On Tue, Sep 14, 2004 at 11:58:54PM -0700, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:
> > The real problem is that it's not uncommon for these packages to change
> > database formats during the course of their development. That happened
> > with both snort and ClamAV, and possibly others, since woody was
> > released. New rules are being released regularly in the new database
> > formats, but not in the old formats. Thus, the packages in stable are
> > useless. [1] We either need to be able to update from e.g. snort 0.8 to
> > snort 0.9 with a stable point release, or we need to completely exclude
> > packages like snort from stable releases. I believe the latter option
> > is a disservice to our users, as is the status quo.
>
> Right. Use the security archive, we already have this feature. No
> need to re-invent the wheel.
Except that it's our policy to not make functionality changes in point
releases. Using a separate "volatile" section allows us to offer that
same level of stability [*] to our users. If they don't want to install
packages that may change during the course of a stable release, then
it's trivial to leave them out.
noah
(*) Where stability is defined by an unchanging code base, similar to
the way we use the term in our release cycle.
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