Re: Proposal: 'Expires' entry in Debian package header

[Harald Dunkel <harri@synopsys.COM>]

David Starner wrote:
> 
> What does this win us over doing it manually? I don't believe there is any
> technical reason for multiple libstdc++ versions, and in fact I don't think
> potato includes 2.8. It's just too much trouble to do mass recompiles of
> many packages, with possible breakage along the way, just to get rid of
> an extra library. Maintainers get bug reports whenever their package depends
> on a old library, and that works well enough.
> 

Currently Woody has about 5000 packages. I guess it's very difficult to
manage this number of packages without supporting tools.

I did not made the suggestion to recompile the header of all packages.
Most packages are _not_ obsolete, so there is no reason to change these.
The solution is simple: All packages without Expires entry do not 
expire. Only the 'old' packages, i.e. the packages which should no
longer be used have to be modified. 

> As for tcl, I understand it's a slightly more complex story, with many
> programs having dependencies on a specific version. The same is true for
> many other extra libraries - libgtk1.0 vs. 1.2, ncurses4 vs. ncurses5. The
> problems may have to be dealt with, but I don't see how an automatic system
> is going to do anything but annoy developers here.
> 

Of course the goal is not to annoy the developers or package maintainers.
But with 5000 packages you get about 5000 maintainers, too. It's hard 
to manage all these people.

Why shouldn't a package maintainer decide to stop supporting 'his' 
package, when he has provided a newer/extended version? The Expires
entry would help him to get rid of the old version with a smooth 
migration period for other maintainers.


I know it's a very difficult problem. Hopefully I haven't offended
anybody.


Regards

Harri
-- 
Harald Dunkel | harri@Synopsys.COM | If your operating system seems to
Synopsys GmbH | Kaiserstr. 100     | be made by Dr. Frankenstein, then
52134 Herzogenrath, Germany        | it is time for a change.
+49 2407 9558 (fax? 44: 0)         |                        Try Linux!