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

[Sander Lepik]

09.06.2012 13:29, andre999 kirjutas:
> OK.  To backport from Cauldron to mga1, we have to backport from Cauldron to mga2,
> (bumping the revision in cauldron to ensure that is is higher), then backport from mga2 to
> mga1, ensuring that the revision is lower in mga1 than in mga2.    (e.g. revision x.1 in
> cauldron, x.0.1 in mga2, x.0.0.1 in mga1)  Pretty straight forward.
>
> - Cherry-picking refers to the users' option to install a backport, which has nothing to
> do with the packaging itself.
>
> - Ensure that upgrades never fail :  Properly packaged, there is no reason why any
> available backports will not install properly, as long as the tools are appropriately
> adjusted.  Backports should install just as reliably as regular updates.
> Of course, if a particular backport or update is not available, it won't install. 
> Packages requiring it should not install either, which may not always be the case now. 
> (This should be verified - for backports and updates.)
I see backports as the way to get some new stuff from cauldron before cauldron is fully
stable. There is no point to backport from cauldron to n-2 (mga1 at the moment). If the user
wants so much newer stuff s/he better upgrade to latest stable.

To not fail upgrade you must make sure that n-1 backports are not newer than n +n's updates.
You can't enable backports repo at upgrade time or it would upgrade all possible packages
from backports repo. I'm quite sure most users don't want that to happen! Cherry-picking for
me means that i can upgrade some packages from backports and then disable the repo. After
that i'm still able to upgrade to fully stable next release (w/o backports).

--
Sander