[gentoo-dev] Re: GLEP 42 (Was: Getting Important Updates To Users)

[R Hill <dirtyepic.sk@gmail.com>]

Jason Stubbs wrote:

> I seem to be repeating myself... What's an example of repository-specific 
> non-package-specific news? Why does `emerge --changelog` not suffice for 
> package-specific news?

a) maintainers don't put important news in their changelogs.

there are a few exceptions.  gregkh's udev bumps, for example, always 
come with an explanation of what changes have been made and what to 
watch out for.  but mostly all the info you're going to get is "Version 
bump.", if that.

b) there's no way to separate the wheat from the chaff.

while i could (and usually do) emerge every update with -l, it's not 
something anyone with a life would do.  the signal to noise ratio is 
very low, and not many people are going to go through reading the 
changelogs for every package on the odd chance that there might be some 
important nugget of info they need to know.  combine this with a) and 
you'd have better luck playing the lottery than getting pertinent 
information that specifically applies to you.

c) it's a passive system

the user has to actually make an effort to retrieve this news.  we 
_already_ have a number of different sources that they could be getting 
important info from.  another is not what's needed.  what we're looking 
for is a proactive solution where the news is dropped at their feet 
below a bigass neon arrow saying READ ME.

d) news isn't necessarily package-based.

news items could be based on a user's profile, language preference, 
architecture, USE flags, etc.  there could also be general news to the 
entire community about global changes in Gentoo.


--de.

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