Sshguard packages

We are very interested in having sshguard pre-packaged for as many operating systems as possible.

Packages improve greatly the experience of getting the software installed on an OS, and help both the software to be installed and the OS that will host it.

The operating systems to which we are most interested in having sshguard packages are the following:

• Mac OS X (both macport and fink)
• FreeBSD (port) [done]
• OpenBSD (port)
• Debian Linux (APT .deb)
• Gentoo Linux (portage) [done]
• Ubuntu Linux (APT .deb)
• Fedora, CentOS, Yellow dog and other YUM-based linux distributions (rpm) [done]

If you have experience in creating one of these, and especially if you can maintain the package, then we want you! Please subscribe the sshguard maintainers mailing list and notify what package you are available to create.

How to package sshguard

Creating packages for sshguard is very easy, because sshguard:

1. uses the common ./configure + make + make install iter
2. has no dependencies whatsoever
3. has no conditional parts to install, and consists of one single binary file + one man page
4. all parameters and paths are adjustable from ./configure args, with no patching required

Finally, there's an ad hoc sshguard maintainers mailing list for supporting volunteers on any problem or question they could encounter in creating a package.

Depending on the host operating system, a flag --with-firewall=xyz must be passed to ./configure. There is an association with OSes:

Becoming a maintainer

You are expected to be aware of the different options and setup scenarios before choosing what's best for the target OS of the package.

There are two types of contribution of a sshguard package:

1. create a package, submit to the sshguard project and forget about it. In this case, the entry will be struck from the TODO list and your name will be credited.
2. create the package, submit to the official tree (e.g. debian's APT source) and become maintainer of the package in the longer term.

Of course, the latter is the most appreciated because it guarantees users a better experience (up-to-date versions, response to possible security flaws etc).

Maintainers are required to subscribe the sshguard maintainers mailing list and notify they are picking the maintainership of a specific package (e.g., Ubuntu .deb package). On the same list I will announce version upgrades, security news, recommendations and the rest of the info reserved to maintainers.

Get back to the sshguard homepage.