On 26 January 2016 at 17:34, H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d@puremagic.com> wrote:

On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 03:07:25PM +0000, Martin Tschierschke via Digitalmars-d wrote:
[...]
> I think probably the best would be if "sudo apt-get install dmd/dub",
> out of the box would deliver, without the need to use an external
> repository which, is not included as default in Debian/Ubuntu.
>
> Does anybody know how to form a "petition" for getting the always
> latest stable releases of D included in Debian (=>Ubuntu)?
[...]

Unfortunately dmd will never be part of Debian's main repository,
because the backend has an incompatible license.

However, gdc, a gcc-based D compiler that uses the same frontend as dmd,
is already in Debian, and probably has propagated to Ubuntu by now
(apt-get install gdc). I regularly use gdc when I need the best
performance (the gcc backend has superior optimizing capabilities
compared to dmd). The only disadvantage is that it's a release or two
behind dmd, due to the mismatch between the gcc release schedule and the
dmd release schedule, so it will be a slightly older version of D. For
the most part, that shouldn't be a problem, unless you absolutely need
to use the latest and greatest features.

As for including dub in Debian, somebody just has to do the packaging,
and we could file an ITA and upload the package to Debian.

Both myself and the GCC maintainers are keen on this.  We have a D compiler, but only a handful of (obsolete) software that uses it.

I have source packages for dub, dustmite, digger and dscanner.  I probably need a couple of things to do with them first.

1. Confirm licensing with authors (Debian policy requires that all sources and documentation distributed are covered by a license IIRC).

2. Peer review

3. Submit to Debian/Ubuntu.