[gentoo-dev] proposed solution to arches/stable problem

[Aron Griffis]

Hi guys,

I've read through most of these arches vs. maintainers threads.  It
sounds like Carsten hits the nail on the head with this paragraph:

    But isn't exactly this an issue? You don't know which arch the
    package maintainer is using and checking against a single arch
    doesn't work, because a maintainer could mark it stable on his
    arch for some reason before the package maintainer had done this?
    So the first arch maintainer goes ahead, the next one thinks "oh,
    seems like the package maintainer marked it stable", gets bitten
    and the package maintainer has to resolve resulting problems
    (possibly including blame by users)?

So let's use one more KEYWORD: stable.  This KEYWORD would be set by
the package maintainer to indicate her impression of what versions
should be considered stable.  This would have the following effects:

    1. Repoman could check keyword changes, warning arch maintainers
       when they mark a version arch-stable that is not marked stable
       by the maintainer.

    2. Bugs can be assigned appropriately: 

        stable            -- assign maintainer, cc arch team
        not stable, arch  -- assign arch team, cc maintainer
        not stable, ~arch -- assign maintainer, cc arch team

This makes it clear that arches that choose to move ahead of the
maintainer get to deal with the bugs until the maintainer "catches
up".

Thoughts?

Regards,
Aron

--
Aron Griffis
Gentoo Linux Developer