[OpenIndiana-discuss] New OI /dev release, release structure

[Alexander Pyhalov]

Hello.

Bob Friesenhahn писал 02.10.2014 23:43:
> On Thu, 2 Oct 2014, Nikola M. wrote:
> 
>> On 09/28/14 04:40 PM, Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
>>> Hopefully some kind person with necessary knowlege and access will 
>>> push an updated bash package which works on 151a8/9 so that servers 
>>> based on OpenIndiana are no longer a disaster situation.
>> It would imply that OI servers have automatic updates turned on and 
>> that is not exactly the case I think.
> 
> The system administrator would have to request the package update.
> First, the package update needs to be available.
> 
> As an OI user, I am unable to tell who is/has produced OI and who is
> still able to produce new packages and prepare releases.
> 
> I continue to hear about hipster but then I also hear that there is no
> longer a useful path from 'dev' to 'hipster' and that 'hipster' is
> more unstable.  I get the impression that 'hipster' mostly focuses on
> X11 desktop and multimedia software.

First statement is unfortunately true. To make /dev => /hipster update
possible we need
1) to republish packages which were not rebuilt since /dev a8 with 
higher numbers (2014.x)
2) republish incorporations so that they either are empty or depend on 
actual packages
3) publish neccessary obsoletion / renaming packages
4) test that at least typical text / GUI install can be updated from 
latest /dev to /hipster.
Noone volunteered to do it yet.

Second statement is not accurate enough. There is a lot of activity on 
desktop software, because it should be adapted to new build system.
Also, desktop support is one of OI differentiating features among 
illumos distributions.
So we (at least I) care about both server and desktop software.
However, I understand that with current development model installing 
Hipster on production server is
some kind of insanity, as we sometimes update software in incompatible 
ways (major versions update)
and sometimes testing is insufficient. It doesn't mean that I forget or 
don't think about testing, it means
that there are no enough users to thoroughly test system (for example 
today I had to fix python because after last update
recompilation with gcc4.8 triggerred specific bug which was found out 
only when I tried to build python-dependent
software in illumos-gate, however, tests, shipped with python were 
successfully passed (at least, no difference
with previous python version)).

As for multimedia software, I think SFE deals with this much better now. 
At least
they shouldn't avoid shipping programs which are illegal in US 
(different codecs, video/audio players, even wine).
---
System Administrator of Southern Federal University Computer Center