[mlpack] Need information about mlpack "packing in debian"

[Peet, Sterling L]

Hi Lihang, 


I wrote the debian package last year when we were pushing to get mlpack accepted into several linux distributions. Unfortunately, my requests for a sponsor did not get answered, and I needed to attend to other build server things. Searching out a debian packaging sponsor would be a key part of working this project, because the packaging itself is written and mostly (but not quite) up to date. 


Having some experience with packaging is required for working on the mlpack packaging because mlpack is a library. There are tutorials and examples on the web that one could practice packaging to get some experience, but library packages are the most complex and easiest type of package to have packaging bugs. This is part of what makes getting new library packages like mlpack into debian rather difficult. 


I think you mentioned in an earlier email to the list about contacting the DebianScience team, which I think is a good idea. Getting the package in front of a smaller and more specialized group increases the likelihood of finding a mentor, especially one who might be interested in the software. 


To actually work with our packaging, you need to be familiar with the svn-buildpackage tool because our packaging is stored in the svn repository. I use a chroot build environment called pbuilder to build and test the packages. There is a build script that helps to automate the package building process for the build server, but I think it just uses debuild which is bad. Therefore, updating the server's configuration for building securely and updating the build script to take advantage of the configuration would be required of someone working on this project. 


Thanks, 


Sterling Peet 


----- Original Message -----

From: licalmer at gmail.com 
To: "sterling.peet" <sterling.peet at gatech.edu> 
Cc: "Ryan Curtin" <gth671b at mail.gatech.edu>, "mlpack" <mlpack at cc.gatech.edu> 
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 10:09:52 AM 
Subject: Need information about mlpack "packing in debian" 


Hi Sterling, 

I'm now doing some help about mlpack "packing in debian". 
Followed 
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=660925 
and 
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=674592 
, 
found that maybe we got no result on this. 

Wondering what happened about the ITP and RFS, and any suggesions about applying mlpack to get accepted to debian package? 


Regards, 
Lihang 
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