On Tue, 2004-02-03 at 11:23, Kurt Lieber wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 03, 2004 at 10:37:50AM -0500 or thereabouts, Chris Gianelloni wrote:
> > I still like the idea of separate rsync branches.
> > 
> > gentoo-2004.0-stable and gentoo-2004.0-updates, both taken via rsync
> > with -stable being static per release and -updates being dynamic and an
> > overlay to ensure it always overrides the -stable unless a user emerges
> > a =cat/ver combo from stable.
> 
> So if I understand you correctly, you're suggesting having a total of 8
> rsync branches:
> 
> gentoo-2004.0-stable
> gentoo-2004.0-updates
> gentoo-2004.1-stable
> gentoo-2004.1-updates
> ...
> gentoo-2004.3-updates
> 
> Is that correct?

That is correct.

> If so, I like the idea in theory, but how do you make sure security fixes
> get into all the appropriate trees?  I can see a huge QA nightmare with
> devs forgetting to include some critical security fix in the older trees.

The "stable" team would help ensure this.  It would take quite a bit
more work, for sure, but I think the payoff is worth it in the long run.

> Then there's the whole issue of dependencies of security updates that I
> mentioned in my reply to danarmak.  That would still be a problem here.

This could definitely be a problem if we don't get a large enough group
working on the project.  I would think in most cases we would attempt to
backport patches to the older versions, if possible, and update
dependencies only as a last resort.  It would require a slight change
into our GLSA's to include information about the dependencies.  The main
function of the "stable" tree is to provide a much more static target
for users who wish to have a "standardized" environment.  By listing
dependencies, the administrator would be able to test the changes before
making them in his environment.

> We could write a whole crapload of logic into repoman so it could help with
> this, but that's a lot more invasive than I had planned on this GLEP being.

I agree.  I don't think repoman should take care of it beyond possibly
checking to make sure all items directly in DEPEND/RDEPEND for a given
package are marked stable when the package is marked stable.

I think the best way to do this would be to have a good team working on
the project.  Security updates are always something that needs to be
taken very seriously and there are a lot of very talented people out
there.  I don't think we would have a problem finding people if we
needed help.  The Gentoo community is just awesome for such things.

> That said, I do like the idea if you can help me understand how it's
> manageable without being overly cumbersome to implement.

Honestly, I don't know that this is something that we could do at the
moment, but it seems like it would be a great thing to shoot for as a
goal.  This would also be the perfect platform for a "boxed" Gentoo, as
it would be much more like a "traditional" distribution in releases, yet
still offer much of the power and flexibility of Gentoo.  There could
also be a fairly easy transition to the "other" Gentoo via a simple
make.conf setting.

Making the current portage tree into a -current would be very feasible. 
This would have -current being the way things are now, and the release
trees being the more frozen tree.

Like I said before, it *is* a long road and a ton of work, but I think
it would make for an excellent roadmap for Gentoo's future without
compromising people's wishes for where Gentoo is going and also for
where it is now.

> > Dual portage trees requires no portage changes as portage supports
> > multiple overlays now.
> 
> OK, good to know.  I wasn't sure if this was fully functional yet.  That
> said, is it easy to use?  Can I type "emerge sync --updates-overlay" or
> something similar?  If we're expecting users to use rsync directly, then I
> think that's probably unrealistic.

I haven't used it much yet, but I think something like possibly an
"updates" keyword for emerge would work wonders.

"emerge sync/rsync" for the /usr/portage tree, be it -current or
-2004.0, etc and a "emerge updates" for updating the releases.  The
emerge updates could perform the same function as emerge sync when
running on a -current tree.

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Developer, Gentoo Linux
Games Team

Is your power animal a pengiun?

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