Help Out With Packages You Use in Debian
Many new and existing Debian users want to help make the distribution better but do not quite know where to begin. Debian comes with a very handy package called how-can-i-help which tells you after each aptinvocation the current bugs that are associated with packages on your system. The “Work-Needing and Perspective Packages” (WNPP) listing is a bit overwhelming for new contributors. What better way to figure out what packages need your help than by seeing a list of them each time you use apt.
The first time you run apt after installing this package it will likely spit out a long list of packages that need your help. Each subsequent time it will only show new packages or changes. In order to see the master list again you can use the how-can-i-help –old command to see all packages that need your help. I think this is a great way to get engaged with the software that you rely on each day.
Although getting started with Debian development is not trivial, this lowers the barrier a bit and provides some clear direction on what to work on since the list includes packages that you are using every day.
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- 2025 Reading Log
- 3 packs
- Growing the CircleCI Community with Discourse
- My Custom Miniflux CSS Theme
- Recreating Foreign Keys with Alembic
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- Grow, Like a Tree Not a Cancer from Jim Nielsen’s Blog
- Pluralistic: All the books I reviewed in 2025 (02 Dec 2025) from Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
- DEP-18: A proposal for Git-based collaboration in Debian from Optimized by Otto
- [RIDGELINE] No Phones in The Ten-don Shop from Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer
- My next chapter with Mastodon from Mastodon Blog
- How many pillars of observability can you fit on the head of a pin? from charity.wtf
- The Software Essays that Shaped Me from Refactoring English
- Give Your Spouse the Gift of a Couple's Email Domain from mtlynch.io
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
Come on John
For all I know, John O'Nolan is a cool dude. He’s the founder of Ghost, a project that is also really cool. You know what’s also cool? RSS. And guess what, John just announced he’s working on a new RSS app (Reader? Tool? Service?) called Alcov…
via Manuel Moreale — Everything Feed December 5, 2025Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI (05 Dec 2025)
Today's links The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI: My speech for U Washington's Neuroscience, AI and Society lecture series. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Pac Man ghost algorithms; The US wrote Spain's c…
via Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow December 5, 2025App Defaults - 2025
It’s that time of the year again: here’s my extended “frozen /uses page” for late 2025. Whenever multiple applications are listed, p marks private use, w marks software that I (have to) use at work. Changes compared to the previous year are highlighted usi…
via ttntm.me - Blog December 5, 2025Generated by openring