[gentoo-portage-dev] a feature called "stabilize" wanted

[Johannes Kellner]

Hello List ans anyone!

I'm searching for a feature or an hint how and where to implement it.

The desired feature could be called "stabilize" or "update to stable"
and would change the selected packages when doing an update (emerge
-avuND world).
Just to give you an initial idea/example, some packages:
package A - (the old_stable) has: 3.0 3.4 3.8 ~3.9
package B - (the young_stable) has: ~1.3 ~1.4 ~1.6
package C - (the unstable) has: ~0.6 ~0.8 ~1.1
So version numbers with the ~ are unstable/~amd64, where numbers without
are stable/amd64.

Case 1 (amd64): using system wide only stable/amd64
Installing anything would result in A@3.8 and C,B not installed

Case 2 (~amd64): using system wide the unstable/~amd64 keyword
Installing anything would result in A@~3.9 B@~1.6 C@~1.1

Case 3 ("real world"): get it managed with masks and keywords that the
major packages are stable, while new features could arrive
Installing anything with the result A@3.8 B@~1.6 C@~1.1

Nothing new so far, now new package versions arrive:
package A - (the old_stable) has: 3.0 3.4 3.8 ~3.9 NEW: 4.0 ~4.1
package B - (the young_stable) has: ~1.3 ~1.4 ~1.6 NEW: 1.8 ~1.9
package C - (the unstable) has: ~0.6 ~0.8 ~1.1 NEW: ~1.2 ~1.4

So if we now update (emerge -avuND) right now the results are:
Case 1 (amd64): Update A@3.8 to 4.0, B,C not installed
Case 2 (~amd64): Update A@~3.9 to ~4.1, B@~1.6 to ~1.9, C@~1.1 to ~1.4
Case 3 ("real world"): depends on the new set of masks and keywords...
much work ahead

What I search is the stabilize feature for the update e.g. (emerge
-avusND) should result in:
Case 1 (amd64):
  - update A@3.8 to A@4.0, because a new stable version updates the old
stable version
  - B, C not installed

Case 2 (~amd64):
  - update A@~3.9 to A@4.0 update unstable packages to the stable
version when arrived, stop using unstable.
  - update B@~1.6 to B@1.8 update unstable packages to the stable
version when arrived, stop using unstable.
  - update C@~1.1 to C~1.4 update unstable packages, the never unstable
versions.

Case 3 ("real world"):
  - update A@3.8 to A@4.0 update stable package to newer stable version
when arrived.
  - update B@~1.6 to B@1.8 update unstable packages to the stable
version when arrived, stop using unstable.
  - update C@~1.1 to C~1.4 update unstable packages, the never unstable
versions.
  Optional: make is possible to ignore/filter/select the unstable to
unstable updates, those might cause trouble.


Anyone, could help me? Give me a hint if this would be possible? Any
hints where in code this could be implemented? I'm programmer,
professional, so if I get the right hints, will invest spare time in
this. Also I'll ready to setup and run various tests. But I never before
worked at portage...
It might be a good start if the people with the Know-How, will start a
discussing about this idea, what problems need to be solved, which code
parts will need an update and so one. Than I could try to get it
working, but right now, I doesn't even know the right questions.

Best regards,
- Johannes Kellner

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Johannes Kellner
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