Hi all.
I've done my work on the official Debian packages for Coda and i've uploaded them to the experimental distribution, for preliminary tests.

I've included my changes on the end of this mail. That was not so much work to do, since the packages were made quite well, but i was very busy in the last few month so i had to give it up for a while. I hope you'll consider to merge some of my changes to your wrok.

Something more: Debian uses a "build daemons" to build the source of the distributed software for all their supported architectures. Actually, Debian supports 10 linux architectures:

o Intel x86 / IA-32 (``i386'')
o Motorola 68k (``m68k'')
o Sun SPARC (``sparc'')
o Alpha (``alpha'')
o Motorola/IBM PowerPC (``powerpc'')
o ARM (``arm'')
o MIPS CPUs (``mips'' and ``mipsel'')
o HP PA-RISC (``hppa'')
o IA-64 (``ia64'')
o S/390 (``s390'')

We are going to support two more Linux architectures, and 3 non Linux ports :

o Debian GNU/Linux for Sun UltraSPARC (``sparc64'')
o Debian GNU/Linux for SuperH (``sh'')
o Debian GNU/Hurd (``hurd-i386'')
o Debian GNU/NetBSD (``netbsd-i386'' and ``netbsd-alpha'')
o Debian GNU/FreeBSD (``freebsd-i386'')

I'm saying this since the source package was explicitly described to be compiled only no arm, i386, m68k, powerpc, sparc. By changing it to ``any'' the packages will be compiled for *all* the above systems (you probably want to exclude HURD, of course).

Shall i go on appling this change? I know that this may imply some more work for you, but i think that it can be an opportunity.

There is also a tool (alien) from a Debian developer that may help you creating packages for other Linux distributions as well (Like all the RPM based one, Slackware, Stampede). Do you want me to start creating that packages?

Best regards,

coda (5.3.19-5) experimental; urgency=low

• Updated DH_COMPAT to 4.
• Removed no more useful files.
  + Removed debian/*.prerm.
  + Removed devian/coda-{backup,update}.postinst.
  + Removed debian/*.init.d (in favor of debian/*.init).
  
• Updated autotools stuff (Source package is old).
  + Added autotools-dev to Build-Depends.
  + Modified debian/rules to copy latest version of config.{sub,guess}.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Mon, 1 Jul 2002 15:03:53 +0200

coda (5.3.19-4) experimental; urgency=low

• Removed debian/coda-server.{pre,post}{inst,rm} (unuseful).
• Created debian/etc that now contains premodified configuration files.
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Wed, 17 Apr 2002 16:18:29 +0200

coda (5.3.19-3) experimental; urgency=low

• Create/modified all the init script needed.
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Tue, 16 Apr 2002 09:28:03 +0200

coda (5.3.19-2) experimental; urgency=low

• New maintainer.
• Control file cleanup.
  + Changed Maintainer field.
  + Removed build-essential standard and base packages from Build-Depends.
  + Changed Standards-Version to 3.5.1.
  + Moved debconf from Pre-Depends to Depends field in coda-client.
  + Changes from rvm-tools to librvm-bin in coda-server Depends field.
  + Added coda-common package.
  + Made coda-{server,client} Depends on coda-common.
  
• debhelper files fix and cleanup.
  + Cleand package from unusefull files.
  + Moved debian/coda-client.docs to debian/coda-common.docs.
  + Added debian/coda-common.files
  + Removed `.d' from any debian/*.init.d file name.
  + Modified any debian/*.{pre,post}{inst,rm} so that they umount any coda
  filesystem regardless the mount point.
• debian/rules cleanup & fix.
  + Changed DH_COMPAT to 3
  + Removed unuseful comments.
  + Applied changes to use the coda-common package.
  
• Applied patch to configs/Makerules to prevent deletion of necessary files on distclean.
• Updated vicedir variable in debian/coda-update.init.
• Added libconfigreader-perl to coda-backup Depends field.
• Changes in configuration files.
  + Moved example files from debian/coda-{client,server}.conffiles to
  debian/coda-{client,server}.examples.
  + Modified debian/rules to install conffiles from examples in debian/tmp.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Sun, 14 Apr 2002 09:09:58 +0200

coda-doc (5.2.0-1) experimental; urgency=low

• Initial Release.
• Updated autotools stuff (Source package is old).
  + Added autotools-dev to Build-Depends.
  + Modified debian/rules to copy latest version of config.{sub,guess}.
  
• Modified Makerules.in.
  + DOCDIR now install files in the desired place.
  + mandir now uses @mandir@.
  + man-install now correctly uses $(mandir).
  
