On Sun, Sep 01, 2002 at 07:35:25PM -0400, Joey Hess wrote: > Standard procedure for NMU's was considerably relaxed (or rather, > clarified) this winter by the release manager. The developers reference > is just that: a reference of typical best practice. Sometimes it's > expedient to not follow its every letter, and that's ok.
I think that doing things for "expediency" can come back to haunt us. If NMUs are not properly logged in the BTS, maintainers can miss them and end up uploading newer versions later that lack the NMU code. Furthermore, I have seen plenty of cases where NMUs break the package more than they fix it. There is reason for the procedures we have. I'm concerned that a single person has the power to dictate such dramatic changes in our procedures. Why is the NMU procedure not codified in Debian Policy? There, at least, we have a better mechanism of updating it. In any case, the reference does little good if it does not reflect the current state of things. -- John