Re: Backports, Stable releases, Testing, Oh my!

[Gerfried Fuchs <rhonda@deb.at>]

    Hi there.

* Paul Tagliamonte <paultag@debian.org> [2014-02-25 23:59:05 CET]:
> I'm sending to both -devel and backports. I'm not sure which is the
> correct list. If one's wrong, feel free to drop it in replies.
> 
> I've been talking with a mentee about backporting procedures, and I've
> explained why we don't backport until a package hits tending (stable <
> stable-bpo < testing <= unstable)

 Right, reason being to make sure (for a certain degree) that an upgrade
path from stable + bpo to next-stable without bpo is possible.

> However, with the new testing removals from the release team (which is
> totally great for creating an always releasable testing, many thanks for
> that), we can create a situation where stable-bpo has a newer version
> than testing when we release (lazy maintainer never fixed the rc bug).

 Erm, no, not at all.  A package in stable-bpo can't have a newer
version than testing when we release.  With the removal there can be two
situations:

 * After fixing the issue that got the package removed from testing, the
   package flows in like usual into testing, and it will definitely have
   at least the version it had in testing before, most probably higher,
   but never lower.

 * The package doesn't flow into testing anymore before the release.  If
   this is expected to happen, the package has to be removed from
   stable-bpo.

> What shall we do? Remove from stable-bpo? Hope an update comes around?

 Remove from stable-bpo if it's not expected to come back in is what we
actually do, yes.  And to have an overview of these situations I created
myself the diffstats page:
http://backports.debian.org/wheezy-backports/overview/

 Looking at the "not available" page, I noticed that I need to remove
the twisted-* packages.  *heading over to franck*

> Does it make sense to revisit the rules? Does a wait until testing still
> make sense (ok, waiting always makes sense, but beyond the 'let it
> settle' thing)

 Sure the wait until testing makes sense, as much as the testing
transition period in itself makes sense.  There are exeptions granted
(for security related uploads mostly), but yes, that rule does indeed
make sense.  You never know what RC might pop up that hinder the testing
transition and you are then stuck with a newer version in stable-bpo
than in testing for until the RC got fixed.

 So, no need to panic, all under control, just a bit overworked and
things not happening as timely as they should.

 Enjoy,
Rhonda
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