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

[Wolfgang Bornath]

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.

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.

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.

-- 
wobo