New features autobuilder and Extras Assistant

Rejecting packages when the same version is uploaded for the second time.

The autobuilder has been modified to reject a package when the same version is already available in the extras-devel repository. This change will force developers to increase their package version number after each successful upload and build. In the past we've had problems in the repository where a package was uploaded twice and caused 'Size Mismatch' errors.

Package signing no longer required.

The autobuilder and Extras Assistant no longer require packages to be GPG signed. It seemed to cause a lot of grief for developers without any real benefits. This change is targetted to making uploading packages easier. Every uploader has to be authenticated to upload a package, so we can already trace back the uploader. The autobuilder signs packages which are moved into the repository.

Upload to multiple repositories at the same time.

You can now use the Extras Assistant to upload a source package to chinook and diablo at the same time. No need to do two separate uploads anymore. This feature has been requested for quite some time, let's hope it helps.

Reducing number of external repositories #1

In my talk at the Maemo summit 2008, I talked about starting an effort to reduce the number of external repositories. Talking about this helps, but actively contacting developers and repository owners helps even more. This week I started by creating a list of all repositories we need to target. When this was done, I started to contact a lot of developers to convince them to move their packages into Extras and then close their repository.

A funny thing to mention is: Nobody had any objections to this.

Most responses were apologies for not doing it sooner. When I started this, I expected to have some resistance, but so far there was none.

This is a good thing! It seems the community wants things to change too.

How can you help?

If you know somebody developing applications in their own repository, try to convince them to move their packages into Extras(-devel). Please edit the wiki page to reflect the status of each repository.

With the help of a few people, I think we can get number of repositories in the list down quickly!

Visible results

When looking at the Gronmayer listing, you can see that more and more repositories are being removed and end up as: 'Repository is offline'.

Application in Extras-Devel OK? Promote it!

Now that we have the autobuilder in place for Diablo, it is a good time to talk about how to get your package from Extras-Devel into the Maemo Extras repository.

Before a package will end up in Extras and is installable for end-users on their device, it will go through a few steps:

1. source package uploaded to autobuilder incoming queue
2. autobuilder builds package and moves it into the incoming queue from Extras-Devel
3. queuemanager for Extras-Devel will put the package in the Extras-Devel repository
4. developer checks packages from Extras-Devel and if the package is OK:
5. promote the package to Extras using the Promoter.

Step 5 is the step where you can use the Promoter to promote your package. Make sure you test your application while it is in Extras-Devel, so you don't promote a broken package. After promotion and a bit of patience, your package will show up in Extras and everybody will be able to download it.

We have two Promoters is place:

• Diablo Promoter
• Chinook Promoter
  

The Promoter is a community project on garage.maemo.org. The code can be found in the svn repository. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the interface or would like to add functionality, please propose and discuss it on the maemo-developers mailinglist.

We are still working on documenting Extras and Uploading to extras in the wiki and of course work towards The Big Plan. Feel free to edit the wiki and improve the articles, this is a community project.

Let's work together to get more applications available in Maemo Extras!