APT 0.6 migration -- first status report

[Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de>]

Hi,

this message contains the first status report about the APT 0.6
migration.  From time to time, I'll post such reports to debian-devel.

* Status pages

I maintain status pages at: 

  <http://www.enyo.de/fw/software/apt-secure/>

Please have a look at this document, especially at the showstoppers
list.  If you know of a potential showstopper I missed, please tell me
about it as soon as possible.

The web pages also contain a short introductory note why it's
desirable to release sarge with APT 0.6, in case you wonder what the
fuzz is all about.

* APT 0.6 needs an ABI transition

APT 0.6 changes the library ABI, and frontends must be recompiled,
otherwise they are uninstallable once APT 0.6 enters unstable.  (There
is no separate library package which could be kept around.)  There are
various options to deal with this, but recompiling the frontends and
uploading them at the right time seems to be most reasonable approach
at this point.  Signature verification support can and should be added
later; we just have to avoid regressions when making the ABI
transition.

Apart from that, there are no known issues (besides the design review
of the signature verification part etc.) which prevent APT 0.6 from
entering unstable.  This is good news, much better than I had hoped
for.

* The framework

The migration to APT 0.6 doesn't happen in a vacuum.  We have to work
within some constraints.  Before moving forward (probably to the key
management discussion), I intend to document them, at least the
important ones.  After all, it doesn't make sense to agree on
something which turns out to be impossible to implement.

* How you can help

Please install APT 0.6, take your favorite APT frontend, recompile it
from source, test basic operations, and report the results (either to
me privately, or to this list).  Does it still compile?  Does it work
as expected (apart from the lack of reports for signature verification
failures, of course)?

Even at this stage, it's important to know whether we can expect a
smooth ABI transition, and address any obstacles to that.

Florian