.

    44: https://carlchenet.com/you-think-the-visual-studio-code-binary-you-use-is-a-free-software-think-again/

    Elana Hashman shares information on her PyGotham 2018 Talk
    Resources [45] for a talk called "The Black Magic of Python Wheels",
    based on 2 years of work on auditwheel and the manylinux platform.

    45: https://hashman.ca/pygotham-2018/

    Benjamin Mako Hill talks about What we lose when we move from social to
    market exchange [46], on the topic of exchanging money in return for
    something vs. the exchange of hospitality.

    46: https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/what-we-lose-when-we-move-from-social-to-market-exchange

    Molly de Blanc shared how she came to run a Conservancy Match [47]
    donation program for the benefit of Software Freedom Conservancy.

    47: http://deblanc.net/blog/2018/11/24/conservancy-match/


    Code, coders, and contributors
    ------------------------------

    New Package Maintainers since 19 August

    New Debian Maintainers

    New Debian Developers

    Contributors

    1603 people and 19 teams are currently listed on the Debian
    Contributors [48] page for 2018.

    48: https://contributors.debian.org/

    Statistics

    buster Source files: 11,885,550 Source packages: 28,697 Disk usage:
    252,791,492 kB Ctags: 17,452,645 Source lines of code: 1,044,492,396

    * ddSource files: 20,019,227
    * Source packages: 33,533
    * Disk usage: 381,351,424 kB
    * Ctags: 42,219,156
    * Source lines of code: 1,759,157,606

    Discussions

    Debian user Aurélien Couderc asked about Bumping an epoch and reusing a package name [49], which led to a discussion about requesting upstream
    changes for Debian internal policies and the effect on users. Several alternatives are mentioned in the discussion as well pitfalls of bumping
    a version number.

    49: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2018/09/msg00220.html

    Debian user Pétùr asked for help with a File with weird permissions, impossible to delete [50]. The discussion moves quick onto permission
    issues, inodes, fsck, and bad SATA cabling.

    50: https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2018/09/msg00311.html

    Debian user Subhadip Ghosh asked, Why does Debian allow all incoming
    traffic by default? [51]

    51: https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2018/09/msg00700.html

    Tips and Tricks

    Jonathan McDowell continues his series of write ups on home automation
    with Controlling my heating with Home Assistant [52] and Using ARP via
    netlink to detect presence. [53]

    52: https://www.earth.li/~noodles/blog/2018/10/heating-automation.html
    53: https://www.earth.li/~noodles/blog/2018/09/netlink-arp-presence.html

    Antoine Beaupré shared tips for Archiving web sites [54] using freely available tools and some knowledge.

    54: https://anarc.at/blog/2018-10-04-archiving-web-sites/

    Sergio Alberti shared [55] a guide on Reverse Engineering Bluetooth Low
    Energy Devices [56]

    55: https://sergioalberti.gitlab.io//gsoc/debian/2018/09/24/reveng.html
    56: https://reverse-engineering-ble-devices.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

    Petter Reinholdtsen shares VLC in Debian now can do bittorrent
    streaming [57].

    57: http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/VLC_in_Debian_now_can_do_bittorrent_streaming.html

    Laura Arjona Reina found a small digital photo frame and brings it back
    to use in Handling an old Digital Photo Frame (AX203) with Debian (and gphoto2) [58].

    58: https://larjona.wordpress.com/2018/09/22/handling-an-old-digital-photo-frame-ax203-with-debian-and-gphoto2/

    Once upon a time in Debian:

    * 2009-12-08 Debian Bug #560000 reported by Mika Tiainen [59]
    * 2016-12-10 MiniDebconf 2016 held in Tokyo, Japan [60]
    * 1996-12-12 Debian 1.2 Released (Rex) [61]
    * 2014-12-13 Bug Squashing Party in Tilburg, The Netherlands [62]
    * 2016-12-13 Debian co-organizes and sponsors Reproducible Builds
    Summit in Berlin, Germany [63]

    59: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=560000
    60: https://miniconf.debian.or.jp/index.en.html
    61: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2014/08/msg00012.html
    62: https://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2014/12/nl/Tilburg
    63: https://reproducible-builds.org/events/berlin2016/


    Outside News
    ------------

    The Creative Commons Global Summit will be held in Lisbon, Portugal May
    9-11 2019. Their Call for Proposals is open until December 10th 2018.
    Visit https://summit.creativecommons.org/ for more details and
    registration.



    Quick Links from Debian Social Media
    ------------------------------------

    This is an extract from the micronews.debian.org [64] feed, in which we
    have removed the topics already commented on in this DPN issue. You can
    skip this section if you already follow micronews.debian.org or <the
    @debian> profile in a social network (Pump.io, GNU Social, Mastodon or Twitter). The items are provided unformatted in descending order by date (recent news at the top).

    64: https://micronews.debian.org

    November

    * Bits from <the @Debian> Project Leader (November 2018) https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/11/msg00007.html
    * Debian CI pipeline for Debian Maintainers! https://salsa.debian.org/salsa-ci-team/pipeline/blob/master/README.md
    * Happy <birthday @Fedora!> https://fedoramagazine.org/celebrate-fifteen-years-fedora/
    * Perl 5.28 transition underway, wide uninstallability is to be
    expected in sid for the next days! https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/10/msg00006.html


    October

    * Bits from the Debian Project Leader (October 2018) https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/10/msg00005.html
    * "Salsa ribbons" by Chris Lamb
    https://chris-lamb.co.uk/posts/salsa-ribbons
    * [debian-installer] Call to update translations for Buster https://lists.debian.org/debian-i18n/2018/10/msg00002.html
    * Bits from MicroDebConf Brasília 2018 http://blog.kanashiro.xyz/debconf/2018/09/28/microdebconf-bsb.html


    September

    * Bits from the Debian Project Leader (September 2018) https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/09/msg00005.html
    * Call for mentors and project ideas for next Outreachy round https://lists.debian.org/debian-outreach/2018/09/msg00030.html
    * Debian security repositories stay online in Japan despite magnitude
    6.7 earthquake https://henrich-on-debian.blogspot.com/2018/09/earthquake-struck-hokkaido-and-caused.html


    August

    * FISL19 in Porto Alegre will take place before DebCamp next year https://debconf19.debconf.org/news/2018-08-23-fisl19/
    * Bits from the Debian Project Leader (August 2018) https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2018/08/msg00008.html



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    This issue of Debian Project News was edited by The Publicity Team with contributions from Jean-Pierre Giraud, Justin B Rye and Laura Arjona
    Reina.


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