[Mageia-dev] Mirror layout, round two

[Maarten Vanraes]

Op zaterdag 27 november 2010 18:11:36 schreef Jerome Quelin:
> On 10/11/27 17:59 +0100, Maarten Vanraes wrote:
> > i agree, the less repositories the easier it'll be.
> > 
> > however, core is for all the "maintained" packages, extra is for the
> > unmaintained packages that build ok.
> 
> what is a "maintained" package? no maintainer, no commits since x
> months, not buildable? what if we move to packages being maintained by
> foopkg at packages.mageia.org aliases?
> 
> what are the rules to move a package from extra to core, and vice-versa?
> who can do it? will it be done automatically? will this imply a rebuild
> for the package?
> 
> what are the dependency rules? can a core package depend on an extra
> package? or with a buildrequires?
> 
> and, more importantly: what is the advantage? that is, what does that
> bring you, except more admin?
> 
> 
> sorry, consider me not impressed by this idea. or maybe it's just that i
> failed to see the benefits. please enlighten me.
> 
> jérôme


you pose good questions.

a maintained package is a package that has (at least one) maintainer. i would 
propose making the maintainer structure more efficient and not like mandriva; if 
someone stops being a maintainer, he (or someone else) should drop his 
package(s).

some packages don't require much maintenance.

I would say that extra is not essential for mirrors to have; so if it's a 
package that is essential, it's better to find someone who can maintain it. if 
not; we should drop it into extra (i would say, before cauldron freeze time) 
and all packages it depends on. IMHO.

the advantage could be that mirrors don't need to mirror those packages. 
(extra will be like the unmaintained contrib from mdv) i foresee too that at 
least in the beginning, this 'll be bigger than core.

which brings us to another advantage: the hdlists; those are huge enough as it 
is. and extra will very likely not be changed much.

these are my thoughts.

(PS: since imo only core is required, no core package can have any dependency 
on any other repository)