Dear mentors,

I am looking for a sponsor for my updated package "trader", a simple
game of interstellar trading:

  Package name:    trader
  Version:         7.20-1
  Upstream author: John Zaitseff <J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au> -- that's me!
  URL:             https://www.zap.org.au/projects/trader/
  License:         GPL3+
  Vcs:             git://git.zap.org.au/data/git/trader.git -b with-debian
  Section:         games

It builds one binary package:

  trader - simple game of interstellar trading

I have successfully built appropriate binaries using Debian chroots
on my own server at https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/debian/.  You can
download using dget with:

  dget -x https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/debian/dists/zapgroup-sid/main/source/trader_7.20-1.dsc

Changes since the last upload:

  trader (7.20-1) unstable; urgency=low

    * New upstream release: changed documentation (history of the game),
      updated Swedish, Norwegian Bokmål, French, German, Serbian, Esperanto,
      Romanian, Polish and Ukrainian translations.

7.19-1 was never uploaded to Debian, so please remove it from the changelog.

Hi, Bastian et al.,

Thanks for your quick reply.

Would this still be the case even though I _did_ release it on The
ZAP Group Australia's repository?  If so, how would I preserve the
changes listed for v7.19 -- should I just add them as part of the
7.20-1 changelog entry?

John

Am 31.01.24 um 00:03 schrieb John Zaitseff:

Yes, you should do that. Alternatively, you can upload 7.19-1 before uploading 7.20-1.

Hi, Bastian et al.,

I have removed the changelog entry for 7.19-1; the entry for 7.20-1
now reads:

 trader (7.20-1) unstable; urgency=low

   * New upstream release: changed documentation (history of the game),
     updated Swedish, Norwegian Bokmål, French, German, Serbian, Esperanto,
     Romanian, Polish and Ukrainian translations.
   * Incorporates changes made to previous upstream release (not uploaded
     to Debian): new Polish, Romanian and Ukrainian translations, renamed
     AppStream metainfo and desktop files.
   * Require at least Gettext 0.21 and Automake 1.16 for building.
   * Updated to Debian Policy 4.6.2 (no changes).

Could you (or someone) now sponsor the package?  The original link
now points to the updated package:

  dget -x https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/debian/dists/zapgroup-sid/main/source/trader_7.20-1.dsc

Yours truly,

John Zaitseff

Control: tags -1 moreinfo

Hi,

some review:

d/control:
- Please remove all versions from the versioned build depends
  that are fulfiled already since oldstable, e.g gettext and automake.
- Your VCS-Git link git:// is not using an encrypted link, but the site
  supports https://. Please use https.

d/copyright:
- the directory lib/ has files which are not documented in d/copyright;
  (They have a different license and copyright)
- same for the m4 macros

embedded code copies:
- gnulib is packaged for Debian, any reason why you don't use the packaged version?
- there are m4 macros from autoconf-archive. Please check if you can use
  the ones from the package autoconf-archive.

Please add some upstream metadata: https://wiki.debian.org/UpstreamMetadata

d/changelog
- d/changelog's purpose is to document changed to the packageing,
  generaly not to document upstream changes, so I'd cut that down
  to:

  trader (7.20-1) unstable; urgency=low

    * New upstream release.
    * Updated to Debian Policy 4.6.2 (no changes).

- lintian findings:
W: trader: groff-message troff:<standard input>:133: warning: macro 'mR' not defined [usr/share/man/man6/trader.6.gz:1]
I: trader source: public-upstream-key-not-minimal has 16 extra signature(s) for keyid 0D254111C4EE569B [debian/upstream/signing-key.asc]
I: trader source: vcs-field-uses-insecure-uri Git git://git.zap.org.au/data/git/trader.git -b with-debian
P: trader source: source-contains-autogenerated-gperf-data [lib/iconv_open-hpux.h]
P: trader source: source-contains-autogenerated-gperf-data [lib/iconv_open-irix.h]
P: trader source: source-contains-autogenerated-gperf-data [lib/iconv_open-osf.h]
P: trader source: source-contains-autogenerated-gperf-data [lib/iconv_open-solaris.h]
P: trader source: source-contains-autogenerated-gperf-data [lib/iconv_open-zos.h]

Cheers,

Dear Tobias,

Thank you very much for your feedback on my RFS for Star Traders,
and apologies for not replying sooner -- it's been a bit of a crazy
week around here...

