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On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:33:35 -0400 |
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Mark Loeser <halcy0n@g.o> wrote: |
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> I'd say this isn't correct. Unstable isn't a pure testing playground. |
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> its meant for packages that should be considered for stable. |
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I happen to disagree. Since the advent of outside overlays and layman, |
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we've seen many more bugs that only got discovered when the tree was |
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synced with some developer overlay, or when a Great Unveiling was done |
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after limited, private, small scale testing (as with many GNOME and KDE |
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releases, not to point the finger). |
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Keeping things out of the tree because they are "not ready for general |
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consumption", or indeed masking versions "for testing", are good ways |
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to ensure you get no widespread testing at all and find bugs at a late |
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stage, worst case being during or after stabilisation. When the |
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stable/testing mechanism works well, then all non-upstream bugs will be |
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discovered before stabilisation, and some can even be fixed while |
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stabilisation continues. |
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Maintainers should know what versions never to request stabilisation |
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for, otherwise users who expect things to more or less just |
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work get exposed to buggy upstream releases. |
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On the other hand, careful users should know to cherry-pick specific |
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versions to unmask through package.unmask and package.keywords instead |
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of using ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="arch ~arch" as a blanket measure to get the |
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latest versions, otherwise they will regularly see data loss, |
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misconfiguration, and programs that do not work at all, because: |
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Testing means that you are prepared to find and deal with bugs that |
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have not been fixed yet because they have not been found yet. |
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I've been working on Gentoo for nearly 4 years now to hold up that vital |
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distinction between testing (~hppa) and stable (hppa), and what you |
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propose here has proven unworkable in that practice and as a general |
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attitude is quite unusual. |
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Regards, |
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jer |