Unstable package list

[Joey Hess]

Nick Moffitt wrote:
>         The packages file is really just a dpkg -I of all the
> packages, right?  I mean, I could concievably grab packages and just
> concatenate all the output of dpkg to one big file, yes?

Basically, yes, but it has extra tags like Filename: which is why we use the
dpkg-scanpackages program to generate it.

>         Aha!  I understand that getting into the intricacies of the
> policy guidlines would be far too elaborate, but suppose we just went
> over the technical aspects.

Even the technical aspects are pretty involved, but I think it's doable.

> I've got a nice little package from
> UCBerkeley that isn't in the packages list.  It's called nwrite, and
> it's a replacement for write.  

Hm, I seem to remember thinking about packaging that once..

[ 15 minutes pass ]

joey@kite:~/debian/build>dpkg --info nwrite_1.9.2-1_i386.deb  
 new debian package, version 2.0.
 size 15866 bytes: control archive= 831 bytes.
      15 bytes,     1 lines      conffiles            
     703 bytes,    16 lines      control              
     357 bytes,     6 lines      md5sums              
 Package: nwrite
 Version: 1.9.2-1
 Section: utils
 Priority: optional
 Architecture: i386
 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.1)
 Installed-Size: 37
 Maintainer: Joey Hess <joeyh@master.debian.org>
 Description: Enhanced replacement for the write command.
  Nwrite is a replacement for the standard write program that lets you write
  directly to the terminal of another logged-in user without the overhead of
  talk taking over the full screen or the other user having to respond first.
  Nwrite's advantages over traditional write include the ability to send the
  same message simultaneously to multiple users, and a receiver-configurable
  message format, including a tag at the start of each line that identifies
  the sender.

I'll upload this later after I've security audited it and made it sgid tty
so it will work if normal users use it. It's available for now as
http://kitenet.net/~joey/nwrite_1.9.2-1_i386.deb

-- 
see shy jo