FESCo wants to ban direct stable pushes in Bodhi (urgent call for feedback)

[Dominik 'Rathann' Mierzejewski]

On Sunday, 28 February 2010 at 11:44, Dodji Seketeli wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 01:23:21AM +0100, Dominik 'Rathann' Mierzejewski wrote:
> > Speaking as someone who is still on F11, I want the latest software
> > as long as it doesn't break anything, because most often there are
> > new useful features in it.
> 
> I think one of the problems is precisely that "new features as long as 
> it doesn't break anything" is practically impossible to ensure today.

On the contrary, it works quite well in practice.
 
> When it happens, it's mostly by luck as there is obviously not enough 
> testing happening between the moment when the upstream package is 
> released and the moment when we push it into Fedora stable.

I don't think letting packages rot in -testing longer will solve anything.
Those who have time to track -updates or who care about some specific
packages will pull them from koji or test them from -testing. What might
help is to advertise -updates more and encourage users to enable it and
give feedback.

> To maximize testing for a given package, it would require at least e.g.  
> a "Rawhide to Branched" cycle, or/and more time in updates-testing to 
> give people an opportunity to test the package more and/or some 
> $SOLUTION.

Among my friends and users, nobody uses even updates-testing. They don't
have the time for such things. So from my point of view, more delay before
a package hits stable won't change anything for better. 

> What would you propose to to maximize the chances of ensuring your "new 
> features as long as it doesn't break anything" scenario?

I think it is, in general, safe to assume that maintainers know best when
to push updates, as long as there are clear guidelines. I object to making
life harder for all maintainers to punish a select few who make mistakes
or just don't know any better.

So - leave things as they are, but educate the errant maintainers.
Maybe mentors or other provenpackagers could step up here?

Regards,
R.

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