[Mageia-dev] Missing packages in Mageia 1. How to backport? (was: Finalizing update process)

Fri Jun 10 18:34:08 CEST 2011

On 10 June 2011 13:44, Wolfgang Bornath <molch.b at googlemail.com> wrote:
+> 2011/6/10 Michael Scherer <misc at zarb.org>:
+>>
+>> We have used backports in the past for that, and I see no reason to
+>> change that.
+>>
+>> If the problem is that backports were too buggy in the past, then we
+>> should fix backports process, not bypassing them.
+>>
+>> And if we start by pushing new version in update, people will soon
+>> wonder why the new version of X is in updates, while the new version of
+>> Y is not, just because we didn't have X in release and Y was there.
+>
+> Problem I see:
+> So far (in Mandriva), example:  we have used 2010.0/main/backports to
+> offer new versions of software which had an older version in 2010/main
+> but the newer version in 2010.1/main, or as the name says: backporting
+> a newer version of a software from the current release to a previous
+> release, as often used for Firefox.
+>
+
+Firefox should always go to /updates, not backports, usually it has
+many sec fixed, so firefox and thunderbird are special cases.
+
+> For Mageia it means, /backports should hold backports of software
+> which has an older version in 1/core but a newer version in cauldron.
+> If we put new software (aka missing packages) in /backports and the
+> user activates /backports he also runs the risk that existing packages
+> of his stable installation will be replaced by real backports of newer
+> versions, backported from Cauldron - which he may not want to do.
+>
+
+Then he shouldn't use backports; but the point is if a totally new
+package, to Mageia 1, that never existed in core, is in backports, the
+user shouldn't see any regression with regard to that package as his
+experience with it before using backports is null, it didn't exist.
+
+> I wonder why we do not put these "missing packages" in /testing and
+> after a while in /core or /non-free or /tainted (wherever they
+> belong). These packages are software which were supposed to be in
+> /core or /non-free or /tainted, they were just forgotten|came too
+> late|whatever for Mageia 1 release freeze.
+>
+
+There will always be late packages, always. One example is a new
+version of foo that was released two days before Mageia's release, it
+won't be submitted through freeze, but will go to backports.
+
+IMHO, backports is way to offer "late" packages to user, whether
+they're new packages or newer versions of packages in
+core/nonfree/tainted, instead of the user installing them from 3rd
+party repos or having to build them himself (not all users are savvy
+with [re]building src.rpm's).
+
+> --
+> wobo
+>
+
+
+
+-- 
+Ahmad Samir
+