RE: [gentoo-dev] making %95 of users happy

["Todd Wright" <wylie@geekasylum.org>]

Gaarde wrote:

> Examples:
> Zope still using python 2.1 instead of 2.2...
> xcdroast using an older version of mkisofs... 
> qt, kde-libs, gnome-libs, etc all using older versions of libpng...
> 
> To me this is an issue with dependency calculations.  Gentoo will blindly
> update a package regardless of what other packages depend on it.  This
> solution works great for those who want to keep thier systems 
> bleeding edge. 
> However, some users are willing to make a sacrifice and go for 
> less-bleeding
> edge.  For those users, before mentioned pattern causes HUGH problems.
> 
> The fix?  In a word, sacrifice.  Give the user a choice.  Let the 
> user decide

<snip>

> example:  Upgrading to mkisofs 1.15a21 will break xcdroast
> 
> xcdroast needs mkisofs 1.15a20
> cdrecord needs mkisofs 1.15a21 (it doesn't but this is an example)


This is exactly what I am concerned about, and why I posted about "Tagging releases" - and presumably what started the "Gentoo Branches" thread. The example may not be good, but the idea holds.

Regardless of if you like branches or not, there needs to be a way to lock a collective group of packages at a particular level where they all co-exist nicely. This is normally known as a "stable" release.   The best and worst thing about Gentoo is that it is constantly changing - new ebuilds appearing all the time.  I emerge rsync to update my portage tree in the hope of finding a fix to a broken ebuild that I want, and suddenly Im faced with new versions of things I already nailed down.

Using the =category/package parameters isnt good enough. Often 2 versions of a library wont co-exist (out of the box) - one may overwrite another, but a new ebuild for package x might require the new library, while another package requires the old.

Someone in the development team needs to seriously think about this problem.

And to the person (Andrew I think) who quoted the following from the gentoo site as a reason for not having release branches...

"*Portage allows you to set up Gentoo Linux the way you like it*..."

It doesnt. Just when I get it how I like it, it changes.

-- _--_|\ --------- Todd Wright -- wylie@geekasylum.org --------
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