• Modified *all* sgml files producing man pages.
  + Substituted all occurence of mansect tag with sect1.
  + Removed *ALL* occurrence of <[pP]> after <sect1> tag for NAME section: it
  made linuxdoc to compile all the manpages with a NAME section not suitable for whatis(1) database.
• Changed the man page files creation process.
  + Removed all the manpage tags.
  + Rewrote scripts/create_container2 to use a template file placed in
  templates/man.sgml.
• Modified rvm/rvm_chap_rvmseg.sgml rvm/rvm_chap_rvmutl.sgml.
  + Added sect tags before any man page file inclusion.
  
• Modified manual/manapx.sgml.
  + Added missing ';'.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Sun, 3 Nov 2002 13:29:35 +0100

lwp (1.9-2) experimental; urgency=low

• Updated DH_COMPAT to 4 in debian/rules.
• Changed debian/control.
  + Added Conflicts (liblwp-dev) and Provides (liblwp-dev) fields for liblwp2-dev.
  + Added libtool and libc6-dev >= 2.2.4-4 to Build-Depends field.
  
• Updated autotools stuff (Source package is old).
  + Added autotools-dev to Build-Depends.
  + Modified debian/rules to copy latest version of config.{sub,guess}.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Mon, 1 Jul 2002 21:45:24 +0200

lwp (1.9-1) experimental; urgency=low

• New maintainer.
• Control file cleanup.
  + Changed source Section field to libs.
  + Changed liblwp-dev Section to devel.
  + Changed Maintainer field.
  + Changed Build-Depends to debhelper (>= 3.0.5).
  + Changed Standards-Version to 3.5.1.
  
• debhelper files cleanup.
  + Removed unuseful files (dirs ecc).
  + Added debian/liblwp-dev.files.
  + Added debian/liblwp-dev.links.
  
• debian/rules cleanup & fix.
  + Changed DH_COMPAT to 3
  + dh_installchangelogs uses NEWS as changelog file.
  + Added rm -f config.status on clean target.
  + Removed unuseful comments.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Thu, 11 Apr 2002 14:53:24 +0200

rpc2 (1.13-2) experimental; urgency=low

• Added usr/bin/rp2gen to librpc2-bin.files.
• Updated autotools stuff (Source package is old).
  + Added autotools-dev to Build-Depends.
  + Modified debian/rules to copy latest version of config.{sub,guess}.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Mon, 1 Jul 2002 12:16:04 +0200

rpc2 (1.13-1) experimental; urgency=low

• New maintainer.
• Control file cleanup.
  + Changed source Section field to libs.
  + Changed librpc2-dev Section to devel.
  + Changed Maintainer field.
  + Changed Build-Depends to
  debhelper (>= 3.0.5), liblwp-dev, libreadline4-dev, libncurses5-dev, libtool
  + Changed rpc2-tools to librpc2-bin.
  + Changed librpc2-bin Section to admin.
  + Changed Standards-Version to 3.5.1.
  
• debhelper files cleanup.
  + Created debian/*.files and removed other unuseful files.
  
• debian/rules cleanup & fix.
  + Changed DH_COMPAT to 4.
  + Added $(MAKE) -C rpc2-src (autoconf generated files bug) in build and
  clean target
  + Added rm -f config.status in clean target.
  + dh_installchangelogs uses NEWS as changelog file.
  + Removed unuseful comments.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Fri, 12 Apr 2002 12:37:38 +0200

rvm (1.6-2) experimental; urgency=low

• Removed no more useful files.
  + Removed debian/librvm-tools.*.
  + Removed debian/*.{postinst,prerm,dirs}.
  
• Updated autotools stuff (Source package is old).
  + Added autotools-dev to Build-Depends.
  + Modified debian/rules to copy latest version of config.{sub,guess}.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Tue, 2 Jul 2002 12:18:54 +0200

rvm (1.6-1) experimental; urgency=low

• New maintainer.
• Control file cleanup.
  + Changed source Section field to libs.
  + Changed librvm-dev Section to devel.
  + Changed Maintainer field.
  + Changed Build-Depends to debhelper (>= 3.0.5), liblwp-dev, libtool
  + Changed rvm-tools to librvm-bin.
  + Changed librvm-bin Section to admin.
  + Changed Standards-Version to 3.5.1.
  
• debhelper files cleanup.
  + Created debian/*.files and removed other unuseful files.
  
• debian/rules cleanup & fix.
  + Changed DH_COMPAT to 3
  + dh_installchangelogs uses NEWS as changelog file.
  + Removed unuseful comments.
  
  • Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis <luca_at_debian.org> Thu, 11 Apr 2002 16:16:06 +0200 -- Luca - De Whiskey's - De Vitis | Elegant or ugly code as well aliases: Luca ^De [A-Z][A-Za-z\-]*[iy]'\?s$ | as fine or rude sentences have Luca, a wannabe ``Good guy''. | something in common: they local LANG="it_IT_at_euro" | don't depend on the language.