IronPython and Mono are very old. How can we get an update?

[Vernon Cole]

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 6:26 AM, chalserogers at gmail.com
<chalserogers at gmail.com> wrote:
[...]
> Mono's upstream 2.10 release page suggests that they're shipping both
> IronPython and IronRuby in the main mono distribution, but looking at
> the source I can't find it, so I'm not sure what's happening there.

IronPython and IronRuby are now building from the same source.
 https://github.com/IronLanguages/main

> Regardless, Mono 2.10.1 is now available in Debian experimental, and
> so will be available early on in the Oneiric (what will become Ubuntu
> 11.10) development cycle.  Since we're very close to the end of the
> Natty cycle upgrading to 2.10.1 presents too big a regression risk to
> pull it in this time.
>
> What needs to be done is to update the dlr-languages² source package.
> This is maintained by the pkg-cli-libs team in Debian, and we sync it
> across from there.  As we're well after Natty feature freeze, updating
> in Natty would require a Feature Freeze exception¹.  As there seems to
> be only one package with a(n optional) dependency on IronPython in the
> archive it *might* be possible to get an FFe and have the new package
> in the Natty release, it would be more reasonable to aim for Oneiric.

One can RUN IronPython 2.7 on Mono 2.6.7, but not BUILD it,
http://ironpython.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=IronPython%20on%20Mono
So I'm not sure how well an FFe would work.  I'm assuming that the
build engine runs on the same Mono version as the release?

  Perhaps we will need to maintain a .NET 2.0 compatible binary of IPy
on the IronPython site until well after Debian releases with Mono 2.10
under the hood.

> If you'd like help in the mechanical process of updating the package,
> the Ubuntu packaging guide³ has a good rundown, or feel free to ask -
> IRC #debian-cli on oftc.net is friendly and generally active.  Since
> it looks like dlr-languages is one of the more complex things to
> package, I could probably find the time to update it in the next month
> or so if you're not comfortable with the process.
>
¹: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreezeExceptionProcess
²: http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-cli-libs/packages/dlr-languages.git;a=summary
³: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackagingGuide

Okay, I just looked at the link, and would require a month or so for
me to figure out how to do it. I have been a bit hesitant about
changing things I don't understand, ever since I crashed the Internet
in several neighboring states by incorrectly updating a gateway
router. (Long story, and the Internet was much smaller then.) So, yes,
please make those changes when you can.  :-)

Make sure that the source is coming from github, not codeplex.
I'll see that the build patches get into a new tarball, They are now
in the git trunk but not backported to the 2.7 maintenance branch yet.
How often do you fetch a new tarball?
--
Vernon