On Mon, 8 Mar 2021 at 12:36, Andrius Merkys <mer...@debian.org> wrote:
> Hi, > > On 2021-03-08 15:44, Albert van der Horst wrote: > > I don't see the problem here. If there is a bug in an old version > supplied with Debian, the bug report lands with Debian. > > Not necessary. Many users cannot tell whether a bug is caused by > upstream code or Debian packaging. Many users do not know about Debian > BTS. Thus Debian-specific bugs land in upstream trackers, and some > upstreams do not want to provide support outside what they consider > "canonical" use of their software. > > > Then Debian can solve the bug report by renewing upstream. Sot that bug > report is not against the package, but against the packaging. > > True, but this might be slowed down by the update process in stable. > > > If it persists in the newest version, the bug can be passed to > > upstream. > > Again - if the report ends up in Debian BTS. > > > Bug reports will not land at the developpers desk, or Debian has to take > measures that they don't, e.g. by replacing e-mail addresses. No reasonable > upstream developer will object to such an arrangement. > > Many users will not look into e-mail addresses. They will search online > using the name of the software, and will arrive at the same developers' > desk. This might be offset by renaming entire pieces of software, but > renamed packages become hardly visible and all valuable online material > related to the original name becomes hidden from users. > Renaming should be like "debian-sid-<original_name>" for supported by Debian packages. There are, however, use-cases where packaging is not helpful to users: 1. a package that relies on "customized" configurations of widely used libraries (hdf4 and gdal are examples of libraries with many optional extensions). 2. a package whose purpose is to provide highly optimized versions of common libraries for low volume hardware (such as large HPC systems). There are many potential hardware configurations with new configurations being released multiple times a year. There are complicated issues of reproducibility and testing that don't have one size fits all answers. -- George N. White III
