On 11/20/2011 03:32 PM, Greg Lindahl wrote:
On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 08:38:18AM -0600, Johnny Hughes wrote:
Again ... not sure what you think CR is.
CR is basically dumping all updates as we get them built and working into a repo that people can install in real time, instead of waiting a month (oe more) for every single update to complete before we release anything (our current practice). I am really failing to see how that is what you are talking about at all ... maybe I am lost.
That's exactly what I'm talking about. Sorry that I wasn't clear. Let me try again with an example:
Let's say that "foo" is one of the many packages updated in 6.1.
With CR, let's say that "foo" happens to be the first 6.1 package added to 6.0-CR.
When I install "foo" from 6.0-CR, I am now running a combination of 6.0 + a single 6.1 rpm. This combination has probably never been tested by upstream; almost all of the upstream people installed almost all of the new 6.1 rpms together.
But, any combination of the released package set should work together (within the requires in the RPMs of course).
People update only a subset of packages all the time, mostly because of custom software that they have done themselves.
But I think I actually agree with one point you are making. I truly believe the CR should be exactly as it is now ... optional. If you want to use it, you can easily issue the command:
yum install centos-release-cr
And if you want to do it only as a released version (no CR), then that is OK too and it should be (IMHO) the default.
I'm here posting about this issue because I'm responding to this question:
What stability problems would you expect from updates beyond a point release? The whole point of an 'enterprise' distribution is the effort they make to not break api's across a whole major-rev's life. Would an upstream system break if you selectively update packages beyond a point release without doing a full update?
The fact that upstream hasn't tested these rpm combinations means that there's risk involved.
You are correct that some ABIs do change ... BUT ... in that case they will include that in the RPM by something like "xulrunner > X.Y.Z", then you can only install FOO if you meet the requirements. You absolutely should be able to install any installable combination that is not hard coded with a version in the requirements. If you can't then the RPM requirements are not properly programmed and it is a bug.