You (or anyone else) can see my latest Git tree at the following
URL; this tree reflects the changes I've made as a result of your
email:

https://www.zap.org.au/git-browser/trader.git/tree/?h=with-debian
  git clone https://git.zap.org.au/git/trader.git -b with-debian

I do have a few questions and observations about your comments:

Good catch!  This is what happens when one maintains a Debian
package outside the distro since 2011...

Given that the Git tag for package version 7.20-1 already exists
(and has been distributed!), I've released the new package as
7.20-2, with the entry for 7.20-1 removed as it has not been
uploaded to Debian.  I'm retitling this bug report to suit.  If you
prefer, I can close this RFS and open a new one.

You can now download the updated package by running:

  dget -x https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/debian/dists/zapgroup-sid/main/source/trader_7.20-2.dsc

Done.

Hmm.  The files (in lib and m4) that are not my own are mostly from
the Gnulib GNU Portability Library.  Rather tedious and quite a bit
of work, but I've updated the debian/copyright file to suit.

I find it interesting that you're the first Debian developer to pick
up on this: previous sponsors of the package were okay with it the
way it was.  Perhaps you're more thorough!  If it leads to a better
Debian package, I don't mind.

However, I note from section 2.3 of the Debian policy manual:

  Thus, the copyright information for files in the source package
  which are only part of its build process, such as autotools files,
  need not be included in /usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/copyright, because
  those files do not get installed into the binary package.

My reading of that suggests there is no need to include copyright
stanzas for files in the m4 directory.  Is this understanding
correct?

This is what I've added to debian/copyright -- is this okay?

  Files: lib/*
  Copyright: 1987-2024, Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  License: GPL-3+
  Comment:
   Some files in this directory (from the Gnulib GNU Portability Library)
   are licensed by the Free Software Foundation under LGPL-2.1+; other
   files are under GPL-2+.  When combined with the remaining files from the
   same Gnulib library, these inherit the overall GPL-3+ licence.

  Files:
   lib/obsolete-strings.c
   lib/xopen-source.h
  Copyright: 2018-2024, John Zaitseff <J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au>
  License: GPL-3+

The upstream release I make (in this case, trader-7.20.tar.xz)
includes the files from Gnulib.  And in all current cases, my
snapshot of Gnulib is *newer* than what is included in the gnulib
Debian package (currently 20240117+stable-1 in Debian Sid, but
20210102~ebaa53c-1 in Debian Bullseye/oldstable -- for Star Traders
7.20, my snapshot is from Tue Jan 30 17:07:32 2024 +0100).

I believe my code depends on the newer Gnulibs to compile.  But even
if it didn't, the upstream release *must* contain Gnulib as it is
compiled on distributions and operating systems where Gnulib is not
packaged.

Rerunning "gnulib-tool --update" as part of the build process is
possible, I suppose, but given that my snapshots are newer, and
there are API-related changes compared to the Debian oldstable and
stable snapshots of Gnulib, I'm not sure that it's worth the hassle
to even try using those Debian snapshots...

Unfortunately, I can't.  Some of the M4 macros (particularly
m4/ax_compiler_vendor.m4) contain changes that I've submitted
upstream but have not yet been included.  Besides, the
autoconf-archive package does not seem to be part of Debian Sid
anymore.

This one was new to me.  I've added a simple file, although the
fields are copies of what is in debian/control already:

  Repository: https://git.zap.org.au/data/git/trader.git
  Repository-Browse: https://www.zap.org.au/git-browser/trader.git/

I don't have a bug database or a separate bug submission URL
(Upstream-Contact from debian/copyright is what I ask people to
use), the documentation is the home page of the project, etc.  Happy
to receive suggestions as to what else should be in this file.

You are, of course, correct.  As a Debian *user*, I do, however,
find a summary of the upstream changes to be quite helpful -- saves
one from having to go to a package's homepage to find a NEWS file
before upgrading!  So if possible, I'd like to continue to provide a
quick summary of upstream changes.

Fixed as a patch to doc/trader.6.  I'll make a new upstream release
at some point incorporating this change -- once I have other things
(such as an updated translation) worthy of a release.

Happy to solve this if I could but find instructions on how to
remove those extra signatures *without* modifying the underlying
key...

