Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Jason Stubbs <jstubbs@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Changelogs
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:00:28
Message-Id: 200507282258.41763.jstubbs@gentoo.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] Changelogs by Alec Warner
1 On Thursday 28 July 2005 09:02, Alec Warner wrote:
2 > In hindsight, arguing over almost two different things. We both agree
3 > that upgrade paths for changes that break the system are good, and that
4 > information regarding the upgrade path *SHOULD* be provided in some
5 > manner. Some developers think that providing detailed instructions in
6 > pkg_postinst() is good, others will direct you to a website ( usually
7 > UPSTREAM's webpage ) which has the instructions; it saves them time.
8 > Which is correct, or are both?
9
10 Both are correct. Some developers are willing to put the effort into getting
11 upgrade info immediately before the user and some are happy with the user
12 putting 50% of the effort. Either is fine, but you're also missing major
13 changes that happen in ebuilds themselves.
14
15 The real point, though, is that there should be a consistent way for this
16 information to be delivered to users. Whether is be via ChangeLog,
17 metadata.xml or pkg_warn(), the requirement is that developers are able
18 to provide as little or much information as they want in such a way that
19 users get easy access to it.
20
21 > In the former case where more specific information is provided to the
22 > user by portage you generally want a more complex system. You want the
23 >
24 > "<warn from="2.6.4:2[baduse]" to="2.7[-baduse]">You enabled baduse?
25 > Removing it will rm -rf /!</warn>" syntax ( from our conversation last
26 > night ) which is decidedly more complex to write and more complex to parse,
27 >
28 > Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I doubt it will get used by enough
29 > people to be useful.
30
31 I never said I wanted that. I just used it to illustrate how it could be
32 easily handled in metadata.xml rather than pkg_warn() if necessary. Nor
33 is it complex to write or parse. My heart is not set on the above in any way
34 whatsoever, though.
35
36 I think you might be jumping to a solution without fully considering the
37 problem. On the whole, this is a relatively small problem anyway, so
38 an immediate solution is not really necessary.
39
40 --
41 Jason Stubbs