openstreetmap team mailing list archive

[matthew.revell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hello OpenStreetMap,

Your Launchpad PPA: three important changes
--------------------------------------------

We have three important items of news regarding your Launchpad 
Personal Package Archive(s):

 * your PPA now has its own key and packages are now signed
 * your PPA URLs and upload paths are going to change
 * we are going to start removing deleted/superseded packages 
   from our servers.
   
These changes affect PPAs owned both by individuals and teams.


Signed PPAs
------------

Every PPA now has its own unique key, which Launchpad uses to 
sign the packages it builds in the archive.

People downloading a package from your PPA can now verify that it
hasn't been altered since Launchpad built it.

You can find out how to add the PPA key to your Ubuntu system 
here:

https://help.launchpad.net/PPAKeys


Changes to PPA URLs and upload paths
-------------------------------------

We want to make Launchpad flexible enough that an individual or
team can have more than one PPA. To allow for that, we need to
make some changes now.

With the release of Launchpad 2.2.1 (due on the 28th January), 
three things happen:

 * your PPA's upload path will change from ~user/ubuntu[/series] 
   to ~user/ppa/ubuntu[/series]
 * your PPA's overview page URL will change from 
   launchpad.net/~user/+archive to launchpad.net/~user/+archive/ppa
 * your archive's address will change from ppa.lp.net/user/ubuntu
   to ppa.lp.net/user/ppa/ubuntu
   
To make sure everyone has a chance to get used to these changes,
there'll be a period where both the old and new URLs/paths work,
after which we'll remove the old versions. However, you should let
your PPA's users know about the archive address change as soon as
possible.


Automatic removal of deleted and superseded PPA packages
----------------------------------------------------------

Until now, when you've deleted a package from your PPA -- or a
newer package has superseded it -- Launchpad has kept a copy of
the binary and made it available from your PPA overview page.

>From now on, whenever you delete a package, or it is superseded,
Launchpad will:

 1. mark the package as deleted/superseded
 2. wait 30 days
 3. entirely remove the binary package from the PPA servers.

You'll still have access to the build records, the only
difference being that there'll no longer be a link to the binary.

Important: after the release of Launchpad 2.2.1, on January 28th,
we will start removing any packages that have been in the deleted
or superseded state for more than 30 days.

If you have any questions about these changes, please ask!

Thanks,

-- 
Matthew Revell - Launchpad.net - free software collaboration and project
hosting