Fixed above.

These files are required as gperf(1) is not easily available on all
systems supported by my upstream package.

Once again, thank you for your feedback.  I look forward to hearing
from you or from anyone else.

Yours truly,

John Zaitseff

Dear mentors,

[This is an updated email now that I believe I have addressed all
outstanding issues raised by Bastian Germann and Tobias Frost.]

I am still looking for a sponsor for my updated package "trader", a
simple game of interstellar trading:

  Package name:    trader
  Version:         7.20-3
  Upstream author: John Zaitseff <J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au> -- that's me!
  URL:             https://www.zap.org.au/projects/trader/
  License:         GPL3+
  Vcs:             https://git.zap.org.au/git/trader.git -b with-debian
  Section:         games

It builds one binary package:

  trader - simple game of interstellar trading

I have successfully built appropriate binaries using Debian chroots
on my own server at https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/debian/.  You can
download using dget with:

  dget -x https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/debian/dists/zapgroup-sid/main/source/trader_7.20-3.dsc

Changes since the last upload to Debian:

  trader (7.20-3) unstable; urgency=low

    * New upstream release: changed documentation (history of the game),
      updated Swedish, Norwegian Bokmål, French, German, Serbian, Esperanto,
      Romanian, Polish and Ukrainian translations.
    * Incorporates changes made to previous upstream release (not uploaded
      to Debian): new Polish, Romanian and Ukrainian translations, renamed
      AppStream metainfo and desktop files.
    * Added debian/patches/0001-man-page-bug-fix.patch from upstream commit.
    * Removed version numbers on build dependencies for Automake and
      Gettext: oldstable already has at least the required versions.
    * Changed Vcs-Git link to use HTTPS instead of Git protocol.
    * Included copyright information for Gnulib files in debian/copyright.
    * Added debian/upstream/metadata as requested by Tobias Frost.
    * Removed superfluous signatures from debian/upstream/signing-key.asc.
    * Updated to Debian Policy 4.6.2 (no changes).

Since my last email, I've also added:

  Changelog: https://www.zap.org.au/git-browser/trader.git/plain/NEWS
  Bug-Submit: mailto:J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au
  Security-Contact: mailto:J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au

I discovered the helpful lintian-brush package and ran it over my
repository.  This has fixed the public-upstream-key-not-minimal
message.

Yours truly,

John Zaitseff

Hi John,

thanks for the fixes you've already applied, but the package needs more
work to be Debian compliant.
you are repeating that mistake with -3? At least that one should have
been kept at -2.

To avoid confusion, a "-1" with the suite "UNRELEASED" could been added
to the changelog, so that people know what's happening.

In future, don't bump the Debian revision unless it has been sponsored.

Having two sources of packages is bad too, I'd suggest to stop
distribution your own packages, at least make sure not to use the same
exact same version/revision, so that there will be clear from looking on
the version only that this was from your archives. Otherwise, I'll
envise chaos. Make sure that the version in your archives sort earlier
than the one in Debian's as this sould be the canonical source of the
Debian packages. Such a versioning scheme is also used for backports,
you can look there how it is done.

Regarding the revision -3: You write "New upstream relases", that is wrong,
or at least you are using the terminology wrong.
A new upstream release must have a new upstream version , and a new
orig.tar corresponding to the new upstream version. Yours are the same.

To have a way out, and as you are upstream, how's about cutting
a new upstream release, e.g 7.21 and package it as 7.21-1 ?

You did it right, you don't file new RFS bugs if the previous one
hasn't been sponsored.

(Please utilize mentors, mentors has some diagnositics that helps
analyzing/reviewing the package, e.g lintian output.)

Well, I'm used to that that they should be also documented and probably
I'm more strict than other on this; Ok, then leave them alone...

no, that's not ok.
you need to document the copyright *verbatim*, that is
what's written in the files, not what the effective license is.
(Policy 2.3)
Debian policy is to avoid embedded code copies, and as you are upstream,
you have every power to make that happen.

The Debian package is at version 20240117, that's merley 13 days older
and a stable release from upstream, so this begs this question:
What is the minimum required version you need and what are the actual
reasons why you need those? Believing that you need a newer one version
is not a strong enough argument to violate the no embedded code copies
rule.

diffing your version with the packaged ones shows only minor differences.

the gperf files should be re-generated during build.

