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On Wed, 2006-04-26 at 14:24 -0400, Kevin wrote: |
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> And unless I'm way off-base, the version-difference-threshold notion |
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> described above is not implemented in portage now. Someone please |
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> correct me if I'm wrong. |
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|
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You're off-base. |
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|
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See, you can, for example, mask all revisions within the same version of |
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a package in your /etc/portage/package.mask file quite easily. So you |
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*could* have xemacs, using your own example, only ask to upgrade once |
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the stable version in the tree went over a certain threshold. |
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|
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> Well your comment is certainly true in the most extreme interpretation, |
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> but the same thing can be accurately said about whether or not one |
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> should assume that the sun is going to rise tomorrow or that the |
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> universe won't disappear in a quantum fluctuation while you're sleeping, |
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> but IMO, such extreme statements have little value in day-to-day |
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> application. Everyone must make some assumptions about nearly |
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> everything or it becomes nearly impossible to function. I make all |
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> kinds of assumptions in administering computers and they almost always |
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> make my life much, MUCH easier than it would be without the assumptions. |
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|
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I'm sorry, but do your friends call you Duncan? I'll leave it at that. |
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|
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> Sometimes they bite me, but only rarely. The key to success here is |
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> having the judgment to know what is relatively safe to make assumptions |
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> about and what is not. Judgment is something that only a human can |
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> provide... not a computer. This is why I want greater and more granular |
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> control over upgrading packages in Gentoo. Aside from the points you |
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> make above (and I may be missing some other features currently present |
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> in Gentoo), my choices now are, in the grossest terms: upgrade every |
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> package by hand, one at a time, while sitting in front of the computer |
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> (which is very close to what I spent last weekend doing) or do an emerge |
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> world and hope for the best. IMO, that's not much control and does not |
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> allow for the application of judgment except in the former option (which |
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> is very, very time consuming). |
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|
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You missed the ability to lock down to specific package versions, which |
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is already a 100% possibility with current portage. You can lock down |
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the versions to *anything that you want* via package.mask and |
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package.unmask, then simply have your system run an "emerge --update |
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--deep world" to automatically upgrade any and all packages not listed |
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in your mask files. |
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|
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> What I really want is to make the process of maintaining Gentoo boxes |
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> over the long term easier (IOW: less time-consuming) than is now true, |
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> by adding some functionality that AFAICT does not now exist which would |
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> allow me to automate some things, turn off automation of other things, |
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> and as the sysadmin, have control over what those things should be. In |
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> my mind at least, the central theme in Gentoo of choice dovetails nicely |
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> with what I'm trying to describe here: control and choice that is highly |
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> fine-tunable by the owner of the box in regards to package upgrades. |
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|
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Yup. It's called /etc/portage and we've had it for a while. You simply |
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seem to be missing its flexibility. |
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|
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> I'm not a member of the portage-devel mailing list so I'm going to drop |
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> this now. If someone here is a member of both, then please feel free to |
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> cross-post this thread to whatever forum is most appropriate for it. |
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> After spending 30-45 minutes trying to help improve Gentoo by posting a |
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> new (AFAICT) idea in bugzilla and again here, I feel like I've done |
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> enough. IMHO, this is an idea that would add great value to Gentoo and |
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> I can't help but think that many sysadmins who must maintain many boxes |
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> would agree, but I have no particular attachment to the idea that would |
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> make me want to go around every mailing list under the sun trumpeting my |
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> idea to anyone who will listen. I'm just posting an idea that seemed |
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> like a good one to me. The devs may take it or leave it as they see fit. |
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|
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Yep. It was such a good idea that the portage team implemented it quite |
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some time ago. *grin* |
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|
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-- |
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Chris Gianelloni |
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Release Engineering - Strategic Lead |
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x86 Architecture Team |
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Games - Developer |
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Gentoo Linux |