Debian Weekly News - June 20th, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian Weekly News http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2006/25/ Debian Weekly News - June 20th, 2006 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to this year's 25th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. Matt Brown [1]created a couple of wrapper scripts around sbuild and debarchiver to automatically build uploaded packages. Isaac Clerencia [2]reported that the [3]Zaragoza City Hall has deployed a thin-client solution based on Debian in six elderly centres.

1. http://www.mattb.net.nz/blog/2005/10/26/lightweight-debian-archive-scripts/ 2. http://people.warp.es/~isaac/blog/index.php/debian-kde-deployment-for-elderly-people-32 3. http://www.zaragoza.es/

Homepage Location in Package Description. Kai Hendry [4]pointed out that the way URLs are listed in package descriptions is a hack which in practice commonly defers from the Developer's [5]reference. Margarita Manterola [6]suggested to first patch dpkg with a Homepage field in order to address this problem in policy. Raphaël Hertzog finally recommended this meta field should be incorporated in a Web application of a [7]collaborative repository of meta information for packages.

4. http://lists.debian.org/debian-policy/2006/06/msg00037.html 5. http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/ch-best-pkging-practices.en.html#s-bpp-upstream-info 6. http://lists.debian.org/debian-policy/2006/06/msg00038.html 7. http://wiki.debian.org/CRMI

Debian Community Conference Italy. Marco Bertorello [8]announced the Debian community [9]conference to take place on the 16th and 17th September in Venice, Italy. This conference is organised by the Italian Debian community and aims at users, developers, translators and all those who love Debian.

8. http://lists.debian.org/debian-events-eu/2006/06/msg00010.html 9. http://italiandebconf.debianizzati.org/index.php/English_Info

On compressing PDF Files. Yaroslav Halchenk [10]noticed that about half of the PDF files distributed with Debian [11]unstable are compressed into .pdf.gz files and cannot easily be read by commonly used PDF readers. According to [12]policy large documents need to be compressed, but PDF files are already compressed inside. Compressing the remaining PDF files with [13]gzip will only save about 50 MB while not compressing the compressed PDF files would cost about 150 MB of space.

10. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/05/msg01434.html 11. http://www.debian.org/releases/unstable/ 12. http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-docs#s12.3 13. http://packages.debian.org/gzip

Debian Mentors Site relaunched. Christoph Haas [14]announced the relaunch of the [15]mentors service that is dedicated to help package maintainers who are not yet Debian developers get their packages uploaded into Debian by sponsors. The new site has an improved web interface and several new features that are supposed to help bring package maintainers and sponsors together.

14. http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2006/06/msg00355.html 15. http://mentors.debian.net/

Executing System-V Style Init Script. Lars Wirzenius [16]noted that a lot of packages still don't make use of invoke-rc.d in their maintainer scripts. This is required by [17]policy 3.7.2 and a [18]lintian check should be in place already. According to the [19]list of release-critical issues for [20]etch these packages violate policy but this bug is not release-critical.

16. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/05/msg01746.html 17. http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys#s9.3.3.2 18. http://packages.debian.org/lintian 19. http://release.debian.org/etch_rc_policy.txt 20. http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/

Hardly used orphaned Packages. Nathanael Nerode [21]created a list of packages that are orphaned and have less than 20 [22]recorded installations. These are candidates for removal as they have less than one installation in 500. He wondered if somebody would object filing removal requests since they clutter the archive and use the Debian infrastructure but nobody cares to maintain them. Bas Zoetekouw [23]argued that even if only a few people use these packages, they are in use and should probably be kept if they're don't have release-critical bug reports.

21. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/06/msg00043.html 22. http://popcon.debian.org/ 23. http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2006/06/msg00044.html

Debian Day at FroOSCon. Joey [24]announced that the Debian project organises a one-day conference during [25]FrOSCon in Sankt Augustin, Germany, where it also maintains a booth. The [26]conference will take place on Saturday, June 24th and aims at users and people interested in the structure of Debian.

