Re: PROPOSAL: "Staging Areas"

[Adam Di Carlo <adam@onshore.com>]

Guy Maor <maor@debian.org> writes:

> There are other reasons to put something in experimental besides a
> potential for grave damage.  You could certainly put every
> incompatible change into experimental before putting it in unstable.
> Most people won't even try them, and the ftp administrators will get
> irritated at you.  Use your judgement.

FYI, I've changed the wording a bit, it now reads as you see below.

--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>

     The _experimental_ distribution is a specialty distribution. It is not
     a full distribution in the same sense that `stable' and `unstable'
     are. Instead, it is meant to be a temporary staging area for highly
     experimental software where there's a good chance that the software
     could break your system. Users who download and install packages from
     _experimental_ are expected to have been duly warned. In short, all
     bets are off for the _experimental_ distribution.

     Developers should be very selective in the use of the _experimental_
     distribution. Even if a package is highly unstable, it could well
     still go into _unstable_; just state a few warnings in the
     description. However, if there is a chance that the software could do
     grave damage to a system, it might be better to put it into
     _experimental_.

     For instance, an experimental encrypted file system should probably go
     into _experimental_. A new, beta, version of some software which uses
     completely different configuration might go into _experimental_ at the
     maintainer's discretion. New software which isn't likely to damage
     your system can go into _unstable_. If you are working on an
     incompatible or complex upgrade situation, you can also use
     _experimental_ as a staging area, so that testers can get early
     access.

     However, using _experimental_ as a personal staging area is not always
     the best idea. You can't replace or upgrade the files in there on your
     own (`dinstall' and the Debian archive maintainers do that).
     Additionally, you'll have to remember to ask the archive maintainers
     to delete the package one you have uploaded it to _unstable_. Using
     your personal web space on `va.debian.org' is generally a better idea,
     so that you put less strain on the Debian archive maintainers.