On Wed, 16 Apr 2003, Björn Stenberg wrote:
> However, it still means packages get bogus dependencies that keep them out
> of testing. Even if the package in question was already accepted in stable.

The issue is: Define BOGUS.

Most of the time, the maintainers of the -dev packages know very well
why they have changed the versioned dependencies.  It is also a
no-granularity solution, for which the only alternative is full-blown symbol
versioning as done by glibc (i.e. you keep old ABIs around, even!).

> Let me be blunt and ask: Is this a "we don't care, go away" issue or why is
> this so difficult to discuss? If it was a frequently asked (and answered)

The shlib dep system is well explained in the developer documentation, and
it is almost never a matter of curiosity of non-developers... it is also the
best that can be done AFAIK.  Only people building packages need to direct
interact with it, and only if they are responsible for a library package,
even... otherwise it is all automatic.

As for shlib information keeping stuff out of testing, that's the wrong
POV.  THAT *is* the entire charter of testing: if we don't know it will
work, don't let it in.  The system is working as designed.  If you want
the packages to flow in testing, you need to make sure their dependencies
do.

I pay little attention to testing, so I don't know exactly what is freezing
it right now, but the truth is: people who care about testing are encouraged
to clean up the bugs *in unstable* that are holding things from testing, or
to go away (fixing the bugs are the ONLY desired way to get things into
testing).  Sometimes the bugs are not in packages, but in infrastructure or
something else... but that's rare.

There isn't much else we can do, really.  We have to keep the distribution
in testing and stable coherent, so that means fix stuff in unstable, and
only let it get to testing when dependencies are satisfied (and new bugs not
added, subject to some manual control by aj).

If you need to live in the bleeding edge (I do), then use unstable and take
the proper precautions to not get caught in major breakages just when you
needed your system working the most...

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh

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