Re: [gentoo-user] Re: The future of linux, and Gentoo specifically now

[Rich Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org>]

On Sun, Nov 23, 2014 at 1:35 PM, Tanstaafl <tanstaafl@libertytrek.org> wrote:
>
> Irrelevant. Since OpenRC is the default init system, any package that
> doesn't work properly with it would, by definition, be a bug that must
> be fixed - if the maintainer wants their package to be marked as
> stable/usable by 99.99% of gentoo users.
>

Packages do not need to support openrc to be marked as stable.

Also, very few bugs "must be fixed."  It is perfectly acceptable for a
package to be in the tree and not have an init.d script.  Really the
only kinds of bugs that require fixing are ones that deal with minimal
QA standards and most of those pertain to security.

Sure, OpenRC is supported in the same sense that SystemD is supported
- if you have a problem you can post on the forums or mailing lists
and you might or might not get an answer to your questions.

If you want real support, call up Canonical, Redhat, Suse, or Oracle
(or any of the other commercial vendors).

The current Gentoo policy is that maintainers cannot block other devs
from adding support for systemd/openrc/etc to their packages if they
lack such support.  Gentoo policy does NOT require maintainers to
support any particular init system.

If you feel otherwise, I suggest you cite the policy.

Frankly the last thing we need with this whole debate is folks drawing
lines in the sand.  I happily support both systemd and openrc in the
packages I maintain, and if somebody wanted to contribute a runit
script and test it, I'd be happy to commit this as well.  I don't run
eudev but if the eudev team offered a patch to make things work better
with their config I'd be happy to accept it as long as they
maintain/test it.

Some devs take this stuff too personally and for a while we had devs
threatening revert wars to try to ensure that certain configurations
they disagreed with wouldn't work well.  The current policy forbids
that kind of behavior (which was the sort of thing everybody is
complaining about in this thread).  Maintainers don't get to use their
packages as soapboxes to push their agendas.  However, maintainers
also aren't required to put in effort to support configurations they
don't use.  Live and let live.

If people want a distro that enforced doctrinal purity, I suggest you
go over to the FSF website and run whatever blob-free distro with
0.01% market share they're endorsing at the moment.  Gentoo has always
been pragmatic.  Nobody promises support for anything, but you'll find
that in practice a LOT more oddball configurations are "supported" by
Gentoo than your average distro.

--
Rich