Bug #566650: Please unblock dtc 0.32.2-1
Dear Release Team,
It's with all my heart that I'm writing to the RT today. I've been
working on DTC 0.32 for years, it's both my company flagship software
that feeds me every day, and what pushed me to work inside Debian and do
all my packaging work. I know it can't be a technical point, but a
refusal would both make me feel very sad (that Debian refuses 1 year of
commits and hard work), and have huge consequence on my business as
well. So please consider carefully what's below.
I have clearly understood the meaning of the testing frozen state, and I
clearly understand that I'm asking here to break one of the strongest
rules we have in Debian, which is to freeze things before a release.
However, I have my reasons to ask for such unblock. There are valid
points that are pushing me to write this today.
- First of all, we have have been in functionality freeze in DTC since
the beginning of last summer. This new version has only receive lots of
bug fixes since, and no new functionalities.
- I haven't uploaded the new release to SID before, because I wanted to
upload only something that was ready and fixed fully. I'd think that
saying it was the wrong thing to do, and that I should have leave a
problematic version in SID well in advance and ask for multiple bug-fix
unblock, just in order to have a chance to get it into Squeeze, wouldn't
be the good approach, IMHO.
- I have missed the deadline only for few days (12 days, right?). Before
that, the RT had more relaxed rules since the debconf10 announcement,
which was a surprise for some.
- I've been quite busy repairing other packages and focussed on DTC's
dependencies first (dkimproxy, extplorer, libdbi, editarea, mysqmail,
nusoap, many php-* pear packages, xen-qemu-dm, etc.), as I thought that
was the correct order to do things. All this takes time, and I think
I've been rushing to do all this too much already, with multiple
consequences, in order to meet the deadline. Telling me that I wasn't
fast enough and giving even more pressure wouldn't be the good approach,
IMHO. If the release team tells me that I should calm down and that I
should take more time to fix things correctly, and that they will be
accepted, I believe I'll be sending packages with better quality in
the future (I will try anyway).
- PHP 5.3 has been sent to SID/Testing just few days before the freeze.
This has for sure impacted the development of DTC itself, but also some
other packages (and I fixed some of them). Raphael also pointed out that
time is a problem for the PHP team. We all have to make sure that
our packages are in good shape for this new version of PHP. If the RT
wasn't ready to accept the consequences of such a big move, then maybe
it wasn't a good idea to upload PHP 5.3.2? I'm not sure, and the
decision isn't mine anyway. The goal here is just to highlight the
difficulties due to this change, not to blame anyone. But I really would
like to see as much PHP 5.3 issues fixed as possible, and I've been
working actively on it (and I will try to do more soon). The delay in
having DTC 0.32 uploaded was one of the consequences of such move for sure.
- There has been a lot of people running the latest Git version of DTC
in production for months (some with Lenny, others with Squeeze), and
none of them have reported big issues with the latest release. It isn't
like if it wasn't tested at all... Now that we have officially released,
we're getting a lot of feedback. I've pushed a backport of 0.32.2 in
GPLHost's Debian repository, and so far, only the new extplorer file
manager feature needed a fix (fixed in 0.32.1), another our
templates.php (fixed in 0.32.2). I dont't believe there will be so many
huge issues, but only minors like these, that will have easy fix.
- If the RT was to refuse to migrate 0.32, I'd have 1 year of
git-commits backlog to look into, and a lot of work to do in order to
have version 0.30.x into what I would consider a good shape for Squeeze,
back-porting many patches. Right now, I don't think this is a reasonable
thing to ask me, when 0.32.x is ready, and when Squeeze is soon to be
released.
- *If possible* (that is, if the RT accepts this unblock), we'd like to
drop support for version 0.30.x entirely. We already have to support
branch 0.29 for Lenny, I wouldn't like to have yet another branch to
support. Lenny and Squeeze, that's 2 branches, plus the development one,
that makes it 3. If 0.32 that is already released as new stable, is
refused in Squeeze, that adds a 4th one (the 0.30.x branch), and I would
like to avoid it. Also, 0.32.x is the one that will soon be released for
FreeBSD, and we'd like to have it in sync.
- I have told my plans to multiple members of the RT (at least 2 of them
that I can recall), one of them even told me that he would forward it to
the rest of the release team. Since then, I didn't have any feedback at
all from the RT. If the RT was to deny my request now, I'd say that it
wouldn't be optimum approach. Maybe I should have been told to work on
version 0.30.x, rather than intensively working on preparing 0.32.x. At
least, nobody told me I had the wrong approach.
- I understand the authority of the RT, but I am also hoping here that
the RT will trust me as a DD, and as the main upstream author of the
package that I am asking an unblock for.
But the most important point is this one:
- This version 0.32.x is the one that we've been preparing for a year
with Squeeze in mind. The version 0.30.20 that is currently in Testing
is *not* adapted for Squeeze. It has many PHP 5.3 deprecation issues,
dependencies issues, and so on that 0.32.x fixes. 0.32.x has also many
bug fixes in general.
Also, the latest version solves RC bug #566650 about embedding a
pre-compiled binary (for which we have the source code, but as this is a
windows app, it can't be built inside Debian). Of course that's not one
of the above points (I can fix 0.30.x for this issue).
There will be some other updates to this version, because I'm waiting
for translations, especially the German one (I know the translator is
working on it), but I hope that will be it, and this is still allowed
when there is a freeze.
FYI, if this unblock is done, I'll have more time to help others on
fixing their RC bugs, which is my current plan (of course, I fix my
packages first, then only, try to help others). I'll have more time to
organize a Chinese mini-debconf with the release of Squeeze in mind, and
focus on the forthcoming FOSSASIA, as I live in Shanghai, China.
Whole heartedly,
Thomas Goirand (zigo)
P.S: Because this is *very* important for me, I've been a bit verbose
and direct. Many pointed that they don't like my writing style, so I
hope this request looks good. Please don't blame me for my style. I'm
trying to do my best, and my English writing skills are what they are:
far from perfect, written by a French guy.
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