Note: you don't need to repack, you can delete the libraries files in d/clean.
This is usually done to make sure that the files aren't used by
accident.

This seems not to be a correct statement.

The only change I see is in ax_cflags_warn_all.m4, and those change
seems to be not to be relevant. [1]

m4/ax_compiler_vendor.m4:
$ cmp ../autoconf-archive-20220903/m4/ax_compiler_vendor.m4 m4/ax_compiler_vendor.m4 && echo "they are identical."
they are identical.

That's not true
$ rmadison -s sid autoconf-archive
autoconf-archive | 20220903-3    | unstable   | source, all

outdated m4 files are PITA, so pretty please, use autoconf-archive
and the m4 macros from the packaged gnulib.

This is not Policy compliant. Upstream changes belong to the upstream
changelog; it is generally installed into the package as reference
for the user.
Said that, d/changelog can list *important* upstream changes, but
looking at the -3, those aren't.

You've got NEWS in your package, that's your upstream changelog, see
Policy 12.7 for more details, and it will be installed at a place
where users can expect them.

You're packaging for Debian, so you need to follow Debian policy. Gperf
is available, you need to regenerate the files at build time.


[1]
~/workspace/deb/mentors/JohnZaitseff/trader/new/trader-7.20$ diff -Naur ../autoconf-archive-20220903/m4/ax_cflags_warn_all.m4 m4/ax_cflags_warn_all.m4
--- ../autoconf-archive-20220903/m4/ax_cflags_warn_all.m4	2022-09-03 00:00:00.000000000 +0200
+++ m4/ax_cflags_warn_all.m4	2024-01-30 20:09:53.000000000 +0100
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
 #
 #   Copyright (c) 2008 Guido U. Draheim <guidod@gmx.de>
 #   Copyright (c) 2010 Rhys Ulerich <rhys.ulerich@gmail.com>
-#   Copyright (c) 2018 John Zaitseff <J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au>
+#   Copyright (c) 2018-24 John Zaitseff <J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au>
 #
 #   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 #   under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@
 #   modified version of the Autoconf Macro, you may extend this special
 #   exception to the GPL to apply to your modified version as well.

-#serial 25
+#serial 26

 AC_DEFUN([AX_FLAGS_WARN_ALL], [
     AX_REQUIRE_DEFINED([AX_PREPEND_FLAG])dnl
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@
 	    [fujitsu],		[],
 	    [sdcc],		[],
 	    [sx],		[VAR="-pvctl[,]fullmsg"],
+	    [nvhpc],		[VAR="-Wall"],
 	    [portland],		[],
 	    [gnu],		[VAR="-Wall"],
 	    [sun],		[VAR="-v"],

On Sun, Mar 10, 2024 at 04:25:16PM +0100, Tobias Frost wrote:

Maybe this needs a bit more expansion:

If you ship packages yourself, you should ensure that if people
installing from Debian archives they will get the Debian package not
yours, at least if the version in the Debian archive is not of an older
version.

This is similar to the procedure when doing a backport, the backport
version is always "older" than then the version in testing, so that when
testing becomes stable the proper package from now-stable is installed,
updating the backports package.

An easy way is to append "~" to your upstream package's revision, as
this will always sort earlier, eg. "7.20-3~"

Hi John,

There has been no progress with this RFS since March of 2024. Can you offer
more information on the progress of this package update?

When answering or if you do a new upload to Debian Mentors, could you remove
the 'moreinfo' tag off this RFS please.

Regards

Phil

Hi John,

There has been no progress with this RFS since March of 2024. Can you offer
more information on the progress of this package update?

When answering or if you do a new upload to Debian Mentors, could you remove
the 'moreinfo' tag off this RFS please.

Regards

Phil

Dear Phil,

Thank you for reminding me of this.  No progress had been made for
deeply personal reasons: my beloved father had been seriously ill
with leukaemia for quite a few months, and he finally passed away at
the end of July.  What with grieving for our loss, and managing his
estate as executor, I haven't had much opportunity to deal with this
RFS.  Very sorry about that.

Although I'm still fairly busy with being executor, I see my way to
being able to make a new release of Star Traders in the next two or
three months -- sooner, if I can convince my Ukrainian friend to
revise that translation!

