Help needed to improve proposed migration

Hi!

Every once in a while, in the Foundations team, we do a coding day. A year ago, Lukasz and I wrote a script, following an idea from Steve Langasek, to provide "hints" and help for the next steps necessary for a package to migrate from -proposed to -release.

"ubuntu-archive-assistant" was born. I just pushed this to lp:ubuntu-dev-tools, after it being on its own in a separate git tree for a long while. I'd love to get help for feedback, as well as more people contributing fixes, etc. ubuntu-archive-assistant is designed to let you look at a specific package in -proposed and try to tell you what to do next to ensure it migrates from -proposed.

This is great work for new contributors wishing to work on something, say, to get upload privileges in Ubuntu.

Here's how it works (it uses subcommands right now).

Without any further options than "ubuntu-archive-assistant proposed", it will list packages in -proposed and let you pick:

$ ./ubuntu-archive-assistant proposed
No source package name was provided. The following packages are blocked in proposed:

(1) gnome-shell-extension-multi-monitors (Age: 338 days)
(2) node-is-glob (Age: 278 days)
(3) node-concat-with-sourcemaps (Age: 264 days)
(4) node-postcss (Age: 231 days)
(5) node-source-map (Age: 229 days)
(6) android-platform-system-core (Age: 226 days)
(7) libdigidocpp (Age: 226 days)
(8) qesteidutil (Age: 225 days)
(9) schleuder (Age: 218 days)
(10) ncbi-blast+ (Age: 216 days)
(11) node-postcss-filter-plugins (Age: 213 days)
(12) node-postcss-load-options (Age: 213 days)
(13) node-postcss-load-plugins (Age: 213 days)
(14) node-postcss-minify-font-values (Age: 213 days)
(15) node-postcss-load-config (Age: 209 days)
(16) live-config (Age: 207 days)
Page -1-. Press any key for next page or Q to select a package.
Which package do you want to look at? 9
Next steps for schleuder 3.2.2-1:
  Fix missing builds: amd64
     https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/schleuder/3.2.2-1

If you specify which package you want to look at, it will give you the specifics for that package (examples here are for what is currently in -proposed):

$ ./ubuntu-archive-assistant proposed -s qesteidutil
Next steps for qesteidutil 0.3.1-0ubuntu4:
  Fix missing builds: amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
     https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/qesteidutil/0.3.1-0ubuntu4

$ ./ubuntu-archive-assistant proposed -s android-platform-system-core
Next steps for android-platform-system-core 1:7.0.0+r33-2build1:
  Fix missing builds: amd64, arm64, armhf, i386
     https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/android-platform-system-core/1:7.0.0+r33-2build1 

You can even get more information about the next steps for a package, by enabling --debug or --verbose:

$ ./ubuntu-archive-assistant proposed -s live-config                 Next steps for live-config 5.20180224:
  Fix unsatisfiable dependencies in live-config:

$ ./ubuntu-archive-assistant proposed --verbose -s live-config
live-config is not considered ✘
Next steps for live-config 5.20180224:
  Fix unsatisfiable dependencies in live-config:
    sysvinit-core | sysvinit (<< 2.88dsf-44) can not be satisfied on amd64 ✘
      sysvinit-core only exists in Debian ✘
 

$ ./ubuntu-archive-assistant proposed --debug -s live-config
live-config is not considered ✘
Next steps for live-config 5.20180224:
DEBUG: reasons: ['depends'] 
  Fix unsatisfiable dependencies in live-config:
    sysvinit-core | sysvinit (<< 2.88dsf-44) can not be satisfied on amd64 ✘
      sysvinit-core only exists in Debian ✘
         DEBUG: Is this package blacklisted? Should it be synced?

We've covered some of the common reasons for a package to be stuck in proposed, but there are a ton of others. We'll need help to improve the tooling and make it useful for everyone wishing to work on proposed migration. There's a lot more that can be done, including spending time to parse update_output.txt (or better yet, a YAML representation of it) and testing package installation automatically to figure out what packages need no-change rebuilds, etc. A lot of it is integration of other tools that already exist.

That's where you come in.

This is a great way to learn a lot more about what happens to packages after they are uploaded, and what more you can do to ensure your own uploads move quickly to be accessible to all Ubuntu users; and many of the improvements can be as simple as contributing a simple test for one failure case for packages in -proposed.

More to come about ubuntu-archive-assistant. There are other subcommands in it than just "proposed". :)

Focusing and manual skills

I don't think anyone can argue against the fact that to be an effective developer, you need to somehow attain sufficient focus to fully take in the task at hand, and be sufficiently in the zone that answers to the problem at hand come naturally. In a way, programming is like that, a transcendent form of art.

At least, it is, to some degree, for me. And I do feel that given sufficient focus, calm and quiet (or perhaps background noise, depending on the mood I'm in), I can get "in the zone", and solutions to what I'm trying to do come somewhat naturally. Not to say that I'm necessarily writing good code, but at least it forms some sort of sense in my mind.

People have different ways to achieve focus. Some meditate, some have it come to them more easily than others. It does happen that for some people, it works well to execute some kind of ritual to get in the right frame of mind: those can be as insignificant as getting out of bed in a certain way (for those fortunate enough to work from home), or a complicated as necessary. I believe many, if not most, integrate it in their routine, to the point they perhaps forget what it is that they do to attain focus.

For me, it now happens to be shaving, and the associated processes. It used to be kind of a chore, until I picked up wet shaving, and in particular, straight razor shaving.

There's nothing quite like putting a naked, extremely sharp blade against your skin to get you to only think about one thing at a time :)

I won't lie, the first shave with that relic was a scary experience. I wasn't at all sure of myself, with only a few tips and some videos on Youtube as training. I had bought a straight razor from Le Centre du Rasoir near my house after stumbling on articles about barbershops on the web, and it somehow interested me.

Since then, I've slowly taken up the different tasks that go with the actual act of shaving with a straight razor: honing the blade, stropping, shaving, etc.; picking up the different tools required (blade, strop, honing stones, shaving creams or soaps, etc.). It's as I was slowly honing and restoring four straight razors that got to me from eBay and as a gift from my father than I thought of writing this post, in a short break I took from the honing. Getting back home and putting the finishing touches on the four razors got me to think, and I noticed I had again become much more relaxed just by taking the time to do one thing well, taking care in what I was doing.

I think every developer.... well, everyone can benefit in acquiring some kind of ritual like this, using our hands rather that our brain to achieve something. It's at least a great experience to get a little bit away from technology for a short while, visiting old skills of earlier times.

As for the wet shaving itself, I'd be happy to respond to comments here, or blog again about it if there's enough interest in the subject; I'd love to hear that I'm not the only one in the Ubuntu and Debian communities crazy enough to take a blade to my face.