24. http://lists.debian.org/debian-events-eu/2006/06/msg00011.html 25. http://www.debian.org/events/2006/0624-froscon 26. http://wiki.snow-crash.org/FrosCon06

Security Updates. You know the drill. Please make sure that you update your systems if you have any of these packages installed.

* DSA 1096: [27]webcalendar -- Arbitrary code execution. * DSA 1097: [28]Linux 2.4.27 -- Several vulnerabilities. * DSA 1098: [29]horde3 -- Cross-site scripting. * DSA 1099: [30]horde2 -- Cross-site scripting. * DSA 1100: [31]wv2 -- Integer overflow.

27. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1096 28. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1097 29. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1098 30. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1099 31. http://www.debian.org/security/2006/dsa-1100

New or Noteworthy Packages. The following packages were added to the unstable Debian archive [32]recently or contain important updates.

32. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/newpkg_main

* [33]acpi-support -- Collection of useful events for ACPI. * [34]advancecomp -- Collection of recompression utilities. * [35]airport-utils -- Configuration and management utilities for Apple AirPort base stations. * [36]bsc -- Graphical file manager with two panels. * [37]buoh -- Online comic-strip reader for GNOME. * [38]cobex -- Connector for mobile devices. * [39]cpulimit -- Limits the CPU usage of a process. * [40]digitools -- Set of tools to control ASUS Digimatrix embedded hardware. * [41]dvipost -- Post processor for DVI files supporting change bars. * [42]ekiga -- H.323 and SIP compatible VOIP client. * [43]flumotion -- Fluendo Streaming Server - manager, worker and admin. * [44]remote-tty -- Multiuser "tip"/"cu" replacement with logging. * [45]systemtap -- Instrumentation system for Linux 2.6. * [46]texlive-latex3 -- TeX Live: Experiment LaTeX3 packages. * [47]tinyscheme -- Very small scheme implementation. * [48]unpaper -- Post-processing tool for scanned pages. * [49]vim-sisu -- SiSU vim syntax highlighter and folds. * [50]xtlf -- Single user (single node) version of tlf.

33. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/acpi-support 34. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/advancecomp 35. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/airport-utils 36. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/bsc 37. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/buoh 38. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/comm/cobex 39. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/cpulimit 40. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/digitools 41. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/dvipost 42. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/ekiga 43. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/flumotion 44. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/remote-tty 45. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/systemtap 46. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/tex/texlive-latex3 47. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/tinyscheme 48. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/unpaper 49. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/vim-sisu 50. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/hamradio/xtlf

Orphaned Packages. 27 packages were orphaned this week and require a new maintainer. This makes a total of 311 orphaned packages. Many thanks to the previous maintainers who contributed to the Free Software community. Please see the [51]WNPP pages for the full list, and please add a note to the bug report and retitle it to ITA: if you plan to take over a package. To find out which orphaned packages are installed on your system the wnpp-alert program from devscripts may be helpful.

