https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=466300
User tiwai@novell.com added comment
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=466300#c5
--- Comment #5 from Takashi Iwai
OTOH, I've got already bug reports several times that some extensions were disabled as default.
You can simply categorize these reports as invalid. There is not a single line in the documentation of mercurial indicating that mercurial should work in this way. Instead, you can read in the documentation of _each_ extension that if you want to use it you must switch it on.
No, this is the comment from a developer's perspective. From user's perspective, installing a package mans that he/she can use that functionality as is. It's rather a question of usability.
The important point is that a feature of the mercurial (in the official release) is implemented as an extension because the developers think that feature should be optional. Otherwise they would put it into the core part.
But again the same question arises: if it's optional (and can be considered unsafe, as you mentioned below), why it is installed *as default* at all even without asking you?
Moreover, the change of command behavior can be seen even often for the hg core commands.
It is not true. Mat Mackall has very strictly been insisting on the backward compatibility since the first stable release.
Moreover, as far as I understand, mercurials provides less strict backward compatibility and stability for the plugins than for the core.
Well, this seems a bit strange argument. All the stuff comes from the mercurial tarball itself, and most of them is even installed as default. If it's really unstable and not recommended to use, they should stop shipping and installing craps in a single tarball.
By 'stability', I mean 'unchanging' here. For example, the 'imerge' extension (also turned on by default on openSuse 11.1) seems to be broken on the latest development version and it is likely to be removed from the next stable release. This could not happen with a core command.
Heh, "hg forget" is forgettable... :)
BTW. there is no bugfree software (except TeX :)) and the developpers' resources are also limited. It is natural that more attention is payed on the stability of the core features than the on optional ones.
Of course I know it very well as a developer, too. But, it's irrelevant with the topic -- whether we allow the features available as default or not.
So, an ideal solution is to separate "core" and "others". This should be done in both the tarball level and in the packaging level.
Frankly, I'm not sure (rather skeptical) that "disabling *all* extesions" is good overall.
I can just repeat myself. This is the only safe solution, and also it seems to be what the Mercurial developers assume when making design decisions.
Let me repeat, too: stop installing extensions from mercurial tarball "as default" if they are unsafe or unsupported. Regarding the packaging: my proposal is to split the packages into two (or more) parts, the core package and extension package(s). The extension packages can have own hgrc to enable it per installation. If this approach is acceptable, I'll work on it for 11.2. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.