Debian Maintainers Package Checklist (DRAFT)

Sandro Tosi, 13 June 2007

In this I'd like to present a list of "dos and donts" about packaging a software for Debian. Obviously, it's a work-in-progress, and items are presented in not particular order. Any contribution is welcome.

try to use a debian/watch file: it will ease the update of the package since trough QA page (???link???) you'll be able to see when a new upstream version is release; don't forget to test it using uscan.
check EVERY single source file for copyright information, and place them in debian/copyright files, each licence found. You can use this command on source directory:

grep -iR copyright *

there will be many false-positive, but it's a beginning...
if you're upgrading an existing package, then check if copyright has been extented to the current year, and update accordingly debian/copyright
If it's a new package, always fill an ITP bug and close it on debian/changelog;
moreover, pay attention on closing every bug fixed in the current release, using debian/changelog;
add the " Homepage: <url>" meta-field at the very bottom of debian/control; it starts becoming a requested feature (note the double space before Homepage);
always check packages with lintian and linda, to find common packaging errors; run them agains .dsc, .deb, .changes files