Contacting Packagers in Other Distributions
Sometimes you can work on a package and need to talk to a packager in other distributions. This might be because the package is non-trivial to package. It might be because you discover a security hole and want to make sure others are not affected. It might be because you want to share a beer at LinuxTAG with other packagers of the same software. In any case, this page exists to help you get in touch with your colleagues in other distributions.
There are some caveats. Notably, you have to know what the package name is in all distributions. (Debian has python-turbogears and Fedora has TurboGears packages, for instance.) However, the information here is a good start.
Debian
Debian's main developer list is debian-devel@lists.debian.org.
To reach individual developers responsible for a package use
Exherbo
Exherbos's main mailing list for development is exherbo-dev@lists.exherbo.org.
The maintainer responsible for a particular package can be acquired by several means:
- In the respective exheres, look for the BUGS_TO keyword, e. g. BUGS_TO="philantrop@exherbo.org".
- At http://git.exherbo.org/summer/ you can either look the package up by its repository or its category. On the package level, you'll find "Bugs to" again. In both cases, the email address in BUGS_TO is the person or group you'll want to talk to.
The #exherbo channel on the FreeNode IRC network is home to almost all Exherbo developers and contributors.
A list of Exherbo's core developers is available at http://www.exherbo.org/developers.html. A complete list can be found at http://www.mailstation.de/egitstats/authors.html.
Fedora
To contact all of the packagers in Fedora for discussion you can use the mailing list ?MailTo(devel AT lists DOT fedoraproject DOT org). You need to be subscribed to post.
Fedora has recently started providing email aliases that go to the owners of packages. At the current time, those aliases are ?MailTo(PACKAGENAME-owner AT fedoraproject DOT org). It directs to the package owner and everyone who is watching the packages. More fine-grained aliases have been requested for the future.
If you need to find just the owners or need to find out the name of a package in Fedora, you can use the search feature of the Fedora Package Database. Typing in keywords will let you search the packages and clicking into a packages record will show you exactly who owns a package in each release of Fedora. Every package maintainer can be reached via an e-mail alias using the displayed username as the local-part and fedoraproject.org as the domain.
Primary Contact: Paul W. Frields. Fedora Engineering Manager.
Gentoo
Gentoo's main mailing list for development is gentoo-dev@gentoo.org.
The maintainer or team responsible for a particular package can be gotten from http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo-x86/
A full list of developers is available at http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/roll-call/userinfo.xml.
Mandriva
Mandriva maintainers' mailing list: maintainers@mandrivalinux.com
openSUSE
openSUSE's main packager list is opensuse-packaging@opensuse.org. The development list is opensuse-factory@opensuse.org. Archives are at http://lists.opensuse.org.
A packager can be contacted by the Bug Report link in the openSUSE Build Service by following the link from a package's entry in the openSUSE:Factory project back to its development project - alternatively look in an RPM changelog.
Ubuntu
Email discussion among Ubuntu developers takes place on the ubuntu-devel mailing list, which is moderated (excepting registered Ubuntu developers). The ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list is available for open discussion about Ubuntu development. Various other mailing lists are available, some of which focus on specific areas of development. The charter of the ubuntu-devel mailing list includes "Point of contact for upstream developers to reach Ubuntu developers", and while it is moderated that moderation is usually swift.
The #ubuntu-devel channel on the FreeNode IRC network is home to many Ubuntu developers for real-time communication.