up2date "What's changed"

[Peter Jones]

On Fri, 2003-12-19 at 15:18, Tyler larson wrote:
> I would really like to see a "What's Changed" sort of feature when
> examining the to-be-installed packages in up2date. I'm not quite sure
> how that should be best implemented, though. 

That'd be nice, yeah.

> We've already got that nifty "View Advisory" button in the GUI. If all
> the updates actually HAD an advisory it would be great. As is, though,
> I've never actually seen an advisory on a Fedora package.

And you probably won't.  The plan (somebody correct me if it's changed
and I'm wrong) is to release new packages for Fedora, but not to do
Errata as were done with Red Hat Linux and are done with Red Hat
Enterprise Linux.

> The way I see it, we'd probably want to do something like one of the
> following:
> 
> * Start putting changelog-ish information in the advisory if the package
> is just an update

What does "just an update" mean?

> * Add the ability to view the changelog from up2date
> * Add the ability to view at least the last n entries in the changelog
> from up2date.

A package's changelog really shouldn't be used to document what's
changed in the payload of the package though.  The changelog, like the
release number, should be about the packaging itself -- that is, the
.spec file, not the software being packaged.

But if we *had* data stored about what changed in the actual software,
it would be cool to let you see it.

-- 
        Peter

Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as
kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic
pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.
                -- Not actually Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989