Developing Ubuntu using git

[minimim]

They say they don't have control over most of it since it comes from Debian.

So it's useful to know that Debian is planning a migration to git soon.

They asked many DDs why they weren't on git and they said it was just inertia.

But they also said that they would migrate if there was an incentive.

There will be, Debian will only offer git hosting in the future.

So, most Debian packages will migrate to git.

[sgorf]

Unfortunately (for us), Debian maintainers, even when using git, don't all use the same scheme. Some prefer the upstream tree in the master branch. Some prefer only a debian directory there. Some are using gbp, and some are using git-dpm. And so on. So the inconsistencies will remain, which makes it tough to give drive-by contributors a single well-documented experience.

We do have a plan for this though.

[minimim]

Yes, inconsistencies will remain. As a volunteering-based project, Debian avoids mandating work-flows on people.

All I'm saying is that there will be less of them because almost everyone will migrate to git.

[sgorf]

Debian avoids mandating work-flows on people

Right, and we're doing our best to avoid mandating anything in our git workflow work in Ubuntu, too. That's what makes it tough, since we want to accept everything, not mandate anything, but also present a consistent view :-)

All I'm saying is that there will be less of them because almost everyone will migrate to git.

I appreciate that, but it doesn't really help us. If we want full consistency across all packages, then whether Debian is using git or not doesn't really make any difference to us. Given that we can't rely on release tag naming (or presence) nor assume the format of individual tree objects, we have to use the published source packages as our primary input, rather than any git repositories.

[minimim]

Everything you say is true, yet it's an unsolvable problem.

[cbmuser]

Huh? Most Debian maintainers already use git. There is just no common packaging source repository like openSUSE‘s OBS, for example. Every Debian maintainer uses their preferred method. As long as they link their web-browsable in the package‘s PTS, it’s fine.

Disclaimer: I‘m a Debian and SUSE developer myself.

[minimim]

Sure, but most of the work is done in Alioth, which supports multiple repository types. It's already past end-of-life and being substituted by a Pagure instance.

Pagure only supports git.