Re: [gentoo-dev] guidline to set a timeline of removal of ebuild from stable tree

[Luca Barbato <lu_zero@gentoo.org>]

Richard Freeman wrote:
> Can you clarify this?  What scenarios do you run into where it isn't
> good for stable users to have access to more than one version of the
> software?

- Security issues.

- "Downgrade to hell" scenarios

- Other colorful issues that may happen from time to time.

> 
> One thing that I noticed is that in many cases there are multiple
> testing versions of a package available, and one stable version.  So, if
> you run unstable you can pick and choose, but if you're running stable
> (which in theory should be the target audience gentoo aims for) then you
> get your choice of only one.

The stable one is supposed to be the best available, the ~ ones are
supposed to be "in flux"

> 
> I tend to think that unless something unusual is going on that old
> packages should be kept around for a while (a few weeks at least).

Happens more than often =)

> Others have pointed out that inflexible rules aren't always the answer.
>  I'd agree in general, but there should be guidelines.  Maybe certain
> packages shouldn't have multiple stable versions to choose from.  But
> when "certain packages" becomes 80% of them then I'd wonder if there
> really is a good reason for this...

Keep in mind that the trade off is :

- our time
- our sanity
- what provide to our used
- the quality of what we provide to out users.

We all try our best to not burn out while serving you the best we could
think.

lu

-- 

Luca Barbato

Gentoo/linux Gentoo/PPC
http://dev.gentoo.org/~lu_zero

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