Once you have created a source package (either a completely new package or just an update/bugfix), you will want to distribute your package so that other people can enjoy your hard work. The most effective way to do that for Ubuntu is to contribute your package to the Universe repository. The community developers who are responsible for the Universe repository are known as Masters of the Universe (MOTU). REVU is a web-based tool that gives people a place to upload their source packages for other people to look at and for MOTUs to review in a structured manner.
First, you will need to have your GPG Key added to the REVU keyring. This step ensures that your packages really come from you and helps track uploads.
To add your key, send a signed email with your GnuPG
key ID asking to be added to the REVU keyring to
<[email protected]>. One of the REVU admins will
add you to the uploaders keyring and reply to your email. You don't
need a password to upload packages, only to log in to the website and
to reply to comments.
![[Note]](../../images/admon/note.png)
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It is not necessary to have your key signed by others to upload to REVU, but it is a good idea to have it done at some point. |
Uploading to REVU uses dput. The Ubuntu version of dput already knows about REVU so you do not need to change any configuration files. Only upload signed packages, and unlike other repositories, you should always include the original tarball, otherwise reviewers will not be able to look at your extracted source package. In order to do so, use the options "-S -sa" with debuild or dpkg-buildpackage to build only the source package and to include the original source in the upload.
After the source package is built, you can use
dput with the above config file changes to
upload it by specifying just the _source.changes
file that was created:
dput revu *_source.changes
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If you are reuploading a changed package (after receiving reviews), you may get an error like this: Upload package to host revu Already uploaded to tauware.de Doing nothing for myapp_source.changes To fix, add the -f option to dput to force the upload or remove the
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Processing of uploads is done every five minutes, so if your upload does not show up, please contact the REVU administrators by email, or join the Freenode IRC channel #ubuntu-motu.
After your first upload, you are registered automatically in the database and assigned a random password. On the REVU website, use the email address you used in the changelog file of your upload as the login and click the 'recover password' link. You will be taken to a page that has your encrypted password with instructions for decrypting it.
Packages uploaded to REVU are public. You can browse them without logging in to the system. However, commenting on uploads is available only to registered users. As an uploader, you can only comment on your own uploads. This can be useful to give reviewers some info on the changes you have made between two uploads of your packages.
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You must have reviewed the package for known security vulnerabilities and must provide patches for them.
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The package can be refused on the grounds of known security problems.
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You must have included a copyright and license file, and those must allow inclusion of the package in the Universe component and redistribution via Ubuntu mirrors.
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The package must be known to build on top of the main component of the current Ubuntu stable release. It is permissible to require other packages already in Universe.
