On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 12:13 PM, Jeroen Roovers <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Jun 2014 11:40:19 -0400
> Ian Stakenvicius <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> But... if I unmask it, -everyone- using ~arch will install it and
>> it'll break all the systems that it doesn't work on, which -could- be
>> quite a lot at this point.  :D
>
> Which is great, because then you have an actual test result, whereas
> before you had nothing but a stupid mask.
>
> And lots of people are suddenly very much interested in getting any and
> all bugs fixed in the new ebuild, whereas before you only had the stupid
> mask.

This subjects a lot of users to unnecessary inconvenience.

Testing is a necessary inconvenience.  Anybody who uses ~arch should
be prepared for things to sometimes break.  However, foisting
completely alpha stuff on users that the maintainer simply hasn't
gotten a chance to test yet seems excessive.

I'm perfectly fine with the suggestion of requiring a bug reference
when masking for testing.  I think that adds value.  I just don't
think that giving the maintainers only the options of introducing
untested packages directly to ~arch or not putting them in the tree at
all is an unnecessary dichotomy.  Why tie our own hands?

Again, by all means lets require bug references and consider a masks
in the absence of activity a QA issue.  I'm less concerned with the
actual duration and more with the level of activity.  If it takes six
months of hard work to get something into the tree, that isn't a
problem, but six months of just rusting is a separate matter.

Rich

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