package EOL

[Nicolas Mailhot]

Le samedi 29 avril 2006 à 10:07 +0200, Hans de Goede a écrit :
> 
> Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> > 
> > It's way better to have a gray repo rather than putting black sheep in
> > the main repo just because some packagers find them too convenient to
> > drop (and are ready to accept the convenience/security compromise a
> > uninformed user may not find so cool)
> > 
> 
> I disagree, one one side we already have to much repos as is

Well, to be blunt you really have three choices :
1. split FE in high and low-level of support packages (low-level being
what I defined before more or less), putting low-level in a gray repo
2. raise the bar and remove from FE everything which would have fallen
into the gray repo
3. continue to accept in FE everything which is FOSS and legal as long
as one packager is interested enough to do the initial submission

In 1. and 2. users can have a clear view on FE quality (1. is pretty
much what FC does wrt FE, 2. what RHL/FC did before FE existed)

In 3. FE can contain pretty much everything from the best to the worse,
which is frankly frightening from a user POW, especially since as time
passes, the repo grows, contributing procedures get refined and easier
to follow, the proportion of questionable material will form a bigger
and bigger part of FE. Let's face it, failed or struggling projects on
sf vastly outnumber successful ones (as the compat lib number vastly
outnumbers the current lib number), well known solid software gets
packaged first and then comes the time of gray packaging.

If you keep everything in a single repo well at some point users will
judge it too dangerous to import in yum directly, will cherry pick
packages manually instead, and things will go downhill. Which has been
known to happen to other repo that put convenience a little too high on
their priorities.

When people submit packages that would be rejected by the vast majority
of FE users, ask for packaging guidelines exemptions, all because some
small minority is ready to accept the packaging compromises, I'd rather
have their package put in a grey repo rather than have a yes/no
black-and-white choice like right now. Ditto for packages on their way
to orphaning no one really knows how to treat (because a maintainer may
still materialise, even though the package has been in dereliction for
months). Or stuff which is useless alone but does not have the remaining
bits in the repo.

-- 
Nicolas Mailhot
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