How things are packaged in distributions? (was: Re: What I want from distributions)

[Martin Steigerwald]

On Montag, 28. März 2016 10:14:22 CEST Bhushan Shah wrote:
> Hello,

Hello Bhushan,

> Something I always wanted to understand and research was how things
> are packaged in distribution xyz. With a upstream developer hat it
> would sound pretty much odd that why I would need this information.
> But this information is really useful. Lets see examples:
[…]
> I invite distributions to add some basic information about:

I think for some distributions (almost) all of this is available already, but, 
AFAIK, not documented in one place. (People from distros just tend to know it 
:)

Here for Debian:

> - where can I find the relevant packaging for source package

General package overview:

https://tracker.debian.org/konsole

Thats about the starting page for almost everything else.

Actual packaging source:

https://sources.debian.net/src/konsole/4:15.08.3-1/
(Link "Browse source code" from tracker page)

Debian changelog:
https://tracker.debian.org/media/packages/k/konsole/changelog-4%3A15.12.1-1
(example! See "versioned links" in tracker page)

In addition to that:

Debian Code Search ("Search all 130 GiB of source code within Debian"):
https://codesearch.debian.net/

Yes, that means you can basically search *all packages* for certain build 
flags or whatnot.

> - If possible build log for your distribution

Build logs

https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=konsole
(see "buildd: logs , checks , reproducibility " under "links" in tracker page)

> - if possible link to the page or some documentation where one can
> find how to make your distributions package locally.

Ok, thats… hmm… I basically know it, but documented? Partly it is:

General information about Debian Qt/KDE team (beware versions mentioned there 
are *highly* outdated):

https://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/

Basic notes about packaging and building packages:

https://wiki.debian.org/PkgKde/GitPackaging

Whats missing in there is how to setup/use pbuilder/cowbuilder or sbuild for 
clean chroot like builds. I do have some basic idea for cowbuilder and am 
probably able to dig out whats missing.


For Debian I am willing to know what I know (and mostly mentioned here) into a 
techbase wiki page, but I´d like some advice as to where to put it).

Thanks,
-- 
Martin