Re: [gentoo-dev] Stability and package mask

[Alain Penders]

On Sun, Mar 09, 2003 at 10:27:11AM -0800, Jim Nutt wrote:
> I noted in another message that the developers are looking for a way to
> get rid of package.mask in the 2.1 version of portage. I have an idea
> that might accomplish that, while still allowing the flexibility that
> Gentoo is prized for.
>
> Essentially, it would involve assigning each ebuild a numeric stability
> value. 10 would be the most stable, say equivalent to Debian stable, 5
> would be the equivalent of Debian testing and 0 (or lower) would be
> like Debian unstable. Each user would have a stability threshold set in
> their make.conf, packages with a lower stability number than the
> threshold would not be installed. This would allow each user to set
> their own comfort level.
>
> Every ebuild would start out at at 0 (really bleeding edge stuff
> might be negative!). Each  week (or some other period of time) the
> ebuild is released without a bug reported, it's stability rating is
> increased by one point, until it reaches 10. If a bug is filed against a
> package, it remains at the same stability level until all the bugs filed
> against it are closed or it is manually bumped.
>
> Does this make sense to anyone else?

This only works for moving ebuilds from ~arch (unstable) to arch (stable)
masking.  Several schemes similar to yours have been proposed in the past, and
so far I haven't seen any scheme that worked all the time.  In your proposed
scheme, it would take 10 weeks for a package to become "stable", which is too
long for some, and too short for others.   Add to that the threshold at which
a package is actually installed (by default, does it become mainstream when
it's 6 or 8 or...?), and you still create a critical point where all hell can
break loose... possibly several weeks after the creator released it and
forgot all about it.

package.mask is another issue entirely as it only contains packages that are
known to break system parts, and they won't be removed until those problems
are fixed.  (E.g. Berkeley DB 4.* is in package.mask because installing it
breaks several other packages.  Berkeley DB 4.x itself is stable.)

Alain

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