Re: Debian Hurd package dependencies [Was: GSoC application deadline passed]

[Michal Suchanek]

On 19/03/2008, Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org> wrote:
> Michal Suchanek, le Wed 19 Mar 2008 10:53:13 +0100, a écrit :
>
> > On 18/03/2008, Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org> wrote:
>  > > Michal Suchanek, le Tue 18 Mar 2008 17:01:21 +0100, a écrit :
>  > > > >  > Plus keep all versions of packages on some "hurd-core" list until
>  > >  > >  > somebody manually marks a newer version as verified working.
>  > >  > >
>  > >  > > It's not necessarily so simple, you need to check all the rdeps etc.
>  > >  >
>  > >  > But checking rdeps can be automated, and it's supposedly already
>  > >  > working for the Debian archive.
>  > >
>  > > It usually has lot of problems and needs manual intervention.
>  >
>  > What kind of problems?
>
>
> Libraries transitions & such.

Yes, there was a libc transition that was quite messy some time ago
(actually quite a bit ago since I haven't installed Hurd ever since I
switched to non-obsolete hardware). That's why Hurd needs snapshot
images (if not releases), and a build process for these that goes as
smoothly as possible.

>
>
>  > If packages are missing it should be resolved by archiving a minimal
>  > set of packages that are required for a decent base system.
>
>
> That's what "testing" does yes.

Just a few messages back in this thread somebody said that
dependencies of Hurd packages aren't archived because Debian deletes
the _all packages when the arch specific packages for all supported
architectures are uploaded.

>
>
>  > If there are other problems these are bugs that should be fixed.
>
>
> And that are fixed by hand in a distributed way by debian developpers.
>  Doing it ourselves would be a big job.

If they are Hurd specific problems you cannot expect Debian developers
to even learn about them, let alone fix them.

In my experience problems for which a patch and an explanation is
provided gets fixed eventually but that's about all you can expect.
And if you have a patch you can as well put a package into a Hurd
specific archive.

Thanks

Michal