Stable Bugfix Policy

["C.M. Connelly" <c@eskimo.com>]

What's our policy on fixes for bugs in stable (e.g., #100107)?

My understanding is that getting updates into stable is tough,
unless they fix security or data loss issues.  Missing or outdated
LaTeX package files aren't likely to meet those criteria.

It used to be possible to recommend that people running stable
just upgrade to the packages in unstable (or, now, testing), but
that hasn't been a viable option for several months.  (Due to
changes in package names, but even more so because of the changes
made to many of the packages that the tetex-* packages depend on.)

Would be worthwhile to build the new packages for stable on some
Debian systems and make them available as ``unofficial'' upgrades
for people running stable who want or need the latest teTeX?

If not, should we start recommending that people simply download
the replacement files from CTAN?  Doing so might seem like the
easy way out from our point of view, but could have some
significant drawbacks, including alienating some users who don't
have the knowledge needed to successfully download, unpack, and
install packages into a local texmf tree, or result in bugs
reported by users who have older packages in their local texmf
tree that are being used in preference to newer packages in a
future teTeX release.

   CMC

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 Behind the counter a boy with a shaven head stared vacantly into space, 
 a dozen spikes of microsoft protruding from the socket behind his ear.
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   C.M. Connelly               c@eskimo.com                   SHC, DS
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