On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 18:57:40 -0500, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
Let's suppose I had a package approved for Extras, or whatever
Extras
is called this week. Would it still be necessary for me to do work by
hand to get a point release into the repo, as opposed to being able to
script the process?
make new-sources FILES="foo-2.0.tar.bz2 foo-data-2.0.tar.bz2"
blah-blah > foo.spec
make clog
make commit -F clog
make tag && make build
However, before you think you feel capable enough to script that and
submit each and every update like that, you still cannot avoid spending
time on creating good quality packages which are not infested with lots of
packaging bugs.
The point where some package submitters still fail nowadays in the same
way they would have failed with the old fedora.us-style "poor man's
infrastructure and procedures" is the package review process. It _still_
takes place in bugzilla. This is where reviewers find out whether a
submitter knows what he's doing and whether he shows interest in the
package.
If your answer is "yes" then, from my POV as a maintainer
of thirty-six
projects, the submission system is still broken as designed. It imposes
an overhead on me that I find unacceptable.
The question remains. Do I have to *do shit by hand* to get point
releases into the receiving end of your wonderful review process?
There is no review process for updates.
Can I script an update to the CVS?
Can you script the updates to your spec files in a reliable way?
And let me point out that you cannot script the testing of your rpms prior
to submitting them as official updates for Fedora. ;)
I *don't* *fucking* *care* what happens on the back end. If one
of the possible consequences is email bounceback that says "your
point release failed QA because *BLAH*, that's OK. I'll fix the
problem and try again.
Once more. There is no post-build QA process. There is no review process
for updates.
I've still got the bloody printed application form on my desk.
But
I never filled it out because nobody persuaded me that I wouldn't
be letting myself in for a nightmare of bureaucracy and repetitive
hand-work.
FUD.