Bug#966373: general: Higher version for uploads to stable and oldstable distributions

["Adam D. Barratt" <adam@adam-barratt.org.uk>]

On Wed, 2020-10-07 at 20:05 +0200, Javier Serrano Polo wrote:
> El dl 21 de 09 de 2020 a les 16:50 +0200, Javier Serrano Polo va
> escriure:
> > I will elaborate on the problem with 1-1+b1foo1 and 1-1+b1foo1+b1
> > if you are willing to help.
> 
> First, a binNMU in Debian may be unnecessary in the derivative.
> Following Debian binNMUs means unnecessary builds in architectures
> supported by the derivative and a burden for users in unsupported
> architectures.

This has nothing specifically to do with updates to stable, and
changing the versioning used for source updates to stable will not
change it. If stable released with version 1.0-1 of package foo, then
it is entirely feasible that a binNMU will be required at some point,
and that will be versioned as 1.0-1+b1.

If the derivative has previously made a change to foo, then they can
version it as 1.0-1+deriv1, and it will not be superseded by the
binNMU. If they have not, then operating as an overlay means they must
pull in the binNMU. There are absolutely no changes to package
versioning that can change these facts, and you must be fully aware of
this.

> Moreover, the derivative would need to track all binary
> changes instead of source changes only.

As above, this is a decision that the derivative has made for
themselves by choosing to overlay the base Debian archive rather than
import changes into their own full distribution.

It also conflicts with your original claims that you were trying to
avoid having a stable update - which would be a source change -
automatically pulled in to the derivative and thus overriding earlier
changes made in the derivative.

There are two choices for the derivative when making source changes.
They either use 1.0-1+deriv1, at which point a future stable update to
Debian will not supersede their upload, or they use 1.0-1deriv1 and
accept that future updates to Debian will overwrite their changes.

Yes, this means work for the derivative. That's an unfortunate fact of
life in the space. Either updates to the base distribution
automatically get pulled in, and may thus override changes in the
derivative, or they do not and the derivative thus has to inspect each
upload to the base distribution and decide whether to import it. 

I believe that your focus on binNMUs here clearly indicates that you
are not trying to solve an actual issue with the versioning of *source*
uploads to Debian's stable distributions, as there can be no changes to
the version scheme used for stable updates that will change anything
related to binNMUs. Furthermore, I do not believe that you were unaware
of any of these facts before sending your mail.

Regards,

Adam