Re: Syncthing to jessie-backports
On Tue, 28 Nov 2017 at 10:21:00 +0000, Petteri Helminen wrote:
> would it possible to include Syncthing into jessie-backports? At least
> for now, installing Syncthing(.deb) package provided at
> stretch-backports repository makes no conflicts on Debian Jessie.
Package versions from buster backported to jessie (or any other
backport across two releases) can break upgrades from the old release
to the next stable release (jessie to stretch in this case), so they
are not allowed in jessie-backports. There is a jessie-backports-sloppy
suite where backports from buster to jessie *are* allowed, although
the -backports-sloppy suites are less frequently used than plain
-backports.
If you are still using jessie (oldstable) after stretch (stable) has
been released, it's presumably because you are sufficiently
change-averse or risk-averse that you don't want to upgrade existing
systems to stretch until you absolutely have to. If that's the case,
then I find it surprising that you're willing to install backports on
those systems - a system with backports is always going to be less
predictable and stable than a system without backports.
> Therefore I think it would not be so consumptive to make and keep
> Syncthing available to jessie as well.
The limited resource that is consumed by maintaining a backport is not the
time taken to do a backport right now, but the time taken to update and
test all new versions for the lifetime of the relevant release. This is
a significant commitment, particularly for backports that skip a release
(buster to jessie), and particularly for packages where a new version
(perhaps in 6 months' time) might start requiring newer library features
and cease to be a straightforward backport.
If someone wants to maintain a version of syncthing in
jessie-backports-sloppy then they're welcome to do so, but don't be
surprised if nobody steps forward.
(I don't use syncthing myself, and I don't know what it does - I'm
speaking in general terms here.)
Regards,
smcv
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