If I make a new upstream release (v7.21), should I simply rename
this bug appropriately, or should I close it and open a new one with
a reference to this bug?

Yours truly,

John Zaitseff

Dear Phil,

Thank you for reminding me of this.  No progress had been made for
deeply personal reasons: my beloved father had been seriously ill
with leukaemia for quite a few months, and he finally passed away at
the end of July.  What with grieving for our loss, and managing his
estate as executor, I haven't had much opportunity to deal with this
RFS.  Very sorry about that.

Although I'm still fairly busy with being executor, I see my way to
being able to make a new release of Star Traders in the next two or
three months -- sooner, if I can convince my Ukrainian friend to
revise that translation!

If I make a new upstream release (v7.21), should I simply rename
this bug appropriately, or should I close it and open a new one with
a reference to this bug?

Yours truly,

John Zaitseff

Dear Phil,

Thank you for reminding me of this.  No progress had been made for
deeply personal reasons: my beloved father had been seriously ill
with leukaemia for quite a few months, and he finally passed away at
the end of July.  What with grieving for our loss, and managing his
estate as executor, I haven't had much opportunity to deal with this
RFS.  Very sorry about that.

Although I'm still fairly busy with being executor, I see my way to
being able to make a new release of Star Traders in the next two or
three months -- sooner, if I can convince my Ukrainian friend to
revise that translation!

If I make a new upstream release (v7.21), should I simply rename
this bug appropriately, or should I close it and open a new one with
a reference to this bug?

Yours truly,

John Zaitseff

John,

May I offer my condolences for your loss. My partner Janine and I had similar
circumstances with the illness and passing of Janine's father Alan four years
ago.

Take your time, more important things in life come first. I hope in the
future you will want to work on the excellent Star Traders and contribute it
to Debian and its users.

Regards

Phil

Hi John,

cordolences from my side too and take your time to settle all the things
needing settling; when it's settled, please feel free to poke me and
we'll together get this RFS sorted; 

(for the meantime I'll set it to moreinfo so that the state reflects
that this is paused, just to avoid overhead when browsing the RFS
lists.)

Closing the bug as there has been no activity since a year. It can be
reopened at any time when this is ready to be resumed. 
As said, take your time.

Dear mentors,

As per Tobias Frost's request, I am resending my request for
sponsorship to this bug #1062001 (originally #1136984).

In particular, I am looking for a sponsor for my updated package
"trader", a simple game of interstellar trading.  This update fixes
a FTBFS listed in bug #1135930.  I have tried to address most of the
issues that were raised by Tobias a couple of years ago in this bug
thread.

  Package name:    trader
  Version:         7.21-1
  Upstream author: John Zaitseff <J.Zaitseff@zap.org.au-- that's me!
  URL:             https://www.zap.org.au/projects/trader/
  License:         GPL3+
  Vcs:             https://git.zap.org.au/git/trader.git -b with-debian
  Section:         games

The Vcs field will work with "git clone" without authentication (or
just use a user agent field starting with "git" -- it's to stop
mindless AI bots from trashing our server).

The source builds one binary package:

  trader - simple game of interstellar trading

I have successfully built binaries using Debian chroots on The ZAP
Group Australia server.  You can download my build using dget:

  dget -x https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/trader/unix/binary/debian/trader_7.21-1.dsc

Changes since the last upload:

  trader (7.21-1) unstable; urgency=medium

    * New upstream release: includes a fix for the FTBFS seen under
      Autoconf 2.73.  Closes: #1135930.
    * Updated to Debian Policy 4.7.4: removed "Priority: optional" from
      debian/control as this is now the default.
    * Moved to dpkg-build-api v1 for building.
    * Adjusted build dependencies as required for Debian old-stable.
    * Removed Vcs-Browser from debian/control as the URL in this field was
      being subjected to a continual and sustained DDOS.  Closes: #1132702.
    * Changed Vcs-Git link to use HTTPS instead of the Git protocol.
    * Added details of all relevant source files to debian/copyright (as
      requested by Tobias Frost).
    * Enabled build hardening in debian/rules.
    * Converted debian/watch to version 5 format.
    * Removed superfluous signatures from debian/upstream/signing-key.asc.
    * Incorporates changes made to previous upstream releases (not uploaded
      to Debian): changed documentation (history of the game), updated
      translations, renamed AppStream metainfo and desktop files.

