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

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:05:34 +0200
Buchan Milne <bgmilne at zarb.org> wrote:
> 
> An approach that doens't include a bug filed with the distribution means the 
> user doesn't really seem interested in receiving an update from the 
> distribution.

Do note there are bugs that may go unnoticed by the user even though
they are affected (for example if they have to do with resource
consumption or subtle data corruption or other reliability stuff).

> If you just want every new piece of software as soon as possible, you should 
> run Cauldron.

Obviously, that's not what I want.

> 1)Why users who are not affected by some obscure bug (e.g. typo in a man page 
> they will never read) should be forced to download unnecessary packages (at 
> high cost in some cases)

This is already the case. Regularly Mageia suggests me updates that I
have not asked for since I have not filed a bug for them (and may not
even be affected).

Besides, your example is silly: I don't know of a software project that
makes new releases only to fix typos in man pages. Bugfix releases *do*
contain worthwhile fixes.

> 2)How you will identify all upstreams which have a good history of bugfix-only 
> releases, and how you will automate the selection of these packages to go to 
> updates, and how you will streamline this process through QA.

Each packager can decide if their upstream package is well-behaved or
not. Of course, better be conservative and not package bugfix releases
if you aren't totally confident. Still, some upstream teams *are*
well-behaved.

> Anyway, you seem to be of the assumption that all the contributors to the 
> distribution you are using have so much more time on their hands than you do, 
> while in actual fact I believe almost all contributors are *very* contstrained 
> on time.

Relying on upstream for bug fixes may actually free some of the time
spent doing custom patching and testing. But I agree volunteer time is a
big blocker in most open source projects.

> If you don't think it is worth your time to help out, why should we 
> waste time (which could be used to ensure the next release has all bugfixes) 
> on new bugfix releases we don't need?

Usually bugs are fixed for a reason (i.e. they affect someone
somewhere). Why you think people don't need bug fixes is beyond me:
Mageia users aren't, presumably, more stupid / more careless than users
of other distributions.

Regards

Antoine.