Re: Alpha version of xz-utils in wheezy?

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi Andrew,

Andrew Pollock wrote:

> I just noticed that the version of xz-utils in wheezy is
> 5.1.1alpha+20110809-3

The xz-utils package in sid has been tracking the 5.1.y series for a
long time.  Unfortunately there hasn't been an official stable release
from that branch.

> From upstream's website:
>
> 	Development
> 	The new APIs, command line options etc. in development releases should be
> 	considered unstable. Incompatible changes to unstable features may be done
> 	before they get included in a stable release.

Upstream's comment on this was:

> I sound like going between opinions, but it doesn't seem to make a huge
> *technical* difference if Wheezy's xz says 5.1.1alpha or 5.0.4. Showing
> "alpha" can scare some users though. The new things in 5.1 are:
>  - --single-stream
>  - --block-size=SIZE
>  - .lzo support in scripts
>  - Required xz version in --robot -lvv output
>
> I think I can keep those stable (enough;-) interface wise. So you don't
> need to worry about that.

The other important difference between 5.0.y and 5.1.y is threading
support, but there is a patch removing that in wheezy and sid.

I am strongly against moving back to 5.0.4.

Hope that helps,
Jonathan