[maemo-developers] Repositories mess: conclusions and actions

[From: Graham Cobb]

On Sunday 11 November 2007 15:11:51 Ed Bartosh wrote:
> I'd like to discuss possible usage rules of extras-devel.
> Here is my initial thoughts:
> - For packages taken from Debian/Ubuntu/whatever package maintainer in
> debian/control should be changed to uploader's name/e-mail

I agree

> - Packages 
> should be built against latest versions of libraries from correspondent SDK
> repository and extras-devel 

I don't think I agree.  I am concerned about what will happen when V4.1 is 
issued.  For Bora I currently build my packages against 3.0 so that all 
releases of Bora can be supported.  I would expect that the same thing would 
happen with Chinook: packages should normally be built against the oldest 
libraries that will work and which do not conflict with the latest libraries.  
Otherwise users may experience unexpected (and partial) upgrades of base 
system components due to installing an application.  Will Nokia test all 
possible combinations of partial OS upgrades when 4.1 comes out?

This is a complex issue which also requires some further thought from the 
point of view of autobuilder requirements.

> - extras-devel repository should contain all 
> dependencies for applications except of already installed on the device. It
> means that users only need to add extras repository to be able to install
> applications from it. No other repositories should be needed for that, even
> maemo SDK.

I agree for packages which are expected to be installed by end users.  
However, there are packages which are designed for installation in an SDK or 
build environment which may depend on the SDK.  For example, normally library 
source packages generate two packages: libfoo and libfoo-dev.  libfoo is 
designed to be installed on the device and should only depend on other extras 
packages and repositories shipped by Nokia.  But libfoo-dev (which is used by 
developers of applications which use libfoo) may depend on packages in the 
SDK.  Note that the build environment itself has to be able to install 
libfoo-dev in order to build any applications which depend on libfoo.

> - It should be possible to upgrade devices and scratchbox targets from
> extras-devel with apt-get dist-upgrade and with AM. Developers and testers
> should upgrade their devices from extras-devel and report possible issues
> to package uploader/project bug tracking system.

That is a good goal but it requires that Nokia make the same commitment for 
their repositories: apt-get dist-upgrade should be safe.  Also, until Nokia 
can support OS upgrades using apt-get I presume we would limit this to the 
same major version of the OS.

Graham