I just wanted to inject a comment or two into this conversation, as it seems like a good point in time considering the in-flux nature of debian packages. I'm not a debian user, but I've got a number of modules that seem to either be a) packaged for Debian or b) popular, relatively speaking.
The first problem is that on a fairly regular basis in the past, external module building using "pike -x module" or "pike -x monger" has been broken in the Pike distribution. When reported, Marek was pretty good about fixing the problem, but it still was a hit-or-miss proposition for some reason. I think that really works against having a good reputation. What's the best way to ensure that the debian packaging system doesn't break this functionality? I'm guessing that the simple addition of a testsuite won't work, as it doesn't operate on the installed pike. Does debian have something that can help solve this problem so that it's not a manual task?
The second problem is that I often get reports of problems with modules not working with the debian package, and on more than one occasion, it's been because the package provided a non-stable-stable build of Pike, such as 7.6.93, that included a bug not present in official releases. Actually, from what I can tell, that happens pretty regularly. Is there really good reason why non-official- version packages are made like this? It seems to me that a new official version of Pike is made fairly regularly, so I'm not sure I see the benefit of this particular practice. Again, having users experience bugs like that don't exactly help the reputation of the product.
Can anyone shed any light on these two items?
Bill