[git-buildpackage] Summary of gbp BoF at Debconf 15

[Guido Günther]

Hi,
I've put a pdf version of the slides of yesterdays BoF at:

    https://git.sigxcpu.org/cgit/talks/2015-08-debconf15-gbp/plain/topics.pdf

I'll try to summarize the points I remember, please correct/add as you
see fit:

    * Most used tools in the package are import-orig /
      buildpackage. The later often being replaced by direct
      invocations to sbuild/pbuilder. "gbp config" is mostly unused
      currently but it's useful for bugreports. "gbp push" should
      be added though.
      
    * sbuild integration works with --git-pbuilder=sbuild

    * gbp import-orig --time-machine should also be able to apply the
      pq on the upstream and resort to bisict

    * GBPs default to comparing debian-branch in gbp.conf with the
      git branch isn't always helpful. The should be a way to leave
      the Debian branch undefined and then assume the current branch
      is sane if there's a debian/ dir.

    * Zsh integration is currently unmaintained and should be moved
      upstream. I'm going to look into this with Axel Beckert.

    * We should switch to defaults that are DEP-14 compatbile by default.
      (at least debian/master and upstream/master).

    * gbp import-orig --merge-mode=replace looks like the right thing
      for several current issues like having merge conflicts if upstream
      carries Debian.

    * Merging RPM support is still ongoing but there are currently few
      users within Debian. I hope to have buildpackage-rpm integrated
      during Debconf.

    * Robust rollback in import-orig is being worked on but there are
      also some checks that would allow to make gbp buildpackage fail
      early in case of e.g. already existing tags (Florian Haftmann
      already sent in a patch for the later).

    * gbp pq currenlty doesn't preserve DEP-3 headers. One way
      to store them would be in git notes (possibly using our own
      namespace) but editing them would be not as comfortable as
      having them in the commit message (e.g. via rebase -i).

    * Improving DFSG branch support was not an issue since uscan
      alows to filter out files by looking into debian/copyright already.

    * Multiple tarball support would be nice but would complicate the
      workflow. At least being able to export multiple tarballs when
      building packages would help though.

    * dgit integration would be nice. See [1].

    * There were issues reported with --git-dist=DEP14 but that
      was traced down to a missing configuration.

    * The manual is lacking a clear workflow description at the
      moment which makes it hard to start. An addition to the
      manual would be very welcome.

Cheers,
 -- Guido


[1]: https://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/vcs-pkg-discuss/2015-August/000853.html