Re: tag2upload service architecture and risk assessment - draft v2

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Sam Hartman writes ("Re: tag2upload service architecture and risk assessment - draft v2"):
> I'm sure that Ian and Sean had been thinking about this before the
> DPL campaign.  But I think in a very real sense, they took that
> discussion and tried to show us what it might look like.

This is much much older than the DPL campaign.

tag2upload is the next stage in the git plan that was developed on the
famous piece of cardboard in Vaumarcus in 2013.  That plan's basic
design principle is *bidirectionally* gatewaying between dscs and git.

> That is, they wanted to move our authoritative source format to Git,
> possibly even getting rid of dscs in the medium future.

I want to be 100% clear that although I think dscs are largely
obsolete, I have no intention of trying to get rid of them any time
soon.  Certainly not in the medium term.  Maybe not in the long term
either.

There are a lot of unresolved issues with getting rid of dscs
completely.  See the recent LFS discussion here on -devel for just one
small example.  There will be packages and uploads where the .dsc is
primary for a very long time, perhaps forever.

Additionally, the social stress of trying to abolish dscs would be far
too severe.  So let's avoid talk of getting rid of dscs.

My goal is to make it possible for git users, and dsc users, to each
have a good user experience and to collaborate with each other.

Part of that is for git users not to have to worry about or think
about dscs.  With the appropriate technology, the worrying about dscs
can be done by computers.  git users can spend their brainpower on
commits and code and packaging.

So tag2upload is an important next step for improving the user
experience of git users, and thus lowering friction in Debian.

The DPL campaign discussions made it look like the time might be
right.  I had lots and lots of positive conversations in Curitiba.
Generally people were super keen and ready with encouragement,
detailed critical review, etc., according to their nature.  My current
proposal includes the results of those conversations.

Ian.

-- 
Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>   These opinions are my own.

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