Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Maurice van der Pot <griffon26@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] [news-item] Paludis 0.24
Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 11:47:52
Message-Id: 20070505114454.GD23900@kfk4ever.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-dev] [news-item] Paludis 0.24 by "Piotr Jaroszyński"
1 It looks like it is not clear enough what kind of news should be called
2 critical.
3
4 If for instance an upgrade from package foo-3.4 to foo-4.0 will cause
5 the system to break unless specific steps are followed (mysql/gcc), it's
6 obvious that it's suitable for a news item.
7 If an upgrade from an ancient version foo-0.99 to version foo-7.3 causes
8 the system to break, it will not require a news item because it's common
9 sense that data formats may have changed dramatically.
10
11 Where do we draw the line on this? I'm not saying there should be a
12 mathematical formula that will tell you whether or not to create a news
13 item, but at least we all should have more or less the same idea about
14 it.
15
16 In the current situation an upgrade to paludis-0.24 will not break
17 anything right away. On the other hand, if someone sticks to an earlier
18 version and only upgrades after support for the old format has been
19 removed, he may (will?) have a problem.
20
21
22 Personally I feel we should send as few news items as possible. If we
23 send a lot of them, people will start ignoring them. Config file formats
24 change all the time and as long as there is a period of time where a
25 package supports both and warns about the old format being used, I would
26 not consider it worthy of a news item. If the application will just fail
27 to start with the old format and the required changes are trivial, don't
28 send a news item.
29
30 Regards,
31 Maurice.
32
33 --
34 Maurice van der Pot
35
36 Gentoo Linux Developer griffon26@g.o http://www.gentoo.org
37 Creator of BiteMe! griffon26@××××××××.com http://www.kfk4ever.com

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-dev] [news-item] Paludis 0.24 Ciaran McCreesh <ciaranm@×××××××.org>