Re: PROPOSAL: "Staging Areas"
- To: Guy Maor <maor@debian.org>
- Cc: debian-doc@lists.debian.org
- Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: "Staging Areas"
- From: Adam Di Carlo <adam@onshore.com>
- Date: 17 Apr 1999 15:38:52 -0400
- Message-id: <[🔎] oa4smf2g1f.fsf@arroz.fake>
- In-reply-to: Guy Maor's message of "28 Feb 1999 23:09:40 -0800"
- References: <19990225143451.O450@cs.leidenuniv.nl> <Pine.SOL.3.95q.990225142007.18017G-100000@red.csi.cam.ac.uk> <19990226103914.A18286@azure.humbug.org.au> <87iucpfuh1.fsf@femto.dyn.ml.org> <19990226200422.A21327@azure.humbug.org.au> <87u2w54rez.fsf@femto.dyn.ml.org>
Guy Maor <maor@debian.org> writes:
> There are other reasons to put something in experimental besides a
> potential for grave damage. You could certainly put every
> incompatible change into experimental before putting it in unstable.
> Most people won't even try them, and the ftp administrators will get
> irritated at you. Use your judgement.
FYI, I've changed the wording a bit, it now reads as you see below.
--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>
The _experimental_ distribution is a specialty distribution. It is not
a full distribution in the same sense that `stable' and `unstable'
are. Instead, it is meant to be a temporary staging area for highly
experimental software where there's a good chance that the software
could break your system. Users who download and install packages from
_experimental_ are expected to have been duly warned. In short, all
bets are off for the _experimental_ distribution.
Developers should be very selective in the use of the _experimental_
distribution. Even if a package is highly unstable, it could well
still go into _unstable_; just state a few warnings in the
description. However, if there is a chance that the software could do
grave damage to a system, it might be better to put it into
_experimental_.
For instance, an experimental encrypted file system should probably go
into _experimental_. A new, beta, version of some software which uses
completely different configuration might go into _experimental_ at the
maintainer's discretion. New software which isn't likely to damage
your system can go into _unstable_. If you are working on an
incompatible or complex upgrade situation, you can also use
_experimental_ as a staging area, so that testers can get early
access.
However, using _experimental_ as a personal staging area is not always
the best idea. You can't replace or upgrade the files in there on your
own (`dinstall' and the Debian archive maintainers do that).
Additionally, you'll have to remember to ask the archive maintainers
to delete the package one you have uploaded it to _unstable_. Using
your personal web space on `va.debian.org' is generally a better idea,
so that you put less strain on the Debian archive maintainers.
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