Re: About how Go is updated in Fedora
On Sat, Dec 18, 2021 at 09:11:08AM +0100, Alejandro Saez Morollon wrote:
But AFAIK, only users can select a module stream, right? I mean,
packages
can't be build on top of a module stream
so new needs of package maintainers cannot be satisfy with modules.
Packages _can_ build on top of a module stream, but only if they themselves
are in other modules. Partly, this is a consequence of us deciding not to
have a "default module" functionality in Fedora, but the _general_ thing is
that modularity conceptually isn't really good for having arbitrary versions
of low-level tools.
It's best for whole language stacks meant for end-user selection, and for
big (like, "that's what this container or vm is _for_") applications (a
database server or similar, or a web app). For example, this is a problem
that it'd be ideal for:
https://ask.fedoraproject.org/t/shipped-versions-of-php-and-zabbix-fronte...
It can also be used for desktop apps that have separation through Flatpak.
It's not good for "many multi-purpose utilities and small tools in Fedora
Linux need to be built with one version, others need another version. (And I
think part of our misstep in bringing modularity to Fedora was opening it up
for folks to try basically anything... like the Jurassic Park thing, it
turns out that just because you _can_ doesn't mean you _should_, and I think
we'd have been more successful drawing those lines. But, ah well.)
So anyway, back to Go — I think that's basically the line on deciding how to
package this:
A) Are multiple versions primarily for _users_ and for a few "large" (in the
sense of "likely to be deployed as sole tool in a container or vm") apps,
or
B) Is it important to have multiple versions to build many different
packages in Fedora Linux itself?
In case A, modularity _should_ be a solution (and although I know people are
despairing about the technology overall, it's still being worked on and we
should figure out and fix anything that's less than ideal). In case B, it's
probably best to offer parallel "compat" packages, or use one of the other
"alternatives to modularity" approches people have suggested.
--
Matthew Miller
<mattdm(a)fedoraproject.org>
Fedora Project Leader