Breezy Release Update (upstream version freeze TOMORROW)

Colin Watson cjwatson at ubuntu.com
Wed Jul 6 13:19:54 CDT 2005


On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 07:51:51PM +0200, Reinhard Tartler wrote:
> On 7/6/05, Colin Watson <cjwatson at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > The deadline for pending merges from Debian to be complete was
> > previously 14th July, but since that falls during Debconf this will be
> > extended by one week.
> 
> Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume this is the date when
> auto syncing from debian stops, right?

No, tomorrow is.

> How should we MOTU's proceed after that date when a package gets
> updated (no new upstream or a really small maintenance upstream
> release) in debian fixing some important bug?

The same way uploaders to main do: you either request a sync (we'll
approve it if it's reasonable), or you merge the isolated change. Since
there's no risk of changes to universe breaking e.g. the ability to
install Ubuntu, we can be relatively flexible about such things.

> 1. Add the package on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTUToSync and hope the
> ftpmaster will sync it

You need to *ask* for approval, although using a page to keep track of
the status is obviously no problem.

> 2a Upload it as Version 1.2-4 with adjusted upload target in the
> makefile (and really no changes)

Please never do this. It's very confusing, and it's unnecessary.

> 2b Upload it as Version 1.2-4ubuntu1 (documenting 

Don't do this either unless there are actual changes from 1.2-4 to
1.2-4ubuntu1 (not just a different upload target).

> 3. backport the changes and make upload a fixed 1.2-3ubuntu1 package?

That may be reasonable, for example if 1.2-4 introduced many other
less-important and inappropriate changes.

> Would Option 2a keep the package being autosync'ed again after breezy's release?

Autosyncing is inhibited if and only if the package's version matches
*ubuntu*.

> And next question, what about NEW Packages? As you can see on
> http://siretart.tauware.de/revu the queue for NEW Packages is quite
> long, and I don't expect it to get  shorter in the near future. May we
> upload NEW Packages regardless the Upstream Version freeze in
> univserse/multiverse?

You'll need to ask for approval. The point of the upstream version
freeze is not to hamper development, but to ensure that we have enough
time to stabilise new upstream code before release. When there isn't
enough time to stabilise new code, it can and should wait for the next
release cycle.

That said, we can generally be a bit more flexible in applying these
rules to universe/multiverse, depending on the situation. So consider
the approval to be an extra review step in order that universe is as
high-quality as possible when we release, not something that gets in
your way.

> What about packages from 3rd party repositories, like those from
> apt-get.org or marillats repository? Are they affected by upstream
> version freeze, too?

Yes, although again we can be flexible.

Cheers,

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]



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