Debian Packages That Need Lovin'
Packaging for debian anything non trivial is damn too hard.<p>It took me 5 days to figure out how to package a complete web app with params, upgrades, post install transpiling, db init, etc.<p>And I haven't put that on a private repo yet, it's yet another annoying thing to do.<p>Nothing is well documented, doc is old and confusing, the tooling is archaic and wants to inflict pain (debconf anyone ?), the life cycle of a Deb package is atrocious to get right.<p>And you have to do all that in raw bash scripts. Not there are no alternatives, any scripting language is potentially usable, but the support is poor enough to deter you from them.<p>It's not I don't want to contribute to the ecosystem, but I won't invest the colossal effort and exercice in frustration to overcome the barrier to entry. My packages don't even need to go to the official repo, just let me do my things in peace.<p>Make a python lib that let you describe a package, hook on life cycle events to run code, with clear documented recipes et where to put what types of files, and let me run that to generate the Deb. Event web pack is easier to use for God sake.<p>I'm not even touching the process of packaging something to be included in debian repositories here, which is another beat entirely.<p>Quit the smug act, debian packagers. You don't know better.<p>You do know better on how to design a distro and protect the official repository. Great. I praised you for that for decades.<p>But you know nothing about making your users life easy. You just don't. So ask them, and fix that, or don't complain about no contrib. This is not news, we raised our voices for years.<p>I contribute all the time to Foss in code and doc, I donate in mass. We ARE willing to help. And we do.<p>It's not us. It's you.