Self hosted Debian repository

[avivace]

Since we still didn't get enough attention from DDs, we can set up our own Debian repository to serve the rgbds package. I have some experience (and I maintain my own personal repository with custom builds) with https://www.aptly.info/ . I'd like to try to set up an APT repository just for RGBDS.

• Are we actually building deb packages from this repository when a new tag/release is out? If yes, does this happen automatically (i.e. CI?)
• Are changelogs being consistently written?

[ISSOtm]

No, nothing is currently being done. "All" that there is, is the rgbds-deb repo, which has usage instructions in its wiki; and really, that's everything that's needed.

We can wire this to our CI, including putting the debian/ stuff in a separate branch, and generating a .deb for each release once the changelog has been written. If we want to auto-generate it instead, we need to decide what to put in it.

[avivace]

No, nothing is currently being done. "All" that there is, is the rgbds-deb repo, which has usage instructions in its wiki; and really, that's everything that's needed.

We can wire this to our CI, including putting the debian/ stuff in a separate branch, and generating a .deb for each release once the changelog has been written. If we want to auto-generate it instead, we need to decide what to put in it.

Great, thank you for the pointer. Will take a look as soon as I have a couple of minutes to try the deb building pipeline.

[avivace]

@ISSOtm Did we already have a discussion about adding the debian folder in the main repository? I see a lot of mainstream project doing that

[ISSOtm]

No, I don't think so. I'd be fine with it, tbh.

[Rangi42]

Hey, what's the status of this issue? Can we have a checklist of what needs doing, and maybe an ETA for completion?

I know the rgbds-deb repo exists, but its last commit was 11 months ago. On the other hand, work is clearly active on getting this done, the games-team/rgbds repo is active, and #1612 last week should have resolved one issue with getting tests working for it.

Anyway, @avivace @robbi-blechdose what's the eventual plan for these multiple repos? Can gbdev/rgbds-deb be deleted? Is the progress in games-team/rgbds meant to be migrated back into the main gbdev/rgbds repo, or will we long-term just have to port the gbdev/rgbds commits over to this debian.org fork? Should we update the RELEASE.md process once all this is done to document some steps needed for getting new releases into Debian as well?

[robbi-blechdose]

what's the eventual plan for these multiple repos? Can gbdev/rgbds-deb be deleted?

In my opinion yes. The Debian games team, under whose umbrella the repo is, requested that it's maintained on salsa. You could maintain the mirror here and on salsa, but I see no benefit to doing so.

Is the progress in games-team/rgbds meant to be migrated back into the main gbdev/rgbds repo, or will we long-term just have to port the gbdev/rgbds commits over to this debian.org fork? Should we update the RELEASE.md process once all this is done to document some steps needed for getting new releases into Debian as well?

I asked about this, the general consensus is that the packaging repo should be kept separate from the main repo.

[Rangi42]

Alright. For now I'm removing this from the 0.9.1 milestone and expect to release that in the next few weeks, ideally before the Debian repo is finished so y'all can just package that.

Please update this issue if/when progress is made, I hope it can be resolved soon! And thank you for taking on the goal of making apt install rgbds Just Work!