PPAQuickStart updates?

[Martin Schwenke]

Firstly, thanks for providing PPA.  It is an excellent, easy-to-use
service that can only contribute to the improvement of free software.

There are a couple of sections in PPAQuickStart at:

  https://help.launchpad.net/PPAQuickStart

that I found a little confusing.

* The use of '~' (tilde) in package versions could be explained more
  clearly.  The current text on this topic says:

    [...] We recommend using a suffix of ~ppan (where n is your
    package's revision number). This will also ensure that a newer
    Ubuntu version will supercede your PPA version.

    Example: if you're packaging an experimental version of MyApp1.0,
    name the first version of your package myapp_1.0.1-0ubuntu1~ppa1.

  I've built a non-trivial number of Debian/Ubuntu packages but
  haven't needed to understand '~' until using PPA.  The above
  explanation didn't help and I got it wrong a couple of times before
  I managed to find the answer in:

    https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/launchpad-users/2007-December/002903.html

  and I only really understood what was going on when I carefully
  read:

    http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-Version

  The Ubuntu Packaging Guide doesn't seem to say anything about tidle
  (although my search may have missed it).

  So, can I suggest that the above text be expanded to:

    [...] We recommend using a suffix of ~ppan (where n is your
    package's revision number).  This will also ensure that a newer
    Ubuntu version will supercede your PPA version.

    Example: if you're packaging an experimental version of MyApp1.0,
    name the first version of your package myapp_1.0.1-0ubuntu1~ppa1.

    However, if you're building an alternative version of a package
    already in the primary Ubuntu archive, you should also increment
    the Ubuntu package version.  This will also ensure that your
    package supercedes the current Ubuntu package because a tilde
    effectively takes a package version backwards.

    Example: If you're building an updated version of a current
    package ubuntuapp_1.2.3-4ubuntu5 then your package should be named
    ubuntuapp_1.2.3-4ubuntu6~ppa1.  This means your package will
    supercede the current one.  If a new package called
    ubuntuapp_1.2.3-4ubuntu6 later appears in the primary Ubuntu
    archive then it will supercede your package.

* In the section called "Accessing your archive" the reference to
  "<development release>" in:

    To install packages from your archive add the following lines to
    your /etc/apt/sources.list: 

      deb     http://ppa.launchpad.net/your-launchpad-id/ubuntu <development release> main 
      deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/your-launchpad-id/ubuntu <development release> main 

  is a bit confusing.  It made me wonder if a PPA could only be used
  for the current Ubuntu development release - that is, intrepid.

  This isn't a big deal... but could easily be replaced by
  "<ubuntu release>", as this would avoid introducing any confusion.

Thanks...

peace & happiness,
martin