Updates System

[Chris Weyl]

On 5/16/07, Toshio Kuratomi <a.badger at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-05-16 at 09:37 +0200, Hans de Goede wrote:
> > Thus I would like to voice my concern over the web-form part of this.
> > Preferably this would be handled in the makefile and when typing "make build"
> > for a non-devel branch my $EDITOR would get launched opening a pre-filled
> > template update anouncement, where I can add the necessary bits, and then upon
> > saving this gets automatically entered into the updates system.
> >
> > Basicly every step added to the process is one too much, thus we should try to
> > not add any steps if not absolutely necessary. Don't get me wrong, I'm not
> > against using a proper updates scheme instead of the rolling model of extras
> > (although that always worked well for me). But the whole workflow should be
> > made as smooth as possible, as smooth as baby's buttocks preferably.
>
> Would a curses-style interface work for you?  It looks like it would be
> pretty easy to write a simple tui in python that first has you fill in
> the fields similar to the web form, pops open your editor on a temp file
> to enter/edit some freeform text, and then submits it to the update
> system using JSON-RPC.  Authenticating using the SSL certs might be a
> bit harder but we could use passwords until that is resolved.

If we're going down this road, I'd personally prefer a couple things.
(And I find myself agreeing with most of what Ralf is saying here --
most of us aren't being paid for our work in Fedora...  We should be
aware of the impact these changes are having, and ensure that they're
communicated and discussed with the community at large _prior_ to
implementation!  No one wants a repeat of the review process changes
debacle.)

* a "make push" command that could be run to push a package w/o any
manual intervention.  For most packages, a "make tag build push" would
suffice, and the world wouldn't come to an end.

* a simple cli tool to allow one's pending packages to be queried, and
pushed in part or in full.  This tool should have a non interactive
mode (that is, be able to be run w/o requiring manual intervention).

* a published remote interface that will allow people to write their
own tools to manipulate the pending updates queue.  I'm particularly
impressed with the koji published api vs the plague one; this is a
good trend.  (Now, if I could just get more information on the
bugzilla API...)

In other words, a more robust updates system would seem to be a good
thing -- but it's not always appropriate.  Let's try to preserve the
simplicity and efficientcy that has served Extras so well where we
can.

                                                      -Chris
-- 
Chris Weyl
Ex astris, scientia