[Keeping Hannes on the CC in case he isn't subscribed]
Thanks for the responses, all.
Hi,
just my 2 cents. I introduced Lambda into Debian some time ago just out
of interest but looking at the uploads, Michael has done more work
recently...
So here are just a few comments from me.
[...]
>> However, there are no references from other Debian packages to
>> lambda-align's binaries, so upgrading to v2 without changing the package
>> name won't break any packages, but it will break user scripts.
>
> From a plain Debian point of view adding a file debian/NEWS.Debian
> explaining the issue will show the change in the new version. From a
> user perspective it might be interesting to have the old version as
> well.
I would also advise to create a new package for v2 in order not to
silently break users' pipelines when they upgrade their lambda-align
package to version 2 (or just do an 'apt upgrade' without checking in
detail whether lambda is in the -- potentially tens of packages long --
list of packages to update).
That was my thinking.
> If you volunteer to maintain the old version as lambda-align1
> some users might be happy.
I'd rather use 'lambda-align2' and 'lambda-align'... due to the reasons
above. For me this is not much different than an ABI change that would
require bumping a version number.
> PS: In any case I'd stick with the lambda-align package name for the
> new version. Otherwise we might need to wait for ftpmaster
> acceptance until after freeze and thus the latest version will
> not make it into Buster.
IMHO I'd rather not have the newest version in buster (which was
released just a couple of days ago anyway) than breaking user pipelines.
If we're lucky then v2 may even make it through NEW until the freeze
affecting new packages which starts in about a month.
I can maintain lambda-align 1.x for the time being -- Hannes, do you
still provide updates for the old version (I'm thinking of things like
ensuring compatibility with gcc updates, C++ standards quirks, etc.)?
I think this is a good idea, especially if Hannes will be providing updates for the v1.0.x series.
(I consider the v1.9.x series to be release candidates for v2.0)
Other than the lack of full test suite that we had with v1.0.x [1], I think this is ready for sponsorship for the NEW queue.