Re: [gentoo-dev] RFC: isodate for packages.mask starting on 2019-07-01

[Michał Górny]

On Sat, 2019-06-29 at 13:23 +0200, Jonas Stein wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Situation:
> We have different date formats in packages.mask.
>
>
> Change:
> I suggest that we start using the date format yyyy-mm-dd
> for all dates in packages.mask
> starting with 2019-07-01
>
> The following changes in packages.mask will introduce the date format,
> specify the timezone, and use Larry as example user.
>
> 3,6c3,6
> < # When you add an entry to the top of this file, add your name, the
> date, and
> < # an explanation of why something is getting masked. Please be extremely
> < # careful not to commit atoms that are not valid, as it can cause
> large-scale
> < # breakage, especially if it ends up in the daily snapshot.
> ---
> > # When you add an entry to the top of this file, add your name, the date
> > # in the UTC timezone, and an explanation of why something is getting
> masked.
> > # Please be extremely careful not to commit atoms that are not valid,
> as it can
> > # cause large-scale breakage, especially if it ends up in the daily
> snapshot.
> 10c10
> < ## # Dev E. Loper <developer@g.o> (28 Jun 2012)
> ---
> > ## # Larry the cow <larry@g.o> (2019-07-01)
> 24,26c24,26
> < ## # Dev E. Loper <developer@g.o> (23 May 2015)
> < ## # Masked for removal in 30 days.  Doesn't work
> < ## # with new libfoo. Upstream dead, gtk-1, smells
> ---
> > ## # Larry the cow <larry@g.o> (2019-07-01)
> > ## # Masked for removal after 2019-08-01.
> > ## # Doesn't work with new libfoo. Upstream dead, gtk-1, smells
>
> Reason:
> * Larry is the Gentoo Example

This is not a problem at the moment but I suppose we might have a future
developer called 'larry'.  It would be silly to block someone from using
that nickname.  OTOH, 'developer' is rather clearly a replace-me.  You
could also use example@.

> * 2019-01-01 + 30 days is unclear, if we do not use UTC time

I don't see how '30 days' vs absolute date makes any difference
regarding 'UTC time'.  Sure, some people take it as literal 30 days,
some take it as 'month + 1' but that's not a major problem.

That said, I agree with the change, just not with the justification.

> * The new date format is easy to read and write and easy to parse
> internationally.

Sure, ISO 8601 for dates is good.

>
> Do you have any objections?
>
>
> By the way, you can get a formatted string of now in UTC with:
> date -u +"%Y-%m-%d"
>

-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny