Re: About new source formats for packages without patches

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

Hi!

On Fri, 2010-03-26 at 09:25:38 +0100, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> On Fri, 26 Mar 2010, Neil Williams wrote:
> > Now all I need is for dpkg to accept that the absence of
> > debian/source/format is declarative of source format 1.0.
> 
> That's the case _for now_.  
> 
> > packages don't need to be changed merely to state the obvious.
> 
> They need because the dpkg maintainers have decided that it might
> not be the case indefinitely.

Few things first. I don't think we should “ever” remove extraction
support for older formats (be it source or binary), we should be able to
easily analyze older content. We might want to remove creation support
for older formats at some point in the *distant* future, though. And I
don't really see any problem with that, we routinely remove support for
deprecated stuff all over the place in Debian, given proper transition
periods.

I understand Raphaël's eagerness to see a fast switch, given his
investment on the new formats, and as I obviously consider them a big
improvement too. But I don't think it's appropriate to rush it, when we
are just at the beginning of being able to use newer source formats,
when there's still things being polished on them, for easier use, for
different workflows, etc; when higher level tools support is still
immature. It has neither seemed appropriate some of the excessively
combative, aggressive and personal comments recently seen, when I think
there's been will to accommodate for changes to the formats and tools.

So, even if the uptake seems pretty fast, I agree it's still too soon
to even show warnings. Once (and if) the archive has switched a big
proportion, then we can start warning that the format needs to be
explicit (lintian mostly, dpkg-source's current warning is not really
visible anyway so I think it's fine to leave it there). And only when
a tiny fraction is still using 1.0, and only then, we can _consider_,
after appropriate debate, a possible plan for a removal of source
format 1.0 creation.

regards,
guillem