How would be the best way to help on maintaining a package?

juanp_1982 · 2017-08-18 17:22:44

Hello World!

I'm software developer, I have never created or published a package and this is the main reason why I'm writing this post. Currently I'm using two packages that have been out of date for quite some time. I totally understand that the maintainer may be busy or not available to update those packages, so instead to criticize I would like to help, but I don't know where to start, I don't even know how to reach the main maintainer.

any help would be very very appreciated

:-)

ewaller · 2017-08-18 18:50:26

I assume you are referring to packages in our AUR. https://aur.archlinux.org/
You can look up the package and, from there, there is a link to the pkgbuild
The author may have an address in the pkgbuild. If you create an AUR account, then log in, the author's name in the AUR page turns to links to a page with more information on the author.

Also, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ar … Repository for a developer centric view of the AUR

juanp_1982 · 2017-08-18 19:54:54

sorry, I forgot to mention that the package is in the Community repository, I followed your instruction, I went to the PKGBUILD from the project that I want to contribute and found the email address of the maintainer. is there something else that I should know before reaching the maintainer?

thanks for your help! :-)

offtopic: I'm reading the article about how to ask questions the smart way, thanks for sharing it

eschwartz · 2017-08-18 20:35:11

What's the package?

If all that is needed is to increment the pkgver, you could email the maintainer and tell him that. If the build process has changed and the make/depends, build() etc. need fixing, you could email the maintainer with an updated PKGBUILD.

But in general, there is not much *to* do other than wait for the maintainer to get a chance to update it. Other than successfully applying to become a TU of course.

juanp_1982 · 2017-08-18 20:45:01

the packages are atom and electron, I don't know if the build process has changed, I'm looking into the PKGBUILD file to see I can build it in my machine, If I succeed, I'll follow your suggestion accordingly

thanks!

eschwartz · 2017-08-18 21:06:41

The maintainer, Nicola Squartini (tensor5), intends to update electron soon and was probably too busy recently to be on top of that.

e.g. https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/55001#comment160214

...

Those both seem to be rather complex, he sometimes does a fair bit of patching to keep everything functioning smoothly. (It probably doesn't help that Atom doesn't officially support any version of electron other than a given bundled version, so we get to serve as a testbed for electron updates and then tensor5 files pull requests for all the broken subpackages he had to patch. )

juanp_1982 · 2017-08-18 22:33:21

Eschwartz, thanks for the response, :-)

I have never build a packages before and I thought it was time to do it.
I'll keep researching to see if there is something I can do,

Arch Linux

#1 2017-08-18 17:22:44

How would be the best way to help on maintaining a package?

#2 2017-08-18 18:50:26

Re: How would be the best way to help on maintaining a package?

#3 2017-08-18 19:54:54

Re: How would be the best way to help on maintaining a package?

#4 2017-08-18 20:35:11

Re: How would be the best way to help on maintaining a package?

#5 2017-08-18 20:45:01

Re: How would be the best way to help on maintaining a package?

#6 2017-08-18 21:06:41

Re: How would be the best way to help on maintaining a package?

#7 2017-08-18 22:33:21

Re: How would be the best way to help on maintaining a package?

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