On Tue, Mar 12, 2019 at 6:20 PM Christopher <ctubbsii(a)fedoraproject.org> wrote:
Addendum: some of us part-time packagers, which depended on these
packages to build our own Java packages don't know how to convert to
modular packaging. I'm still trying to learn in my spare time, but I
don't know where to look and have limited time. It was nearly all the
spare cycles I had just to learn RPM, Fedora RPM packaging policies,
and how to use fedpkg, koji, and bodhi. Now... I'm kinda lost again
and feel like I'm starting over from scratch. I can't be the only one.
I still think a lot of this is being driven by experienced Fedora
packagers, and those involved in composes, but without a lot of regard
to the casual or relatively inexperienced packager. pkgdb was a highly
usable tool for inexperienced packagers, as it was a "one stop shop"
for everything related to your package... but now... it's hard to find
all the tools you need to do packaging.
I have several Java packages that depend on one another, as well as
dependencies now in modular repos. I have no idea where to get
started. Which ones should be in the same module? Should each RPM be
put in separate modules? How do I create convert my packages to
modules? What is the workflow for builds? For updates? Do I still use
fedpkg to submit to koji and bodhi? How will users install my RPMs
now? I feel a bit overwhelmed by all of this... and I'm sure I should
be spending more time trying to figure all this out on my own... but I
really don't know where to start.
With "addon modularity" approach we currently use people shouldn't be
required to convert anything to modules. The idea is that parts of
Fedora can be modularized upon maintainer discretion. This change
should be transparent to users that are not aware of modularity.
Likewise, other Fedora developers should be able to maintain their
packages, even if their dependencies move to modules. That is not
possible without ordinary (non-modular, "ursine") packages being able
to be built against modular content. Unfortunately Fedora developers
(represented by FESCo) decided to forbid use of modules for building
non-modular packages. This was a sad and very disappointing decision
to read about and it was the direct cause that made me make the final
decision to orphan all packages I used to maintain for years.
Personally I think modularity is a great tool that will allow *me* to
reduce the effort needed to maintain packages and at the same time
improve user experience. But your mileage may vary. The effort that
packagers need to make in order to learn the new technology and change
their workflow may greatly outweight any possible gain from
modularity, especially for packagers that maintain fewer packages.
Therefore I discourage developers from moving their packages to
modules if they don't see the benefit for them and their users.
Instead I encourage people to talk about the problem. I hope FESCo
will finally realize how important it is to allow building any package
against modules and change the policy, allowing modules to be used as
build dependencies for non-modular packages.
--
Mikolaj Izdebski