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Re: possible mass-filing of bugs: many shared library packages contain binaries in usr/bin



On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 10:02:32AM +1000, Brian May wrote:

> Actually, that is another can of worms.

> If the old library has bugs there are several options:
>         1. force everyone to recompile using the latest library.
>         2. upload a new version of the old library.

> Number 2 above sounds promising, but consider you will have to upload
> the old source package again. This means:
>         * fudging the upstream version number.
>         * replacing other packages also produced by this source with old
>           versions.

If both libraries are in the distribution simultaneously, you cannot
have an "old source package" and a "new source package".  You MUST have
two different source packages that are being maintained in parallel, for
the two different major versions of the library.  Offering a
backwards-compatible library for our users REQUIRES you to be willing to
do this.

If you're only talking about transitioning from one major version to
another in unstable, then there are really very few issues at all; if
bugs are found in an old version of a library that has been superseded
in unstable, the proper solution is to fix packages depending on it, not
to muck around with adding already outdated packages to the archive.
Doing the latter is giving greater priority to making unstable suitable
for users than to creating a releasable operating system.  This doesn't
strike me as a good thing.

Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer

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