[Mageia-dev] please stop doing "bugs" for updating magia 1

[Florian Hubold]

Am 12.01.2012 19:01, schrieb Christian Lohmaier:
> Hi Juan Luis,
>
> On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 10:09 PM, Juan Luis Baptiste <juancho at mageia.org> wrote:
>> [..]
>> As I said, no one is talking about picking up a fix if there's a bug
>> fix only release, it's for when it isn't and we need to reduce the
>> chance of regressions by taking the modifications that *exactly* fix
>> that bug.
> I strongly disagree. The policy is stating the exact opposite. And
> also Michael seems to defend the policy as it is written, and not your
> interpretation here.
>
> That again you might have a different understanding of
> bugfix-only-release. I think I stated mine often enough (increase in
> micro version when package follows major.minor.micro versioning scheme
> and no new features are introduced in micro releases).
>
> So please change the wording of the update policy accordingly
> https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Updates_policy reads:
> ##########
> For the most part, an update should consist of a patched build of the
> same version of the package released with the distribution, with a few
> exceptions:
>
> * Software versions that are no longer supported upstream with updates
> (firefox and thunderbird seem to fall into this category these days)
> * Software that is version-bound to an online service (games, virus
> scanners?) and will only work with the latest version.
> * We will make exceptions for packages that did not make it into mga1
> and are additions to the distribution, provided they do not impact any
> other packages and can pass full QA.
>
> Updates are not the appropriate place for packages created to satisfy
> certain user's urges for "the latest". These types of builds belong in
> backports.
> ##########
> I read it as "no version bumb is allowed (except for the three
> exception-cases listed) - bugs are only fixed using patches", and I
> don't see the interpretational freedom to allow upstream's bugfix
> releases. Updating from 1.3.2 to 1.3.3 would not be in compliance with
> the policy (if not in one of the three exception cases) - this is what
> I have called stupid policy (and still do).
>
> ciao
> Christian
>
Actually you're right there, currently the only case where a bugfix-only update
would be allowed would be as an exception. And as those should be rare
(hence the term exception) i don't think that's the intent of the third point.

So as some already stated this, as it seems to be allowed to ship bugfix-only
releases as updates, where does the policy state that, and in the case
where it doesn't, shouldn't we extent the policy if that is considered good
practice?


PS: Maybe next time you could improve on your wording, the policy may
currently be incorrect, not reflecting good packaging practices, but as it's
only a policy written by humans, it's not dumb. Just a hint. ;)