Re: Pre-Stable Distro
On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 08:19:01AM -0700, Joseph Smidt wrote:
>
> To the Debian Developers,
>
> Again I am writing to mearly throw an idea out on the floor. It has to deal
> with the stress of having release date to cram for, as well as being accused
> of being a distro that never has up-to-date software in stable. I think you
> could solve this with a pre-stable distro.
>
> This is how it would work: Packages are continuosly being uploaded into
> unstable where active development is taking place. When they reach a low
> enough RC count and have "served their time" in unstable they are uploaded
> into testing. Here is where things would be different:
>
> Once every three months the new "Pre-Stable" distro will upload only those
> packages from testing that have had 0 RC bugs for at least month and have
> been flagged by their maintainers as a good version to entet stable.
>
> These packages will be uploaded into a current copy of stable where they
> will be tested agiasnt the current stable for three months. At the end of
> each month along the way, those packages that have not been able to survive
> being with stable packages without having an RC bug will be dropped. Those
> packages who survive for three whole months will be uploaded into stable.
> The upload would then be like a mini "new release".
>
> Advantages for those using stable:
>
> 1.
>
> They get new packages without having to wait years for them.
> 2.
>
> Since this process repeats itself every three months the uploads will
> be very predictable, unlike testing which has uploads every day.
> 3.
>
> These packages will have had zero RC bugs for at least four months
> straight with three of those months being tested against the current stable
> snapshot.
> 4.
>
> These packages will have been flagged by their maintainers showing
> these are good versions of the packages, ie, the maintainers know -1 and -2
> may not be ready for stable despite RC count and maybe -3 is better than -4.
>
>
> Advantages for developers:
>
> 1.) There will not be the stress of worrying about release dates. The
> packages are readywhen they are ready, and will enter stable accordingly.
>
> 2.) They will be harassed less for taking so long for a major release.
>
> Disadvantages:
>
> 1.) Many may argue we don't need another Distro, we already have three, four
> if you include experimental. ( I can already see responses sarcastically
> suggesting we should have 20 or 30 distros.)
>
> 2.) Maybe it is not reliable to release pieces of a distro every three
> months. (However, if the upload would damage anything in stable it would
> surely be caught in three months.)
>
> 3.) Security issues.
>
> 4.) Tradition: (See Fiddeler on the Roof)
>
> Anyways, I again want to repeat it is only a suggestion. I would not want
> Debian to do anything that would hurt Debian. However if it would help, all
> the better. I wish you all the best.
>
I suggested something kind of similar a while ago. Google the Debian
archives for "temporal release." Not much interest in it overall, and I
ran into time problems setting up the infrastructure to list which
packages would be in the "pre-stable" and "stable" branches (in your
terms).
I might return to that in the next few months once real life settles
down......
--
Patrick Ouellette pat@flying-gecko.net
kb8pym@arrl.net Amateur Radio: KB8PYM
Living life to a Jimmy Buffett soundtrack
"Crank the amp to 11, this needs more cowbell - and a llama wouldn't hurt either"
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