Hi John,

I saw your request on the debian-au mailing list.

On Fri, 29 May 2026 23:35:36 +1000 John Zaitseff wrote:

 > Dear mentors,
 >
 > As per Tobias Frost's request, I am resending my request for
 > sponsorship to this bug #1062001 (originally #1136984).
 > [...]
 > Changes since the last upload:
 >
 > trader (7.21-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 >
 > * New upstream release: includes a fix for the FTBFS seen under
 > Autoconf 2.73. Closes: #1135930.
 > * Updated to Debian Policy 4.7.4: removed "Priority: optional" from
 > debian/control as this is now the default.
 > * Moved to dpkg-build-api v1 for building.
 > * Adjusted build dependencies as required for Debian old-stable.
 > * Removed Vcs-Browser from debian/control as the URL in this field was
 > being subjected to a continual and sustained DDOS. Closes: #1132702.
 > * Changed Vcs-Git link to use HTTPS instead of the Git protocol.
 > * Added details of all relevant source files to debian/copyright (as
 > requested by Tobias Frost).
 > * Enabled build hardening in debian/rules.
 > * Converted debian/watch to version 5 format.
 > * Removed superfluous signatures from debian/upstream/signing-key.asc.
 > * Incorporates changes made to previous upstream releases (not uploaded
 > to Debian): changed documentation (history of the game), updated
 > translations, renamed AppStream metainfo and desktop files.

This update is looking good.

Looking at your changelog, I wondered about: "Adjusted build
dependencies as required for Debian old-stable."

We are uploading to unstable/Sid, so your version constraints aren't
necessary.

In saying that, I compared your d/control files between trader versions.
gettext 0.22 isn't available in oldstable/Bookworm anyway. Unless you
have something else in mind from the changelog entry?

A copyright check identified some minor discrepancies with the copyright
years for the following files, compared to what you have listed in
d/copyright.

  lib/crc-generate-table.c
  lib/crc-sliceby8.h
  lib/crc.c
  lib/crc.h
  lib/wcsdup-impl.h
  lib/wcsdup.c
  lib/wctob.c

  po/eo.*
  po/fi.*
  po/fr.*
  po/sr.*

Can you please check these?

Let me know when you've had a chance to update d/copyright and uploaded.
I'll then run dpkg-buildpackage, sign and upload for you.

Hugh

Hi John,

I saw your request on the debian-au mailing list.

On Fri, 29 May 2026 23:35:36 +1000 John Zaitseff wrote:

 > Dear mentors,
 >
 > As per Tobias Frost's request, I am resending my request for
 > sponsorship to this bug #1062001 (originally #1136984).
 > [...]
 > Changes since the last upload:
 >
 > trader (7.21-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 >
 > * New upstream release: includes a fix for the FTBFS seen under
 > Autoconf 2.73. Closes: #1135930.
 > * Updated to Debian Policy 4.7.4: removed "Priority: optional" from
 > debian/control as this is now the default.
 > * Moved to dpkg-build-api v1 for building.
 > * Adjusted build dependencies as required for Debian old-stable.
 > * Removed Vcs-Browser from debian/control as the URL in this field was
 > being subjected to a continual and sustained DDOS. Closes: #1132702.
 > * Changed Vcs-Git link to use HTTPS instead of the Git protocol.
 > * Added details of all relevant source files to debian/copyright (as
 > requested by Tobias Frost).
 > * Enabled build hardening in debian/rules.
 > * Converted debian/watch to version 5 format.
 > * Removed superfluous signatures from debian/upstream/signing-key.asc.
 > * Incorporates changes made to previous upstream releases (not uploaded
 > to Debian): changed documentation (history of the game), updated
 > translations, renamed AppStream metainfo and desktop files.

This update is looking good.

Looking at your changelog, I wondered about: "Adjusted build
dependencies as required for Debian old-stable."

We are uploading to unstable/Sid, so your version constraints aren't
necessary.

In saying that, I compared your d/control files between trader versions.
gettext 0.22 isn't available in oldstable/Bookworm anyway. Unless you
have something else in mind from the changelog entry?

