Getting Software Added to Unix Distributions?

suso asks: "I've been working on a set of programs called num-utils that I would eventually like to be considered for inclusion in some of the many free Un*x distributions (on the install CDs, etc). So my question is, how does one put their applications on the track to be included in the main distribution of Red Hat, Debian, SuSE, *BSD, and so on? Is this just something that is up to the maintainers or are there submission forms of some kind?"

Comments

Make noiseb about it

[makapuf]

Not to sound flamebait, but you're quite right in doing it : giving it the maximum visibility (for example by posting a link to it on a popular news discussion site) will make a few people notice it exists.

Now, the main question is does it do ogg ?

unique?

[battjt]

Your commands are already installed on my system, or aren't needed.

average
awk '{sum+=$1}END{print sum/NR}'
bound
awk 'NR==1{min=$1}{max=$1>max?$1:max;min=$1 < min?$1:min}END{print min,max}'
interval
awk '{print $1-last; last=$1}'
numgrep ( 500 < x < 1000 or x is a multiple of 3)
awk '$1 < 1000 && $1>500 || $1%3 == 0 {print $1}'
numproc
awk '{print $1 [[your math expression expressed in standard infix notation]]}'
numsum
awk '{sum += $1}END{print sum}'
random
awk supports rand(), bash has $RANDOM, Linux has /proc/random for a stream of random data. Any range can be chosen using 'numproc', for instance /1..10/ is 'rand() * 10 + 1'
range
Why are you ever instantiatin ranges? It wastes space. Ranges should be abstractly manipulated.
round(floor)
awk '{print int($1)}'
round(nearest n)
awk '{print int($1/n)*n}'

These commands are easy to use and have a transparency that makes it very clear what the bugs would be, where as num-utils has warnings like

round will drop off the decimal places in decimal numbers. This may cause some calculations to be in error, depending on how you are using the data.

that make me wonder what round does if it has problems with decimal numbers.

Joe