How to maintain the Ubuntu Studio Packages

This section is a step by step description on how to make changes to a Ubuntu Studio package and publish it.

Repositories Involved

First, let's look at where we have the code. Most packages in the Ubuntu repository are packaged from Upstream source, not related to the Ubuntu project at all. But, in the case with Ubuntu Studio original packages (commonly these packages have names beginnning with ubuntustudio-), the package and the source are the same in a way.

Let's compare the two kind of packages and see which repositories are involved. There's only one major difference really.

Repositories used when packaging an upstream project

For an upstream project we would have:

• upstream source repository, from where we get the latest version of the source (at github, or equivalent)

• source package repository, where we add the debian folder (commonly at launchpad, where Bzr is commonly used for revision control)

• Ubuntu package archive (where the source is built and published, and becomes installable through apt)

If the package was synced from Debian, the packaging work is actually done in a Debian source package repository (git). And, this is actually the norm for upstream projects in Ubuntu, with a few exceptions.

PulseAudio is such and exception, and is actively maintained by Canonical devs. So, in the case of PulseAudio the repositories in question would be:

• upstream repo at freedesktop.org

• source package source at launchpad.net

• Ubuntu Package Archive (where the package is uploaded and built)

Repositories used when packaging an original Ubuntu Studio project

The part in how an original Ubuntu (Studio) package differs from an upstream project is there's no upstream repository. The upstream repository and the source package repositories are the same.

• source package repository (Launchpad)
• Ubuntu package archive

So, while we make changes to the source, we are also doing packaging simultaneously. And this makes the workflow a little bit different from packaging upstream projects.

Let's look at a typical Ubuntu Studio original package.

Typically all source packages belong to a launchpad project with the same name as the source package. In the case with the package ubuntustudio-default-settings, the project page is launchpad.net/ubuntustudio-default-settings, and the source can be found at code.launchpad.net/ubuntustudio-default-settings.

Naming Repositories

TODO

Making Changes to a Package

Different packages need different kind of treatment. But, simply put, there are two kinds of packages:

• regular packages

• meta packages

Meta Package Maintenance

Meta package is special.

Other packages

bzr, debian build tools, uploading...

CategoryUbuntuStudio CategoryUbuntuStudioDev