[Mageia-dev] Backports policy clarification (and discussion)

[andre999]

Sander Lepik a écrit :
> 08.06.2012 11:38, Samuel Verschelde kirjutas:
>    
>> I re-read the backports policy, and there's a part I think needs to be pointed
>> out before people start to backport packages.
>>
>> "We need to ensure that upgrades never fail: cauldron must always have a
>> higher version/release than in stable releases."
>>
>> This statement is true, but implies more than what it says. It means that we
>> can't backport a package for Mageia 1 with a higher version than what we have
>> in Mageia 2 release (and updates?) media. And this, until we are able to take
>> backports into account during upgrades.
>>
>> Example :
>> - Mageia 2 has wesnoth 1.10.2 in core/release
>> - Mageia 1 can't get a higher version in its backports media
>>
>> Do you all agree with my understanding of the policy ?
>>      

I see your point.
In most cases, a backport for mga1 would be essentially identical for 
mga2 (except package file name and corresponding changes in the spec file).
It would only differ if dependancies differ, which I suspect is unlikely 
for wesnoth or most other games, for example.
So this means that for a backport to mga1, we should first do one to mga2.
This would more than likely be done at the same time by the same 
packager, so not much more work.
The demand for backports to mga1 is not likely to be very high, and 
would depend on a willing packager.

>> This is a serious limitation to our ability to backport to Mageia (n-1) and
>> even to our ability to provide security fixes to backports there (will not
>> prevent it, but will prevent to do it by a version upgrade, which is the
>> common way to fix that kind of issue in backports).
>>      

If we already have a backport with versions in mga2 and mga1, applying 
security fixes to both would not likely be much more involved than only 
to mga2.  If it only applies to mga1, as long as the version is lower 
than that in mga2, we can always ensure that the version of the update 
remains lower.  Similarly for mga2 with respect to cauldron.

>> Maybe we shouldn't open backports for Mageia 1, and make sure upgrade to
>> Mageia 3 can take backports from Mageia 2 into account so that backports to
>> Mageia 2 are not stopped when Mageia 3 is released. Then we'll be safe.
>>      

Not to worry :)
>> Samuel
>>      
> I think backports should be open until new stable is released. So we should not open
> backports for mga1 and when mga2 is released then backports for mga2 will be closed.
> It's the only way we can manage upgrades with our current packager resources.
>    

A backport isn't going to happen without a packager willing to package 
it.  There is no point in arbitrarily blocking backports to supported 
releases for this reason.
Although I would agree that there is not likely to be many backports to 
mga1, because of this and the lower priority in QA, as well as the 
understanding that the user requesting the backport would be implicated 
in testing it.

> --
> Sander
>
>    
-- 
André