[Mageia-discuss] which version of a software in cauldron ?

Philippe DIDIER philippedidier at laposte.net
Sun Oct 24 15:11:29 CEST 2010


I want to point a little problem about the version of a FOO software 
included in the distribution :

two ways for cauldron

1 )  Use always the last  development release of FOO (beta or rc n+1)
(means several downloadings of sources from the svn or git of the
project, and several modifications of the spec file and patches)
a) advantages for the packager : you are always able to build the rpm by
adapting its spec file progressively, following the changes of the FOO
software

b) Problem for a tester of this FOO (n+1) software (I mean somebody
wanting to contribute to the FOO project) :  if you use cauldron to test
it, you may encounter bugs  and may not know if they belongs to cauldron
or to the FOO (beta n+1) software

c) Problem for the final user : when cauldron is frozen before the final
release of Mageia, it may be frozen with a beta release of this software
(n+1), still buggy ! and that's this buggy (beta or rc n+1) version
which will be provided with the final release of Mageia.

d) needs some acute attention from the packager : when a final release
of the FOO (n+1)program appears and is packaged in cauldron : he MUST
provide it in the updates repos of the last releases of Mageia (2011, 2012)


2) Use only the last stable version of FOO (n) in cauldron :
a) advantages for the packager : needs less frequent modifications of
the spec files and uses of the buildsystem

b) problem for the packager : needs a huge work in one time to adapt the
spec file from (n) version to (n+1)

c) Problem for the tester contributer of the FOO program : he can never
test the betas or release candidates with rpms from Mageia

d) advantages for the final user  : Mageia final release is always
providing a stable release of the FOO software

e) when a new stable version (n+1) of the FOO software appears, the
packager may provide it to cauldron and to the updates repos of the last
releases of Mageia (2011, 2012) in the same time BUT !!! these rpms
haven't been tested as well as in first case (NB I'm not talking only of
installing the packages but of the FOO program itself too, sometimes the
FOO program needs some little adaptations for a particular distribution,
and needs upstream feedback for this)




A testing repo for the release of Mageia (2011, 2012) should be useful !
but it can be understood in two different ways :

1 ) It provides the rpm of the new stable release of FOO (n+1) 
(published after the last version of Mageia 2012, and having yet been
built for cauldron) to test if the rpm is OK before providing it as an
update for Mageia (2011,2012) (eventually needing modifications of the
spec file or needing upstream bug corrections to adapt the software for
Mageia specificity)

or
2) It provides rpms of development versions (betas, rc) of FOO (n+1) to
test and contribute to FOO project on a stable basis from Mageia before
providing a rpm of the stable release of FOO (n+1) to updates repos and,
in a second time only, the devs will adapt the spec files to Cauldron
(the cauldron dev will not have to loose time with a buggy software !)


To illustrate what I mean :

An example with a software which has _always_ been _up to date in
cooker _   following each beta or rc release,  but unfortunately badly
affordable in Mandriva releases:

Mandrake 10.2 *hugin** 0.5-0.beta4.1* (not easy to use) BAD
Mandriva 2006 *hugin* *0.5-0.rc1* (freezes) BAD
0.5 final release was never provided as update for Mandriva BAD
Mandriva 2007.0 *hugin* *0.6.1* final release OK stable
Mandriva 2007.1 *hugin* *0.6.1* final release OK stable
Mandriva 2008.0 *hugin* *0.6.1* final release OK stable
Mandriva 2008.1 *hugin* *0.7-0beta4.1* BAD
Mandriva 2009.0 *hugin* *0.7.0-0rc6.1* BAD
*hugin* *0.7.0*  final stable release was  never provided as update nor
backport for Mandriva 2009.0 nor 2008.1 BAD
nor provided for Mandriva 2009.1 BAD :
Mandriva 2009.1 *hugin* *0.8.0-0.beta2.1* BAD
*hugin 0.8* final release was never provided as update nor backport to
2009.1 BAD
Mandriva 2010.0 *hugin  2009.2.0*  (new version numbering) OK stable
Mandriva 2010.1 *hugin* * 2009.4.0* _(quite_) OK stable
*hugin* * 2010.0.0* published before Mandriva 2010.1 appears was not
included in it nor provided as update nor backport for Mandriva
*hugin 2010.2.0* published  10 october 2010 is in cooker ....

*Please keep it and use it for Mageia*


Sidetalk : I tried to compile hugin 0.7.0 or 0.8.0 final release for
Mandriva 2008.1, it was not doable : from hugin 0.7.0 rc4 compiling
hugin needed cmake : cmake(2.4.8) was buggy , not able to find the
wxwidgets headers, and was never corrected nor updated for Mandriva
2008.1...
cmake had been updated for Mandriva 2009.0 but not backportable as it in
Mandriva 2008.1...
I had to use a srpm of cmake from fedora (2.6.2-3fc9) and could at least
do it for myself

For French readers it has already been discussed on Mandriva forum :
http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?t=114405&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=hugin
<http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?t=114405&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=hugin>


Hope this will help to think about repo trees !
Philippe





 


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