Re: Do not make gratuitous source uploads just to provoke the buildds!
Andreas Barth <aba@not.so.argh.org> writes:
> Because we want packages in base to be preferred, as well as packages in
> libs.
I think that is a given, but it's not uploads to base and libs that
are hosing the recompilation of gnucash at present.
I think it's worth looking at the perverse incentives that the current
system offers. (A perverse incentive is one that rewards people for
doing the wrong thing.)
My top release priority is getting my own packages in shape, which
means closing all release critical bugs and fixing all the important
bugs which can be. Gnucash in stable and testing currently has a very
serious RC bug which can cause massive data loss, *in an accounting
application* where such data loss is all the more serious.
My second release priority is doing what I can to fix RC bugs in other
packages, and clean up and monitor the QA packages as best as I can.
But I will not be fixing any RC bugs in other packages or making any
QA uploads, because nearly every such package comes ahead of gnucash
in the list, and not because they are base and libs, but because they
are optional and gnucash has the wrong priority (extra). Any work I
do on my second release priority will delay my top release priority.
I believe that taking care of my own packages' bugs should be my top
priority--as it should be for every DD--and if I do any uploads of
other packages, it will delay that first priority.
So the current system is creating a perverse incentive for me to sit
on my hands, and only fix bugs in other packages once gnucash has
*finally* gotten rebuilt, which may well be three months from the date
the bug was fixed.
The bug was reported January 21; I confirmed the bug, implemented the
fix, and uploaded the fixed package the same day. This, it seems to
me, is what should happen for such a dangerous bug. It is now nearly
two months later, and the fix still isn't in testing. And I will do
nothing to further hose gnucash users by delaying more the bug's entry
into sarge.
In the past two days, gnucash has slipped from being 90th on s390 to
being 189th, and has moved essentially not at all on arm and mipsel.
It may well be another month before it actually gets rebuilt. Any
upload I do for any other package, any bug fix I suggest which some
other maintainer uploads, further hoses my primary responsibility.
I want a system where I can fix bugs in other packages while I'm
waiting, and upload them, *without* it hosing my primary
responsibility.
Thomas
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