Debian packaging

Python packaging in Debian

• https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/PythonModulesTeam
• https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/PythonAppsPackagingTeam
• http://python-modules.alioth.debian.org/python-modules-policy.html
• http://python-apps.alioth.debian.org/policy.html

Python-usb 1.0

• chdkcamera depends on pyusb 1.0b
• debian has pyusb 0.4.3 in sid
• Let's check the reverse dependencies for pyusb:

$ apt-cache rdepends python-usb
python-usb
Reverse Depends:
  python-usb:i386
  quisk
  python-yubico
  pymissile
  python-nxt
  python-expeyes

• quisk: exotic sound related usb hardware (popcon inst: 121, rank 25252, maintainer: "1.0b would be better for us")
• pymissile: Marks and Spencer usb toy missile control (popcon inst: 30, rank 46195, emailed maintainer)
• python-yubico: yubikey control (popcon inst: 30, rank 41165, maintainer: "1.0b would be better for us")
• python-nxt: lego nxt control (popcon inst:n/a, rank n/a, maintainer: "ok with experimental so I can test python-nxt with a pyusb 1.0 patch")
• python-expeyes: Expeyes box control Indian scientific experiments (popcon inst: n/a, maintainer: "please upload 1.0 to experimental or if not possible to mentors.debian.net so I can test")

jbig2enc

• potential patent issues in the US according to ftpmaster
• https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=512518
• jbig1 expired already - https://github.com/agl/jbig2enc/blob/master/doc/PATENTS and http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/jbigkit/patents/
• jbig2 expiration less clear: spec from 1999, Korean patent from 1997 referenced in spec (so 2017? 2018?)
• is asking deb-multimedia.org to include this a good idea?

pdfbeads

• pdfbeads does the pdf generation and ocr layer integration
• https://github.com/ifad/pdfbeads/blob/master/bin/pdfbeads#L98-L105 : it compresses using jbig2enc by default, but also plain ccitt g4 compression
• g4 might be our only option to get this into debian if the patent is still actively enforced
• patch in a warning about missing jbig2enc? that might be a good hint, and is easily feasible. See https://github.com/DIYBookScanner/spreads/issues/145#issuecomment-58624657 .