[NTG-context] Re: Number in a circle

[Bruce Horrocks <ntg@scorecrow.com>]

On 31 May 2024, at 00:05, Kip Warner <kip@thevertigo.com> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 2024-05-30 at 23:20 +0100, Bruce Horrocks wrote:
>> I'd be able to maintain a Context PPA but there already seems to be
>> one:
>> <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/context>
> 
> I think that's just the source used in Ubuntu. This is called a "source
> package" in the Debian parlance:
> 
>   https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html

Ah yes. I was thinking that launchpad.net was a Debian PPA but I see now that it is Ubuntu only, albeit users of other distros can install from it if they know the 'magic' command line trickery.

> But if you click the "Other versions of 'context' in untrusted
> archives" at the bottom of the page it will show you PPAs. There
> appears to be three, all of which are ancient.

Of the three, the "ConTeXt daily builds" owned by Adam Reviczky seems to be up-to-date, just not listed in date order so it's not as obvious as it might be.

If I understand the odd naming convention correctly, he has updated Ubuntu versions 18.04, 20.04, 22.04, 23.04 and 24.04 with the version of Context current as at 2024-05-29. So presumably Ubuntu users of those versions can get the latest Context by running an 'apt install context' command?

> Just so you know, Ubuntu source packages are just Debian source
> packages, but often with some downstream patches. The Debian source
> package is what ends up in endless distros.
> 
> Probably most lay users who use ConTeXt outside of building from a
> tarball or putting somewhere outside of the FHS are using some Debian
> distro derivative's package via:
> 
>   $ sudo apt install context
> 
> Unless the Debian package is updated, usually downstream derivative
> distros won't update their own. For that reason if you want to affect
> the most change for the most users it's best to do so here:
> 
>   https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/context

According to <https://packages.debian.org/experimental/context> Debian 'experimental' is up-to-date with ConTeXT as of 2024-04-01. This is for the experimental release of course, but it does mean that the package is being maintained. Just that the release schedule of Debian is so slow. :-(

Or put another way, I don't think the issues we're seeing are due to lack of maintainer effort but rather a result of the way Debian does releases.

> Over a hundred distros just recycle the above source package and its
> resulting binaries.
> 
> Usually Debian is slow to update their packages, depending on who is
> assigned as package maintainer. Because of that, this is part of the
> reason why PPAs are popular because they shorten the time for lay users
> to try the new version without having to fiddle with paths, tarballs,
> etc.
> 
> Once you have a PPA up, to build binary packages the builder does the
> same as the ones used by the Debian project. You upload a Debian source
> package and it will then go and build and test the resulting binary
> packages. After that it injects them into the APT repository (which is
> all a PPA is).

I'm not sure there is a need to do any more than Adam Reviczky is already doing. When I find a bit of time I'll install a Ubuntu 24.04 into a VM and see what version of Context is installed, likewise Debian.

—
Bruce Horrocks
Hampshire, UK

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