[gentoo-dev] [RFC] Addition of a new field <remote-id type="debian"> to metadata.xml

[Jonas Stein <jstein@gentoo.org>]

Hello,

this RFC is about the addition of a new field
<remote-id type="debian">
to metadata.xml

The field should contain a list of the equivalent debian package names,
or a defined string for NONE or UNSET.
A feature request ticket was prepared here:
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=619132


1. Motivation
=============
Gentoo users and users of debian based distributions profit from linked
packages:

* can be used to embed screenshots from https://screenshots.debian.net
in https://packages.gentoo.org/

* when writing/reading documentation which is written for debian like
Linux distributions

* scripts can automatically compare latest versions, critical bugs, from
debian-like distributions and alert the interested maintainer or prepare
statistics. A greasemonkey script can show a link in bugzilla and the
maintainer can see open/solved bugs and the solutions on other
distributions.

* package names hardly differ between *buntu, mint, and debian so we
cover a broad spectrum

* Users who switch from debian like systems to gentoo, or administrate
gentoo and debian like systems at the same time can find the
corresponding packages quickly


2. Specification
================
A space separated list of the corresponding debian packages should be
written in the field
<remote-id type="debian"> </remote-id>

It should be NONE, if debian has no corresponding package.
UNSET or no field, if the creator of the ebuild did not set the field (yet).

example:
app-arch/tar/metadata.xml
<remote-id type="debian">tar</remote-id>

app-office/libreoffice-bin/metadata.xml
<remote-id type="debian">libreoffice libreoffice-base libreoffice-base
libreoffice-dev libreoffice-dmaths libreoffice-draw
libreoffice-evolution libreoffice-impress</remote-id>


3. Backwards compatibility
==========================
Fully compatible, no negative side effects to expect.


4. Comments
===========

What do you think?
Should we exclude translation packages, or just add them all?

-- 
Best regards,
Jonas Stein