[needs-packaging] vala-panel

[Martin Wimpress ]

Vala Panel is GTK+ 3 desktop panel based on ideas from LXPanel.

  * vala-panel

URL: https://github.com/rilian-la-te/vala-panel
License: LGPL-3.0
Notes: I'm working upstream to maintain the packaging for vala-panel and will ask the DMB to allow vala-panel to be included in the the Ubuntu MATE package set so I can maintain it in the Ubuntu archive. vala-panel-appmenu has a dependency on vala-panel. vala-panel-appmenu has a needs-packaging bug too (LP: #1699334)

[needs-packaging] vala-panel

The source and documentation is available from the following repository:

  * https://github.com/rilian-la-te/vala-panel

The packaging can be found here:

  * https://github.com/rilian-la-te/vala-project-packages

A .dsc can be downloaded from ppa:flexiondotorg/needs-packaging using:

    dget -u -x https://launchpad.net/~flexiondotorg/+archive/ubuntu/needs-packaging/+files/vala-panel_0.3.65-0ubuntu1.dsc

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Mattia Rizzolo (mapreri)]

1. Who's the person in Maintainer that doesn't seem to be you nor "ubuntu developers" as customary?
2. can debhelper compat level be the last?
3. same for Standards-Version?
4. Vcs-* fields point to the upstream repository instead of the packaging one
5. please rename debian/docs following the package name, it *does* cause a lot of confusion to people not used to it to discover that it's not installed where they would expect it…
6. in d/rules please move that --buildsystem option to the main dh options instead of repeating it everywhere
7. also in d/rules please consider removing those unused code commented out, and removing that $(DHFLAGS) that is used only one
8. why do you call dh_strip manually, in only few packages? is dh_strip doing it wrong by itself?
9. why isn't the library in an appropriately named libary package, as all library should be? Installing a library in an application package doesn't sound like a good idea at all; you also overrode a lintian tag about this without giving a single comment.
10. lintian also contains some suggestion that you should definitely follow; please run a full lintian (with pedantic enabled); I'm mostly referring to the tags related to the binaries descriptions
11. d/copyright doesn't have a paragraph for 'Files: *'; whilst in itself is not a problem lintian highlights how you are not covering the 'LICENSE' file itself; probably the first paragraph should be turned into 'Files: *'

Note that I didn't do a copyright check of the package.

[Martin Wimpress  (flexiondotorg)]

Mattia thanks for the detailed feedback. The package was adapted from upstream and had some hangovers, I've addressed everything you've highlighted and made sure lintian is happy :-)

A .dsc can be downloaded from ppa:flexiondotorg/needs-packaging using:

    dget -u -x https://launchpad.net/~flexiondotorg/+archive/ubuntu/needs-packaging/+files/vala-panel_0.3.65-0ubuntu1.dsc

[Mattia Rizzolo (mapreri)]

Well, it's the job of the packager to remove those "hangover".. :)

now,
1) what's with that new "dpkg-dev (>= 1.16.1.1)" build-dep? why?
2) -dev packages should (must really…) not be named after the version of the lib; see debian policy 8.4
3) please read debhelper(7) about what compat 10 brings; --parallel in d/rules is unneeded now
4) why are you including /usr/share/dpkg/buildflags.mk and setting that env variable? did you read about debhelper(7) comapt 9 that should already set all of those variables that you are explicitly asking to be exported?
5) you overrode that lintian tag binary-without-manpage with a comment that equals to "yes, this package builds a manpage"; that's not useful. I don't believe that tag should be overrode, unless you have a good reason to; a missing manpage is actually a bug (policy 12.1)
6) I doubt this does any good:
- docbook-to-man debian/vala-panel.1.sgml > debian/vala-panel.1
+ mkdir -p usr/share/man1
+ docbook-to-man debian/vala-panel-runner.1.sgml > usr/share/man1/vala-panel-runner.1
and indeed that file is installed nowhere. The path is wrong (missing a /man/ in the middle), also you are creating a whole new tree that is used for nothing but installing that manpage; tbh I don't find it elegant. I'd either run it after dh_auto_install and place it directly in debian/tmp/usr/share/man/man1/, or leave it as it was before in debian/. and ask dh_installman to install it.
7) I: vala-panel-plugins-wnck: description-synopsis-might-not-be-phrased-properly
8) I: vala-panel-plugins-base: description-synopsis-might-not-be-phrased-properly
9) I: vala-panel: description-synopsis-might-not-be-phrased-properly
10) I: vala-panel: extended-description-is-probably-too-short
11) please consider sending upstream fixes for desktop-entry-lacks-keywords-entry and spelling-error-in-manpage
12) in d/copyrigt, the name of Konstantin has a spurious '<' before
13) lib/guuid.{c,h} are under LGPL-2.1+, not LGPL-3+
14) applets/wnck/icontasks is under GPL-2+ not LGPL-3+ — btw, this is OK to do, but it makes the whole mix a GPL-3; I wonder whether upstream is aware...
15) applets/wnck/tasklist-xfce and applets/wnck/xembed: same as above

[Martin Wimpress  (flexiondotorg)]

@mapreeri Thank you for the detailed feedback, I've addressed everything you've identified.

1) You're right, it's no longer required. Resolved.
2) Thanks. Resolved.
3) Yep, you're correct compat 10 does this by default. Resolved.
4) Thanks, you're right. Including /usr/share/dpkg/buildflags.mk is no longer a requirement. Resolved.
5) Thanks. See 6. Resolved.
6) I noticed vala-panel.1 is upstream so I removed it from the debain/ packaging. I added vala-panel-runner.1 to the debian/ packaging since it was missing and fixed it based on your feedback. I've also submitted vala-panel-runner.1 upstream - https://github.com/rilian-la-te/vala-panel/pull/69
7) Resolved.
8) Resolved.
9) Resolved.
10) Resolved.
11) Pull request submitted https://github.com/rilian-la-te/vala-panel/pull/69
12) Thanks. Resolved.
13) Thanks. Updated accordingly.
14) Thanks. Updated accordingly. I'll talk to upstream.
15) Thanks. Updated accordingly.

A .dsc (it has been updated) can be downloaded from ppa:flexiondotorg/needs-packaging using:

    dget -u -x https://launchpad.net/~flexiondotorg/+archive/ubuntu/needs-packaging/+files/vala-panel_0.3.65-0ubuntu1.dsc

[Mattia Rizzolo (mapreri)]

Thanks, uploaded.

Just a last remark though (but I didn't want to hold it any longer): that docbook-to-man call in d/rules generates a file that is not cleaned up by anything. This is not a real problem, also it will "fix itself" with the next upstream release where the manpage will be shipped by upstream.