[Mageia-dev] Proposal of a backporting process

[Michael Scherer]

Le vendredi 24 juin 2011 à 22:39 +0300, Ahmad Samir a écrit :
> On 24 June 2011 02:09, Michael Scherer <misc at zarb.org> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > as said in the thread of firefox 5, and in the meeting of packager
> > sooner this week, this is the first mail about backports ( on 3 ).
> >
> > So here is the proposal of a process, based on the feedback of people,
> > and the idea of some packagers ( mainly stormi ).
> >
> >
> > - Someone request a backport ( by bugzilla, by madb, by a email, by
> > taking a packager family in hostage, whatever ). I would prefer use
> > bugzilla but this may not be very user friendly, or too heavy.
> >
> 
> Would you elaborate on how bugzilla is heavy for a backports request?

It requires a more formal process, requires to fill a proper bug ( thus
either requesting more experience, or more work from triaging ). 

While bugzilla would work, I think we could have a more streamlined and
direct way of requesting backport. Maybe a custom template in bugzilla
would do the trick.

> > - based on feedback ( ie if the package work or if the packager is
> > confident ), the packager decide to move it to backport for everybody,
> > using some stuff similar to rpmctl ( the tool we used to move package at
> > Mandriva ). The tool would also send notifications.
> >
> 
> The packager decides to move it and he has the necessary privileges to
> do so? or will he have to request someone from another team to move
> it?

The packager decide to move.

> > This way :
> > - packages are not sent untested, thus raising confidence in backports
> 
> How many times did backports breaks a user's whole installation? 

Not often. But the issue is not if the system is broken beyond repair,
as it didn't happen, and would surely not happen with the proposed
policy. But even if system work, people will perceive backport has being
unreliable if some of them do not work. 


> we
> always say that backports should mainly be cherry picked, but not
> enabled all the time... so how does installing a new version of e.g.
> wine break the user's system when he can easily back out that rpm?

I a not sure that most people realize they can revert. Maybe a easier
interface to do that could be offered ( along maybe with a tool that
send feedback on why it did downgrade it ? ).
-- 
Michael Scherer