51. http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/

* [52]aleph -- Aleph programming language - Emacs mode. ([53]Bug#374120) * [54]apt-listbugs -- Lists critical bugs before each apt installation. ([55]Bug#374104) * [56]asiya24-vfont -- Japanese Maru Gothic font in Zeit's Syotai Club format. ([57]Bug#374105) * [58]autounit -- Development files for C unit testing framework. ([59]Bug#374124) * [60]celestia -- Real-time visual space simulation (KDE frontend). ([61]Bug#374534) * [62]cvsreport -- Extract activity reports from a CVS repository. ([63]Bug#373928) * [64]dcd -- Command-line CD player. ([65]Bug#374127) * [66]debnest -- Nested Build System of Debian Source Package. ([67]Bug#374106) * [68]debpartial -- Debian Packages/Sources file partition tool. ([69]Bug#374107) * [70]ecos -- Deeply embedded operating system. ([71]Bug#374108) * [72]feedparser -- Universal Feed Parser for Python. ([73]Bug#374499) * [74]fidogate -- Gateway between FidoNet and Internet. ([75]Bug#374520) * [76]gnurobots -- Program a robot to explore a world. ([77]Bug#374125) * [78]gst-python -- GStreamer Python bindings (0.8). ([79]Bug#374500) * [80]gst0.10-python -- GStreamer Python bindings (0.10). ([81]Bug#374501) * [82]libintl-gettext-ruby -- Gettext wrapper for Ruby 1.6. ([83]Bug#374109) * [84]libipc-shareable-perl -- Access IPC shared memory segments through Perl. ([85]Bug#374121) * [86]libmail-verp-perl -- Variable Envelope Return Paths (VERP) address encoder/decoder. ([87]Bug#374030) * [88]lphdisk -- Prepares hibernation partition for Phoenix NoteBIOS. ([89]Bug#374110) * [90]mt-st -- Linux SCSI tape driver aware magnetic tape control (aka. mt). ([91]Bug#374122) * [92]phpreports -- XML-based report generator for PHP. ([93]Bug#374425) * [94]trueprint -- Pretty printing of source code. ([95]Bug#374128) * [96]ultrapossum -- UltraPossum startTLS support module. ([97]Bug#374111) * [98]ultrapossum-slapd -- UltraPossum plugin to use slapd optimized for UltraPossum. ([99]Bug#374112) * [100]vflib2 -- Vector Font Library for Japanese Character Code. ([101]Bug#374113) * [102]yank -- Yet another notekeeper. ([103]Bug#374129) * [104]zmailer -- Mailer for Extreme Performance Demands. ([105]Bug#373908)

52. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/aleph 53. http://bugs.debian.org/374120 54. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/apt-listbugs 55. http://bugs.debian.org/374104 56. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/asiya24-vfont 57. http://bugs.debian.org/374105 58. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libautounit2 59. http://bugs.debian.org/374124 60. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kde/celestia 61. http://bugs.debian.org/374534 62. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/cvsreport 63. http://bugs.debian.org/373928 64. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/sound/dcd 65. http://bugs.debian.org/374127 66. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/debnest 67. http://bugs.debian.org/374106 68. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/debpartial 69. http://bugs.debian.org/374107 70. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/ecos 71. http://bugs.debian.org/374108 72. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-feedparser 73. http://bugs.debian.org/374499 74. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/fidogate 75. http://bugs.debian.org/374520 76. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/gnurobots 77. http://bugs.debian.org/374125 78. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-gst 79. http://bugs.debian.org/374500 80. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/python/python-gst0.10 81. http://bugs.debian.org/374501 82. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/interpreters/libintl-gettext-ruby 83. http://bugs.debian.org/374109 84. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libipc-shareable-perl 85. http://bugs.debian.org/374121 86. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/perl/libmail-verp-perl 87. http://bugs.debian.org/374030 88. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/lphdisk 89. http://bugs.debian.org/374110 90. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/mt-st 91. http://bugs.debian.org/374122 92. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/phpreports 93. http://bugs.debian.org/374425 94. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/trueprint 95. http://bugs.debian.org/374128 96. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ultrapossum 97. http://bugs.debian.org/374111 98. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/ultrapossum-slapd 99. http://bugs.debian.org/374112 100. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/vflib2 101. http://bugs.debian.org/374113 102. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/gnome/yank 103. http://bugs.debian.org/374129 104. http://packages.debian.org/unstable/mail/zmailer 105. http://bugs.debian.org/373908

Want to continue reading DWN? Please help us create this newsletter. We still need more volunteer writers who watch the Debian community and report about what is going on. Please see the [106]contributing page to find out how to help. We're looking forward to receiving your mail at [107]dwn@debian.org.

106. http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/contributing 107. mailto:dwn@debian.org

This issue of Debian Weekly News was edited by Kai Hendry, Sebastian Feltel, Christoph Haas and Martin 'Joey' Schulze.