Updates System

[Warren Togami]

Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> Possibly, because RH once again seems to have failed to communicate what
> THEIR plan is and seems to be pressing something which doesn't seem to
> be clear to themselves onto the community.
> 
> At the moment I am primarily referring to this nonsensical regressions
> this new release flow and koji impose on my packages. I see regressions
> all over the place: What once was simple, now requires additional effort
> and wastes my time.
> 
> Ralf

Ralf,

You are going way overboard in escalating what is entirely a non-issue.

All package updates going out after F7 release will need to go through 
the update system.  Pushing packages in this way is NOT a horrible 
burden that you make it out to be.  This is only formalizing a process 
that was very uncontrolled in the past only because we didn't have time 
to write anything like this.

Fact of the matter is, we were doing poorly in Fedora in the past 
without package update announcements for Extras.  Sure, this was 
harmless in most cases, but in the case of security this was quite 
possibly dangerous and not in the interest of spreading necessary 
awareness to our community.

Today Core updates happen using this update system.  It is a smooth and 
formal process.

1) Maintainer checks changes into CVS branch.
2) Maintainer builds.
3) Maintainer tests that build.
4) Maintainer fills out the form with the N-V-R, optional security 
(yes/no), optional Bug numbers fixed, and some fills in some details of 
what the update is about, then chooses updates or updates-testing.
5) Submit, where security and/or rel-eng team pushes it through.

I personally don't care what the update announcement part says.  If you 
truly have nothing meaningful to say about it, I personally don't care 
if you write:
- Update to new version
- Updating because I feel like it
- Bump

Bodhi really isn't that bad currently, and I suspect we will make 
further improvements down the line to more smoothly integrate it into 
other parts of the package process.  If there is enough demand, we might 
even be able to write an optional TUI interface to accommodate users who 
want to avoid a web driven push process.

This is necessary and we are going to do it.  I believe after working 
out some initial kinks, participants will realize how much it really 
doesn't suck.

However, if you don't wish to participate then you are free to leave.

Warren Togami
wtogami at redhat.com