[needs-packaging] xfdashboard

As Xubuntu Technical Lead, I agree with adding this to the archive. This application is pretty popular among our users and would certainly be a welcome improvement for them to not have to install it from a PPA. Our team would maintain packaging and fielding bugs and fixes.

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This bug is tagged needs-packaging which identifies it as a request for a new package in Ubuntu. As a part of the managing needs-packaging bug reports specification, https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/Specs/NeedsPackagingBugs, all needs-packaging bug reports have Wishlist importance. Subsequently, I'm setting this bug's status to Wishlist.

Hi, have you tried asking the Debian XFCE team to sponsor the initial upload?

pkg-xfce isn't really interested in the package.

1. I recommend bumping your version number to 0.6.0-0ubuntu2 so that it's clearly higher than the PPA. Please set your version from 'devel' to UNRELEASED.
Please mention that this upload is the initial upload to Ubuntu and cite this bug.
Optionally, you could clear the old changelog entries since they were never "in Ubuntu".

2. Please move usr/lib/*/pkgconfig to libxfdashboard-dev.install
You'll need to set breaks/replaces for the move. [1] [2]

3. Look in libxfdashboard.pc at the Requires: line. You need to add the associated -dev packages
to libxfdasboard-dev's Depends.

4. Debug packages are created automatically now in Ubuntu and Debian [3]
If you care about upgrading users who may have the old debug packages installed, see [4]
On the other hand, that dh_strip option will not work in Ubuntu 14.04.

5. You don't need to disable silent rules, this is the default in Debian and Ubuntu now. [5]
(not the default for 14.04 but hopefully you won't need it there)

6. I would like you to use a .symbols file. [6]
To make the initial file, touch libxfdashboard0.symbols then build.
In your build log, you'll get a warning:
dpkg-gensymbols: warning: new libraries appeared in the symbols file: libxfdashboard.so.0
Paste the + lines under that into your .symbols file. Remove the + from the beginning of each line and the -0ubuntu* from the end of each line. That's it. When a new update adds new symbols, just add them to your .symbols file (leaving off the Debian/Ubuntu revision number from the end). An update should not remove symbols without bumping the soname.

7. Mark xfdashboard Multi-Arch: foreign and libxfdashboard-dev Multi-Arch: same

I am unsubscribing ubuntu-sponsors for now. Please go ahead and re-subscribe when you're ready.

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[1] https://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/column/libpkg-guide/libpkg-guide.html#id249952
The Debian Maintainer's Guide cautiously recommends the above, noting it's "somewhat outdated"
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/advanced.html
[2] https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html#s-replaces
[3] https://wiki.debian.org/AutomaticDebugPackages
[4] https://anonscm.debian.org/git/pkg-vala/libgee.git/commit/?id=abb032
[5] https://bugs.debian.org/680686
[6] https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/advanced.html#librarysymbols

Jeremy, thanks for the feedback!

We've made the requested changes at https://git.launchpad.net/~xubuntu-dev/+git/xfdashboard

Re-subscribing ubuntu-sponsors.

Thank you, I uploaded to Ubuntu's new queue after making one minor change, changing the Breaks/Replaces to libxfdashboard0 (<< 0.6.0-0ubuntu2~). That final ~ will allow you to backport this version to your PPA if you wanted to.

I am unsubscribing ubuntu-sponsors now.