Re: Perl plans for the squeeze cycle
On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 02:41:53PM +0200, Marc Brockschmidt wrote:
> * Which major upstream releases of perl are expected in the next two
> years? Which of those are material for Debian stable, which might be a bit
> flaky?
As already mentioned, 5.12 in two years seems unlikely but there's no
definite answer.
The minor releases on the 5.10 branch should stay API and ABI compatible,
so nothing too disruptive there.
> * How much time do you usually need from a new upstream release of perl
> to a stable Debian package in unstable?
I'd expect minor releases not to take more than a few weeks.
The last major release (5.10) took six months to a year IIRC, depending
on the definition of 'stable'. Much of this was because other packages
needed changes for the transition.
> * How many "big" transitions will the upcoming changes cause? When should those
> happen? Can we do something to make them easier?
I don't expect big transitions in the near future, the packaging is
fairly stable (partly due to a conservative approach, partly due to our
lack of time.) Brendan may of course correct me if I'm wrong :)
I uploaded a 5.10.1 release candidate (RC2) to experimental today.
It should be very close to the final 5.10.1 version, so I certainly hope
to get that in before the freeze.
The updated versions of the dual-lived core modules will probably cause
some temporary uninstallability grief when 5.10.1 lands in sid, but most
of it can be fixed in advance by updating the separate dual-lived packages
(libmodule-build-perl, libtest-simple-perl, etc.) and their reverse
dependencies.
I've just filed a dozen or so bugs about this with the user/usertag
debian-perl@lists.debian.org/perl-5.10.1-transition.
I'll contact -release for coordination about the sid upload when 5.10.1
is actually released.
Cheers,
--
Niko Tyni ntyni@debian.org
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