Re: Shadow passwords
> > "unstable" is poorly named. Recent discussions have suggested naming
> > it "unreleased" as the packages in it tend to be very stable. It's
> > just that the system as a whole has not be tested as well as the
> > released/stable tree.
>
> OK, but "unstable" does not appear on Debian CDs. The fact that the
> shadow packages are still in "experimental" also suggests that they
> have many serious bugs, and many people will be afraid to use them.
> No serious bugs in shadow-960810 have been reported to me so far,
> and I'm using this package on one of the two servers here (the other
> doesn't have as many users, and has X...) without problems.
So... Why are they still in "experimental"? They were supposed to
be moved to Rex 4 weeks ago. Obviously, shadow passwords were not
important enough for this to get done.
> How about the following compromise: say that shadow passwords are
> "not officially supported" in this release (because there may be
> still one or two packages without shadow support) but still include
> the packages in the distribution. Since these packages are optional
> and new (it's not an upgrade that might break something), I really
> fail to see the problem. (Does this require a new upload, or could
> these packages simply be moved by the archive maintainer?)
What goes on CDs is not my concern. I'd prefer it if the CD guys
would put both "stable" and "unstable" on the CD, but that's up to
them. Somebody (Bruce, I believe) suggested putting an "unstable"
tree with just the new X packages on the CDs. Feel free to put
the shadow password packages in the same place. I think that's
a great idea.
Shadow passwords, however, will not be an official part of Debian 1.2.
As any software hack will tell you, adding new features the day before
release is a Bad Idea(tm). Rex was officially frozen 4 weeks ago. Okay,
the freeze wasn't a very deep freeze, but I'll work on improving that
in the future.
> Many people (not just me) put a lot of work to get shadow support
> working - user feedback is essential for this project to succeed.
I understand. I feel for you. But I have to ask... Why didn't any
of these people that worked so hard put 10 minutes into moving the
packages from experimental to rex anytime over the last 5 weeks?
It's too late now. I'm sorry.
Brian
( bcwhite@verisim.com )
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