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On Sat, Nov 05, 2005 at 12:58:14AM +0000, Ciaran McCreesh wrote: |
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> Lightweight |
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> It is not reasonable to expect all users to have an MTA, web browser, email |
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> client, cron daemon or text processing suite available on their system. |
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> |
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<snip> |
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|
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> Multiple delivery method support |
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> Some users may wish to view news items via email, some via a terminal and |
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> some via a web browser. A solution should either support all of these |
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> methods or (better still) make it trivial to write clients for displaying |
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> news items in different ways. |
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|
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Drop the lightweight bit and merge it into multiple delivery. You're |
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after lightweight _default_, which is fine, but the phrasing is a bit |
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screwed. |
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|
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> Quality control |
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> There should be some way to ensure that badly written or irrelevant messages |
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> are not sent out, for example by inexperienced developers, those whose |
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> English language skills are below par or morons. |
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|
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While it may be fun getting a reaction out of people, nuke the nitro |
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laced words please. Same for the forums_whining ref (there's enough |
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contention over the glep already ;) |
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|
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|
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> News items are published and delivered to users as follows: |
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<snip> |
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> 6. Portage filters the news item and, if it is relevant, installs it in a |
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> special location to be read by a news item reader. Messages are also |
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> displayed to inform the user that news is available. |
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|
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Out of curiousity, how are you planning on having 101 general notices |
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reigned down on a users head during an initial install? Yes, you have |
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the atom filter, but what about general notices? |
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|
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Further, how are notices going to apply to users who don't have the |
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package installed, then go and merge it? Your statement above implies |
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the irrevalent (at the time of sync) notices are ignored, which breaks |
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down under the scenario where a news item is pushed out that apache |
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configuration is going to change, I merge old style apache after |
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sync'ing the news, portage (due to your news id cache) considers it |
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deleted, and doesn't display it. |
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|
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|
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> News Item File Format |
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> --------------------- |
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<snip> |
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> News items may be signed using GPG. If this is done, a detached signature should |
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> be used. |
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|
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I'd argue for must be, personally. A bogus news item claiming to be |
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from portage devs, telling users to change their SYNC setting could |
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cause massive mayhem. |
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|
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|
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> The following headers are used for filtering. If none of these headers are |
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> specified, the news item is displayed for all users. Otherwise, the news item is |
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> displayed if *at least one* header matches. |
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> |
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> ``Display-If-Installed:`` |
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> A dependency atom or simple package name (for example, |
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> ``<dev-lang/php-5_alpha`` or ``net-www/apache``). If the user has the |
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> package specified installed, the news item should be displayed. |
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|
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Still haven't address my point about |
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A) package moves combined with news entries |
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B) N packages |
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|
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Assume you mean that the bit above is a full DepSet, not a single atom |
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(if that's the case, clarify that N atoms are allowed). |
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|
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Should clarify USE conditionals are a no go- might be worth |
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considering the full atom syntax (despite the fact portage doesn't |
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currently support it for depends), use flags, slot, etc. |
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|
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Yes it's more work, but it should be spelled out from where I'm |
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sitting. |
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|
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> ``Display-If-Keyword:`` |
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> A keyword [#glep-22]_ name, for example ``mips``. If the user is on the arch |
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> in question, the news item should be displayed. |
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|
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N keywords == N Header entries? |
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|
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> There have been complaints regarding the comprehensibility of some upgrade |
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> notices and news items in the past. This is understandable -- not every Gentoo |
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> developer speaks English as a first language. However, for the sake of clarity |
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> and professionalism it is important that any language problems be corrected |
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> before inflicting a news item upon end users. |
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> |
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> Thus, all proposed news items must be posted to the ``gentoo-dev`` or |
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> ``gentoo-core`` mailing list |
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|
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No go on -core imo; it's a community/dev issue, should be visible to |
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the general public rather then hidden away in the ml we do our flaming |
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in. |
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|
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> Client Side |
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> ''''''''''' |
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> |
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> Whenever relevant unread news items are found, ``emerge`` will copy or symlink |
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> the news file into ``/var/lib/gentoo/news/``. |
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|
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Already pointed out that this won't fly looking forward, it implicitly |
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assumes a single repository. |
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|
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Need to allow for each repo to have their own news, preferably |
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seperated directory wise; either that or you're going to have to track |
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where a news item came from and mangle the new entry. |
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|
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> Notification that new relevant news items will be displayed via the |
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> ``emerge`` tool in a similar way to the existing "configuration files need |
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> updating" messages: |
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> |
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> :: |
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> |
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> * Important: 3 config files in /etc need updating. |
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> * Type emerge --help config to learn how to update config files. |
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> |
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> * Important: there are 5 unread news items. |
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> * Type emerge --help news to learn how to read news files. |
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> |
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> The unread news message will also be displayed immediately after an |
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> ``emerge sync``. |
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> |
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> Portage may also warn of unread news items using, for example, a red flashy |
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> before actions such as merging a package. |
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|
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Nuke flashy (any phrasing that allows for blinking crap sliding into portage I |
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instinctively dislike). |
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|
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> Portage must keep track of news items which have already been installed to avoid |
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> repeatedly reinstalling a deleted news item. |
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|
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Track it how, via the directory, or a secondary list? |
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Wording implies portage is going to have to maintain it's own newsid |
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list; if that's the case, explicitly state so, and keep it limited to |
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per repo (not global as the proposal seems to indicate). |
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|
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> News Item Removal |
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> ----------------- |
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> |
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> News items can be removed (by removing the news file from the main tree) when |
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> they are no longer relevant, if they are made obsolete by a future news item or |
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> after a long period of time. This is the same as the method used for ``updates`` |
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> entries. |
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|
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Might want to consider a maximum period of time for news entries to |
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linger by default; perhaps a header for controlling deletion (this is |
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would require commit access for whatever does the scans obviously). |
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|
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> Integration with Existing Systems |
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> ================================= |
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> |
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> It would be trivial to convert these news items into the format used for news |
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> items on the Gentoo website or posts for the ``gentoo-announce`` mailing list. |
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|
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Stop using trivial (no it's not in reference to above, just hit the |
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right word count where I'm whinging about it). |
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|
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|
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> Reference Implementation |
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> ======================== |
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> |
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> Portage Code |
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> ------------ |
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> |
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> TODO |
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|
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Points above regarding working sanely for N repos need be addressed, |
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plus any implementation needs to be integrated, not handing off to an |
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external tool (don't want 2 different implementations of atom |
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parsing). |
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|
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Personally... I still think package level news should not be treated |
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as repository level information. It makes any attempt at glep19 a bit |
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trickier and stores package data in two different locations. |
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So... reiterating jasons question, example where news items transcend |
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package specific? |
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~harring |