With Mageia 8 just released and development for Mageia 9 getting underway in Cauldron, the unstable branch of Mageia, now is a great time to get involved with packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are starting to look at the features that we want to include for Mageia 9, and as it is so early in the development cycle, now is the time for major developments, or big updates to key pieces of software. This is a great time to join the project as you can propose features you would like to see, help to implement large changes or see how a distribution evolves through development, stabilisation and then is released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there is an application that you are interested in,\u00a0if you\u00a0want to help maintain part of the distribution,\u00a0or\u00a0if you\u00a0want to learn something new, there are many opportunities to\u00a0do so with the packaging team. Packaging a piece of software involves taking the source code from the upstream developer and turning it into something that is easily managed by the end-users of an installed Mageia system. This involves making sure that the package has all of the needed dependencies to both build and run correctly,\u00a0as well as tuning the\u00a0configuration of the\u00a0build and installed software\u00a0to be optimal for the Mageia ecosystem. This is done by writing a spec file that\u00a0is\u00a0used\u00a0as a recipe to\u00a0build\u00a0an installable rpm package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The layout of the spec file is very logical and can be followed with minimal programming experience.\u00a0All that’s needed to get to grips with the basics\u00a0are\u00a0initiative, enthusiasm, and\u00a0the will to learn. There is a good breakdown of what’s in a spec file and how it works here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So,\u00a0if\u00a0you want to jump in and\u00a0get involved, the next step is to make a Mageia account and follow the guide here<\/a>.\u00a0It will explain the next steps\u00a0of\u00a0getting set up and finding a mentor. There are also mailing lists<\/a> and IRC channels (#mageia-dev) if you want to ask questions about what is involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Mageia 8 just released and development for Mageia 9 getting underway in Cauldron, the unstable branch of Mageia, now is a great time to get involved with packaging. We are starting to look at the features that we want … Continue reading
Those\u00a0who have\u00a0knowledge of rpm packaging\u00a0that\u00a0want to jump straight in might want to skip the next section and head over to the Becoming a Mageia Packager page here <\/a>on the Mageia wiki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n