On 2017-02-19 23:08+0100 Mario Emmenlauer wrote: > > Dear MSYS2 users / developers, > > I've start working towards a "stable" repository and would like suggestions! > Please comment!
[...] Hi Mario: I think it would be an excellent idea to have a more stable repository for those who are not comfortable with the rate of breakage that occurs for the present MinGW-w64/MSYS2 repositories. MinGW-w64/MSYS2 is not unique because packaging stability is a common problem for all free software distribution efforts. And the issue has been dealt with in a number of different but effective ways for various Linux distros. So you may want to look at what some of those distros do before making any final decisions about implementing a more stable version of MinGW-w64/MSYS2. For example, Debian (the only distro I have used since 2000) has two rolling releases (called "unstable", and "testing"), see <https://www.debian.org/releases/>. A given package gets promoted from "unstable" to "testing" only if that package and _all_ its package dependencies pass certain criteria (such as a successful build and for a fixed time interval after that build a lack of critical bug reports from users). That automated promotion system is so effective and breakage so rare on "testing" that most Debian desktop users tend to use the testing repository for Debian. (Debian stable is another story: it is a fixed-release repository that tends to be quite stable, but it is based on a very old testing snapshot which is why Debian desktop users in need of the latest desktop features tend to avoid it.) I haven't used ArchLinux, but it is an interesting distro from the MinGW-w64/MSYS2 perspective because pacman (before being ported for use by MinGW-w64/MSYS2) was originally developed for ArchLinux. The repositories for that free software distro are summarized at <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/official_repositories>. From the description there, ArchLinux historically struggled with the packaging stability issue, but eventually resolved it by splitting the packages into various categories like core (a limited number of essential packages which have stringent stability requirements) and extra (with less stringent stability requirements). All ArchLinux repositories are rolling releases so they have nothing equivalent to Debian stable, but my guess is core + extra have stability that is roughly equivalent to Debian "testing" (i.e., very good), and the ArchLinux "testing" versions of core and extra have stability roughly equivalent to Debian "unstable" and the current MinGW-w64/MSYS2 (i.e., mostly adequate but sometimes broken). Developing a mostly automated system similar to Debian's for promoting current MinGW-w64/MSYS2 packages to a more stable rolling release version of MinGW-w64/MSYS2 might take quite an effort to implement, but in the long run that might be less work than following a system similar to the apparent subjective one that ArchLinux has for promoting packages in its testing repository to core or extra. So, for example, you might go with non-automated/subjective to start and then automate it later, but, of course, as the implementer such choices are up to you. Anyhow, good luck with this potentially valuable project, and I hope the URL's I found above concerning the various choices made by other distros concerning package stability will be of some help to you. Alan __________________________ Alan W. Irwin Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca). Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net). __________________________ Linux-powered Science __________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Msys2-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/msys2-users
