[Mageia-dev] The «task-obsolete» debate [Was: Package drop request: ruby-ParseTree]

Tue Dec 18 20:58:07 CET 2012

On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 03:29:11AM +0100, Johnny A. Solbu wrote:
+> Another thing is that some pakcages listed in task-obsolete clearly doesn't belong there.
+> I took a quick glance on the spec file for task-obsolete. and I notice that some of the packages listed should be listed in the packages that replace them.
+> One example is «policykit» where the comment says is replaced by «polkit». I've read in other mails on this list that in situations where a package is replaced by a package with another name, the new package should obsolete the old one.
+> 
+I’m not so sure about that. The problem with obsoletes is that once you
+put it in the spec you can’t remove it until the last supported release
+that included the old package is eol’d (and assuming one doesn’t upgrade
+from a very old release straight to the last one).
+
+The consequence of this is that over time spec files tend to carry a lot
+of history which kind of gets in the way. Having a task-obsolete is a
+nice way to tidy specfiles and have all that garbage in only one can.
+
+It can also help automating cleanup, because there’s only one spec file
+to update once a distribution gets eol’d. With obsoletes in each spec
+file we tend to forget these obsoletes are obsolete themselves and carry
+useless instructions.
+
+Of course it means more work first because you have 2 packages to modify
+and submit, but in the long run I think it can help keeping the specs
+clear, and I hope the intent of this package was this.
+
+I may be wrong, but if you agree with that, a nice addition would be to
+add a convention, no wait, a policy to tell how to add a package to
+task-obsolete like adding a comment before with a timestamp or a
+distribution release number so that it can effectively be cleaned.
+
+Regards,
+-- 
+Rémy CLOUARD
+() ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail
+/\ www.asciiribbon.org - against proprietary attachments
+