[gentoo-dev] Re: Baselayout-2 progress?

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Doug Klima <cardoe@gentoo.org> posted 47C8E29A.2020003@gentoo.org,
excerpted below, on  Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:59:06 -0500:

>> Is direct upgrade from previous baselayout-2.0.0-rcX going to be
>> supported?  I was running that for some time and just now added and
>> upgraded to the via layman version.  There's a blocker, of course, as
>> openrc is now providing most of the files that baselayout did.
> 
> You just answered your own question. If another package now provides
> files that an existing package provides, they must be blockers.

Thus the "of course"...

> Considering baselayout-2.0.0_rcX was a masked version and never
> recommended, it's also not in the direct upgrade path. The proper
> upgrade is what you've detailed out below. Such are the risks when you
> unmask a package and install it on your machine.

Which is why I'm not particularly complaining, just asking.

Practically speaking, while it's not required by any means, some devs 
choose to acknowledge the symbiotic relationship between pre-release 
testers willing to take that risk and do the work to find and file bugs, 
thus helping to make the general release far less buggy, and the devs who 
depend on such testers for that function.  The testers do a favor for the 
devs with all that early testing and bug filing (sometimes with patches), 
and many devs choose to return it by providing a working upgrade path 
from the pre-releases to the general release.  Among other things, it 
makes for happier testers, who are then likely to be repeat testers, the 
next time an upgrade comes along.

It's also worth mentioning that a call for testers went out, so it's not 
as if those that answered it, particularly if the DID actively look for 
and file bugs as they found them, were doing it entirely of their own 
accord.  Again, it's doing the developer a favor, so it's a nice gesture 
if the developer chooses to return the favor by smoothing the upgrade 
path.  Not something he has to do, but something he /can/ do, to increase 
the chances of folks who already know the process again taking him up on 
the invitation, the next time he needs something tested. =8^)

So anyway, I thought it was worth asking about, in case it had slipped 
his mind or he hadn't thought of it.  No big deal either way, but it'd be 
a nice gesture if it's not too difficult to setup.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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