On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 2:46 AM, Pascal Bleser <pascal.bleser@opensuse.org> wrote:
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Sorry for breaking the thread, but it's on purpose: let's try to focus a bit on _one_ topic, the contrib repository (and please don't reply on minor points, we're discussing the big picture here.. one thing at a time :)).
1) Duplication and home:* is killing the cat^WOBS ================================================= 2) OBS: too many repos ====================== Clearly, the number of repositories _is_ a problem.
I agree, that it's a problem for users. OBS Home repos and Duplication are needed for developers (for mini-forks) - to test patches against upstream packages. Having many repos is not good for deployment.
3) One big repository is rubbish ================================ Factory is doing _very well_ here. Yes, it has huge meta data, but it is working !
4) Factory-staging is pointless =============================== Factory is Novell's kingdom. Period. Agreed. (not very happy, but used-to)
Adding more packages to Factory really doesn't make sense. Personally, I'd rather tend to think that the opposite is a much better idea: reduce..
Migrating packages from "Core" to "Extras" ? huh? This is a possibility _only after_ we will have contrib repo established and proven to work.
Always keep in mind that packages in Factory are _very_ different from packages in any other repository, because it means that - - there _must_ be a committed maintainer (security, bugfixes) for every single one of them
We can provide updates to major bugfixes for Contrib. Not sure about security, as I'm not security expert.
5) Mimicking other distros ========================== Obviously, looking at what works and what doesn't in other distros makes sense. But the grass is always greener on the other side.
Alexey, are you aware of the issues Debian users are encountering with those 18000 packages ? Don't just throw some numbers into the room. And Fedora isn't openSUSE: Fedora is much more of a playground for experimenting and throwing new stuff at their users than openSUSE is, because openSUSE is the foundation of SLE releases... and because we, openSUSE users, value that relative stability (ok, arguably, GNOME has Pulseaudio in 11.0 but well.. I guess you see my point ;))
Yes, I understand that both Fedora & Mandriva are much less stable than openSUSE. I want only stable packages to migrate into contrib.
6) Stability is the key ======================= The goal of the contrib repository must indeed be "stability", which essentially means two things: - - feature freeze: when the Factory repository is freezed, the contrib repository must be freezed too; only allow bugfix upgrades (as, clearly, I doubt we'd find enough human resources to backport fixes) and reject feature upgrades - - stable software: packages that are in there need a lot of testing and must hence be picked carefully
The point is to make an "additional" type of repository, not an "always the latest".
Yes, "Contrib" is planned to be a community-driven extension of Factory, with all Factory standards and limits applied. This means, that user's will have early version of contrib available for 11.1. "early" doesn't mean unstable, but it means that number of packages are expected to be limited. Only stable software will make it into contrib. All unstable software will remain in user's Home projects in OBS.
And then we should think about how to have those packages tested properly in order to gain an acceptable level of quality in there when openSUSE distro releases happen (or, rather, when they're freezed). Following the alpha/beta/RC cycles of Factory and issue the same calls for testing could be an option.
Yes, it will "Cook" together with the Factory - just like Mandriva's Cooker and their contrib :) - although with better QA & Stability. If you are interested to participate, you can add yourself in the "contrib"'s home page. Link: http://en.opensuse.org/Contrib -- -Alexey Eromenko "Technologov" --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-factory+help@opensuse.org