Re: [gentoo-user] Re: 'emerge -e world' question

[Willie Wong <wwong@Princeton.EDU>]

On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 12:55:02AM +0100, Penguin Lover b.n. squawked:
> It's 4 years I'm using Gentoo and I can still be surprised by it. :)
> This doesn't look right. Why do devs upgrade ebuilds and do not increase
> the -rX versioning?

Look at the Gentoo Developer Handbook
  http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=3&chap=1

Specifically the section on "Versioning and revision bumps". I quote:

 "If you make an internal, stylistic change to the ebuild that does
 not change any of the installed files, then there is no need to bump
 the revision number. Likewise, if you fix a compilation problem in
 the ebuild that was affecting some users, there is no need to bump
 the revision number, since those for whom it worked perfectly would
 see no benefit in installing a new revision, and those who
 experienced the problem do not have the package installed (since
 compilation failed) and thus have no need for the new revision number
 to force an upgrade. A revision bump is also not necessary if a
 minority of users will be affected and the package has a nontrivial
 average compilation time; use your best judgement in these
 circumstances. "

The changes made to OpenOffice in this case are minor (example: a
virtual is added for some perl package, and the dependency is changed
from depending on the explicit package to the virtual), and should not
effect already working installations; furthermore, considering how 
much memory and time one needs to compile OpenOffice, I say the gentoo 
policy is quite sane about not forcing a revision bump.  

W

-- 
The police recently arrested a man selling "secret formula" tablets he claimed 
gave eternal youth. When going through their files they noticed it was the 
fifth time he was caught for committing this same criminal medical fraud. He 
had earlier bookings from 1794, 1856, 1928 and 1983....
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