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[Feature] Add support for maintainer scripts

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Metadata

Project
debcraft
Number
#145
Type
issue
State
open
Author
hector-cao
Labels
—
Created
Updated
Closed
—

Current evaluation

Feature request to let developers declare Debian maintainer scripts (postinst, prerm, postrm) and allow helpers to inject content into them. Valid and unimplemented; no maintainer response yet.

Suggested action: needs triage

Reason: The feature is genuinely absent: a codebase-wide search for 'postinst|maintainer_script|prerm|postrm' returned no matches, and a commit-message search for 'maintainer scripts' found no commits, so it cannot be closed as resolved. It is a legitimate capability gap — package.py runs a fixed helper pipeline (compress, fixperms, md5sums, makeshlibs, shlibdeps, gencontrol, makedeb) that has no mechanism for injecting DEBIAN/ control scripts, and gencontrol only emits 'control'. Impact is moderate rather than critical since it unlocks a very common Debian packaging feature without being app-breaking, and it fits the repo's demonstrated pattern of incremental helper additions. Actionability is capped at ~52 because the request gives no concrete API, syntax, or acceptance criteria, and the 'helpers inject contents' requirement is explicitly left to future design ('various current and future helpers'), which needs maintainer input before development.

Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot

Impact: 48 Quick Win: 15 Complexity: 40 Confidence: 82 Actionability: 52

Issue body

A compliant debian binary package can have maintainer scripts (postinst, postrm, prerm, postrm) that are executed by the package management tool. https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-maintainerscripts.html#package-maintainer-scripts-and-installation-procedure These scripts are very common in Debian Packages and primordial for them to be properly managed in the Ubuntu distro. debcraft should be able to allow: - developers to write the contents of these scripts - allow various current and future helpers to inject contents to these scripts to lower the developers burden.

Evaluation history

Date Model Scores Action Summary
stealth/space-bunny-alpha
Impact: 48
Quick Win: 15
Complexity: 40
Confidence: 82
Actionability: 52
needs triage Feature request to let developers declare Debian maintainer scripts (postinst, prerm, postrm) and allow helpers to inject content into them. Valid and unimplemented; no maintainer response yet.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Impact: 65
Quick Win: 14
Complexity: 65
Confidence: 75
Actionability: 60
needs triage Feature request to add Debian maintainer script support (postinst, postrm, prerm) to debcraft. Currently unimplemented and untriaged.
qwen/qwen3.8-27b
Impact: 65
Quick Win: 29
Staleness: 55
Complexity: 55
Confidence: 75
Support Request: 10
needs triage Feature request to add support for Debian maintainer scripts (postinst, postrm, prerm, preinst) in debcraft, allowing developers to define script contents and enabling helpers to inject content. No maintainer response or labels yet.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 55
Complexity: 45
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
needs triage Feature request to add Debian maintainer script support to debcraft. Unlabelled, no maintainer response, and inactive for 85 days.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 50
Complexity: 55
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 5
needs triage Feature request to add Debian maintainer script support to debcraft. Unlabelled, zero comments, and no maintainer engagement after 72 days. Requires initial triage and prioritization.

Update history

No update history recorded yet.

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