Bug#699808: tech-ctte: syslinux vs the wheezy release

[Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>]

Hi,

On Wed, 06 Feb 2013, Bdale Garbee wrote:
> two at a time.  Holding d-i's build dependencies static in unstable for
> more than half a year is just nuts to me!  Sure seems like d-i is
> something we should build using the components of the release it will be
> contained in and not unstable... but I haven't tried to think hard about
> what that might imply that's problematic. And I certainly don't think
> this is something we should even consider changing at this late date in
> for wheezy release cycle!

Technically d-i point release updates are built in
"stable-proposed-updates" and build dependencies are satisfied in stable
(+ s-p-u maybe). Similarly it should be possible to build d-i for wheezy
in testing-proposed-updates right now (and have build-deps satisfied in
wheezy). t-p-u is frowned upon for normal packages because the release
team like the testing packages get in unstable, but in the case of d-i the
only thing that needs to be tested are the installer images which end up
on the mirror and not in the package repository (the installer directories
are shared between wheezy and sid).

That said this was never done yet and we're not sure what dak
would do with the by-hand archive containing the installer images. Maybe
some ftpmasters could answer on this point?

I discussed this with Cyril and Julien and they were (rightfully IMO) not keen
on trying this at this point of the release.

That said this whole discussion is interesting and might even help up
in the long term but the real problem is that Daniel is just actively
working against the release team wishes and this is unacceptable to me.
We all know the limitations of our processes, any help to improve them
is welcome, but working against them is not acceptable.

But judging the social behaviour of a developer is not really in the realm
of the tech-ctte and the best technical outcome might not be in line with
the release team's plans.

Thus I would subject to word a resolution along the line of "The tech-ctte
suggests the release team to try out <this> because <bar>, but if the release team
doesn't wish to try it out, then the release team has the right to upload
an older version of syslinux to unstable (given that the maintainer
deliberately ignored recommendations of the release team).".

Cheers,
-- 
Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer

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