Re: Bug#429577: #429577: ITP: emacs-snapshot -- The GNU Emacs editor (development snapshot)

[Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>]

Hello,

On Wed, May 23 2018, Arnaud Fontaine wrote:

> Anyhow, emacs-snapshot will only be available in sid/experimental

+1

> But I get your point and indeed there need to be a plan to check
> before each upload of emacs-snapshot whether it breaks add-ons. A
> shell script installing in a clean chroot emacs-snapshot to be
> uploaded and all available add-ons in the archive would probably be
> enough and fairly easy to write?

I'd suggest installing the old emacs-snapshot and all addons, and then
upgrading to the new emacs-snapshot.  And then also test installing all
addons without emacs-snapshot, and then installing the new
emacs-snapshot.  And perhaps installing the new emacs-snapshot and then
all addons, too.

I think you are aware, but just in case/for onlookers, the main issue is
that all addons will get bytecompiled against the new Emacs by
maintscripts, so if emacs-snapshot breaks addons, apt will be in a
"failed to configure" state which can be a pain to recover from.

I think there should be a warning in the package description that the
package is for fairly advanced users only -- I can see someone not
really familiar with apt/dpkg installing it, and then finding their
system in a state from which they don't know how to back out.  Unstable
has garnered a reputation for actually being quite stable...

-- 
Sean Whitton