Re: [gentoo-dev] Testing is not a valid reason to package.mask

["Alec Warner" <antarus@gentoo.org>]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 5:06 AM, Thomas Sachau <tommy@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Alec Warner schrieb:
>> On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 8:16 PM, Jeroen Roovers <jer@gentoo.org> wrote:
>>> On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 04:23:33 +0200
>>> Dawid Węgliński <cla@gentoo.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don't think it's ok. ~arch isn't training ground. It's supposed to
>>>> work, so asking arch teams to keywords packages that are not supposed
>>>> to work isn't good.
>>> We have a "testing" branch and a "stable" branch, defined by the
>>> KEYWORDS variable in the ebuilds. Package.masking stuff saying you're
>>> "testing" is at the least uninformative and highly confusing and
>>> unfriendly to would-be testers when in the very same context this
>>> already means something different (namely, it's been too short a
>>> while, wait one or two months for this version to go stable, as the
>>> ~arch keywords would suggest).
>>
>> ~arch has always been for testing ebuilds; not packages.  You should
>> not be using ~arch to test stuff you know doesn't work; that is what
>> package.mask is for; to prevent users from accidentally installing
>> broken shit.
>>
>
> Why do you need package.mask here? If you know, it does not work on that arch, dont keyword it. If
> you know it does not work anywhere, why would you even think about adding that package?

Nuances ;)

What does a lack of keyword mean?  It means that no dev has bothered
to test the package on said arch.  It doesn't mean the package does
not work properly on said arch.  Users who run alt arches like sparc
end up ~arch keywording stuff locally all the time; it would be
unfortunate were they to keyword a totally broken package on sparc
just because the dev didn't keyword it.  Users often think this means
'lack of time' not 'does not function'.

What does -arch mean?  It means that the package *will* never work on
said arch (64-bit binaries on x86 for example); it does not mean 'this
package *may* not work'; so keywording broken packages with -arch is
also not quite correct (although arguably you could move from -arch,
to ~arch, to arch and maybe get away with it.)

Package.mask can be used for evaluating packages.  Many developers
would suggest using overlays for these types of packages; however not
everyone has an overlay and not everyone uses overlays so I don't
think there should be a hard and fast rule here.

>
>
> --
> Thomas Sachau
>
> Gentoo Linux Developer
>
>