Stable is not stable enough?!

Freespirit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Aug 2003 Posts: 84

Hi all.

Over the last year or two I have installed Gentoo on quite a few systems, and every single time, I have run into problems that has taken several days and a few forum posts to solve. I am competent enough (at least thats what I tell myself) to solve most of the minor issues that can arise during an installation, so the issues I have needed help with have not been completely n00b stuff.

Most of the problems have beenemerge errors that have ben less than trivial to figure out.

This sets me thinking if the testing before marking a package stable could be improved to make it less likely to encounter build errors when emerging only stable packages. Most likely however, this would delay the new packages from being marked stable long enough that people starts complaining about this being slower to update packages than Debian-Stable... :-)

What I propose is somethin along the lines of a new keyword or simmilar for marking packages mature, meaning that they have been in the wild long enough that they should build without issues.

Well, just s stray thought... lets hear how stupid you all think it sounds! :-)

Freespirit

Earthwings · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:03 pm Post subject:

Notice the current policy states that an ebuild has to (should) be in testing at least 30 days without a bug before it can be marked stable.

Moved from Portage & Programming.

doode · n00b Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 13

Also note that stability is not a selling-point or focus for gentoo.

joem · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:58 am Post subject:

doode · n00b Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 13

Lokheed · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:15 am Post subject:

Lokheed · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:15 am Post subject:

Khaine · n00b Joined: 16 Nov 2004 Posts: 33

you should try running unstable

I kid, I Kid

Freespirit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Aug 2003 Posts: 84

Of course packages are not admittet to stable without some amount of testing.

All i am saying is, that I seem to encounter quite a few bugs, with stable versions of major packages, and I'm not the only one. See this trhead for an example https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=285221&highlight=

Maybe I am just exeptionally good at breaking stuff.

I am just asking if it would be possible to somhow mark packages as being a nod more tested than the stable branch. Not even sure I would use it for my own computers as I like bleeding edge software, but it might expand Gentoo's appeal somewhat in the server area.

I remember a survey a while back that asked what could be done to make Gentoo more usable as a server os... This is one thing I think would help!!

Carlo · Developer Joined: 12 Aug 2002 Posts: 3356

Freespirit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Aug 2003 Posts: 84

thechris · Veteran Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Posts: 1203

well, testing versions may be what's called for... most of the problems seem to be fixed with "use the version in testing."
_________________
HW problems. It's a VIA thing.

aethyr · Veteran Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 1085 Location: NYC

What you didn't mention in this thread is that you're using amd64. I expect there to be a few more problems with amd64 than x86, just by nature of how new it is.

Freespirit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 14 Aug 2003 Posts: 84

G.N.A. · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 81

Two differing statements are being made:

1) End users have problems that make them think gentoo isn't tested well enough.

2) People in Gentoo feel they work very hard to create stable releases.

Understanding would probably help here.

GNA