Pkg-go BoF meeting minutes
==========================
On Tuesday, we had the first in-person meeting of the team. We met for 2
hours to discuss our current issues and to plan for the future.
People present
--------------
Alexandre Viau (aviau)
Martín Ferrari (Tincho)
Paul Tagliamonte (paultag)
Sascha Steinbiss (satta)
Test files
----------
We discussed the issues raised about shipping test sources and fixtures
in the -dev packages. It was pointed out that they are not really needed
for autopkgtest or for reverse-dependencies, but that it will involve a
lot of work to achieve, so we decided to keep them for now.
Using -dev packages for development
-----------------------------------
Due to the friction that can bring with upstreams, it was agreed to
continue discouraging to use -dev packages for everyday golang development.
Outdated packages and binNMUs
-----------------------------
Paultag proposed automating the detection of packages which have been
compiled with old versions of libraries. He will implement a first
version that just sends emails to remind of needed binNMUs, with the
idea of some day automatically triggering wanna-build.
He also indicated that he wants this automation to detect and warn about
circular dependencies.
Git workflows
-------------
It was discussed about the problem of having so many different
workflows, as it makes it difficult to work on packages prepared by
other team members.
The agreement was to find one standard and make it part of the team's
policy and incorporate into dh-make-golang.
To that end, it is requested that everyone sends an email to the mailing
list describing their preferred workflow, and after a period of
discussion we agree to a conclusion.
dh-make-golang
--------------
A few times people expressed the desire for dh-make-golang to grow an
`--update` option, as most packages are trivial to update, but tedious
to do so.
Satta requested an option to disable SSL verification for badly
configured redirection sites.
x/tools package
---------------
We discussed the current breakage in x/tools, and agreed that it is a
core package and that we should make it a shared responsibility to keep
it in a good shape.
gccgo support
-------------
We talked about the status of gccgo, paultag explained how mainline
golang promises the compiler will always be buildable by gccgo, and how
that makes bootstrapping and cross-building way simpler.
We agreed on working towards making it a first-class citizen in the
future, using golang-any by default, and only reverting to golang-go
when needed.
API changes in upstream
-----------------------
We ranted at length about upstreams, and noted that we need a system
that provides early warning of API breakages. We discussed using ratt
and autopkgtest for that purpose.
Aviau pointed out that he usually requests upstreams to make releases
and that he is usually successful. Tincho pointed out the problems with
meaningless releases and with upstreams releasing once and then
forgetting to do it when needed.
We discussed the possibility of changing "soname"s by renaming packages
when we detect API incompatibilities, but concluded that in general it
is too much work and that it makes more sense to try and fix
reverse-dependencies by bugging upstream or patching them ourselves.
Team collaboration
------------------
On the topic of team collaboration, we agreed to avoid using the DM ACL
mechanism too much, and instead help active contributors to become DDs.
We also revisited the policy on team uploads, and concluded that we want
to continue with avoiding hard ownership of packages and that by default
everything is team-maintained.
Plan of action
--------------
There was some talk about things to do in the immediate future to
improve the team work:
* paultag will work on automated binNMU need detection
* Automated updating and testing of packages.
* Standarisation & documentation of workflows: Tincho will send a
request to the ML.
- After discussion, will be merged into policy & dh-make-golang.
* aviau volunteers to document dh_golang options.
* satta is going to take a look at policy cleanup.
Thanks to all for participating!
Tincho.
--
Martín Ferrari (Tincho)
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