A copyright check identified some minor discrepancies with the copyright
years for the following files, compared to what you have listed in
d/copyright.

  lib/crc-generate-table.c
  lib/crc-sliceby8.h
  lib/crc.c
  lib/crc.h
  lib/wcsdup-impl.h
  lib/wcsdup.c
  lib/wctob.c

  po/eo.*
  po/fi.*
  po/fr.*
  po/sr.*

Can you please check these?

Let me know when you've had a chance to update d/copyright and uploaded.
I'll then run dpkg-buildpackage, sign and upload for you.

Hugh

Hello, Hugh (and others),

Thank you for your reply -- much appreciated!

I think I was basing this on Tobias Frost's comment at [1] where he
stated "Please remove all versions from the versioned build depends
that are fulfiled already since oldstable, e.g gettext and
automake."

[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1062001#28

I guess I interpreted that to mean all dependencies had to be valid
for Debian old-stable.

I've adjusted the build dependencies to be valid for Debian Sid
(coincidentally also Trixie).  This also includes removing "(>=
2.71)" from autoconf.

True, but I also have a backport that can be used for Bookworm (and
also Ubuntu Noble 24.04), in which I apply a patch to allow Gettext
0.21:

  git clone https://git.zap.org.au/git/debian-packages/pkg-trader.git \
    -b master-backports

But this is not relevant for the package I'm trying to get into Sid...

Good catch!  I accidentally overlooked the changed end date (2026)
when I updated d/copyright.  Fixed.

I consolidated the range of years per suggestions from the Copyright
field in [2], but made a typo: 2013 should have been 2012.  Fixed --
thanks!

[2] https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/#copyright-field

Done.  You can get the updated dsc file by running:

  dget -x https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/trader/unix/binary/debian/trader_7.21-1.dsc

(Same URL as before, but updated with the changes listed above).
Also available by running:

  git clone https://git.zap.org.au/git/trader.git -b with-debian

Thank you once again!

Yours truly,

John Zaitseff

Hello, Hugh (and others),

Thank you for your reply -- much appreciated!

I think I was basing this on Tobias Frost's comment at [1] where he
stated "Please remove all versions from the versioned build depends
that are fulfiled already since oldstable, e.g gettext and
automake."

[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1062001#28

I guess I interpreted that to mean all dependencies had to be valid
for Debian old-stable.

I've adjusted the build dependencies to be valid for Debian Sid
(coincidentally also Trixie).  This also includes removing "(>=
2.71)" from autoconf.

True, but I also have a backport that can be used for Bookworm (and
also Ubuntu Noble 24.04), in which I apply a patch to allow Gettext
0.21:

  git clone https://git.zap.org.au/git/debian-packages/pkg-trader.git \
    -b master-backports

But this is not relevant for the package I'm trying to get into Sid...

Good catch!  I accidentally overlooked the changed end date (2026)
when I updated d/copyright.  Fixed.

I consolidated the range of years per suggestions from the Copyright
field in [2], but made a typo: 2013 should have been 2012.  Fixed --
thanks!

[2] https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/#copyright-field

Done.  You can get the updated dsc file by running:

  dget -x https://ftp.zap.org.au/pub/trader/unix/binary/debian/trader_7.21-1.dsc

(Same URL as before, but updated with the changes listed above).
Also available by running:

  git clone https://git.zap.org.au/git/trader.git -b with-debian

Thank you once again!

Yours truly,

John Zaitseff

Tobias wanted you to remove the verion restrictions from your
Build-Depends list, which you've done now.

Looks good. Uploaded.

Moving forward, I'd suggest unifying the copyright lines in po/*.po to
YYYY-YYYY format, so automated tools like licensecheck have an easier
time detecting the dates.

In debian/changelog, many people -- myself included -- prefer a more
structured format. For example:

   * New upstream version:
     - Important change 1 (Closes: #xxxxxx).
     - Important change 2.
   * debian/control:
     - Raise Standards-Version to 4.7.4.
     - Remove Priority field.
     - Drop version constraints from Build-Depends (Closes: #xxxxxxx).
     - Drop Vcs-Browse due to sustained DDOS.
   * debian/copyright: Add all relevant files.
   * debian/rules: Enable build-hardening.
   * debian/watch: Covert to v5 format.
This format makes it quick and easy to see at a glance what changes have
been made. It also highlights any important upstream changes that
maintainers or NMUers might need to know about.

Hugh