Tanguy Ortolo

Issues with sam2p and removal

I have been maintaining the Debian package of sam2p for some time. Unfortunately, the upstream development of that program is no longer active, and it is using an old custom build chain that no longer works with recent version of GCC.

This package is currently failing to build from source, and while I have been able to patch some issues in the past, and it may still be possible to fix it again, this is not really sustainable.

I am therefore considering to remove sam2p from Debian, unless someone has a very good reason to keep it and is able and willing to maintain it.

Read more Removing sam2p from Debian

The blog engine PluXml is now available as a Debian package:

Package: pluxml
Version: 5.2-2
Description-en: Light blog engine using XML files
 PluXml is a light and simple blog and CMS engine that uses simple XML
 files to store its data and requires no database. It has all the usual
 features (static pages, comments, categories, tags, medias, RSS
 feed...) and supports multiple users, customizable themes and plugins.
Homepage: http://www.pluxml.org/
Section: web
Priority: extra

Read more PluXml, a file-based, database-free blog

As a Debian administrator, power user or contributor, one often goes to look for information about a package, a bug, a developer or a message from the mailing lists. If you are in this case, you may be interested in the Firefox/Iceweasel extension “Debian buttons”, written by Damyan Ivanov and packaged by myself.

Read more Debian buttons for Firefox/Iceweasel

When someone wants to package a piece of software for Debian, he has to file an Intent to Package, by filing a special bug report against the pseudo-package “wnpp” (work-needing and prospective packages) with a title of “ITP: software name”. This way, we can synchronize our efforts, for instance if someone else wants to package the same piece of software. I have seen two recent examples of a misunderstanding of the correct use of such reports, so perhaps this reminder may be of some help for newcomers.

Read more Concerning the good use of ITP

The problem

Some programs require root privileges for part of their work: most notably Debian building tools such as dpkg-buildpackage or pdebuild. So, several command can be used to obtain real or fake root privileges: su, sudo, fakeroot, etc. Among them, su is quite distinct, because it only takes a quoted command to pass it to a shell. That is why its interface is completely incompatible with the others':

$ su -c "pbuilder --build package.dsc"
$ sudo pbuild --build package.dsc

This is annoying when real root privileges are needed, for instance by pbuilder, a tool to build Debian packages inside a minimal chroot. Indeed, in such a case I only know one command to obtain the root privileges, sudo, and some people (read: me) prefer using su.

Read more Wrapper to use su as sudo (or sudo as su)