How long do packages remain masked?

Message

rahulthewall · Post by **rahulthewall** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:21 am

Now, this is not a rant or anything. I was just wondering how long do packages remain masked. For example, xorg-x11-7.3 is masked. While on some other distros it is already the default. I know that if I want to install it I can go ahead and do it, that is not my point. What I want is some information on the process of packages being marked as stable. How does that happen, and how long does it take?

Cheers
Rahul

bunder · Post by **bunder** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:37 am

i guess it depends on bug and stability testing (typically)... there might be a bug on bugs.gentoo.org which states how far along the new ebuild is...

cheers

genmich · Post by **genmich** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:55 am

I personally wish they would stabilise some ebuilds more quickly if they are only subreleases/bug fix versions and not a big version jump in the program (e.g. GIMP). I know I can unmask them myself, which I did for example with GIMP 2.4.5 and it's running without any problems. Perhaps there should be a gentoo test-machine as a reference and if it builds there and runs without problems it should be marked stable (like kde dashboard).

Gentoo is a very up-to-date distro but it could be even more

bunder · Post by **bunder** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:59 am

miga wrote:I personally wish they would stabilise some ebuilds more quickly

you could always become a developer and give us a hand... many hands make light (and hopefully faster) work...

failing that, you can always peruse bugs.gentoo.org and do testing...

cheers

genmich · Post by **genmich** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:13 am

True, created an account.
But how do I mark something as stable?

Take this example:
GIMP 2.4.4 is in portage and there is a version bump bug (http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=208232). This one is already closed cause the ebuild is in portage but it is still masked (http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-gfx/gimp). So how/where can I see what holds it back from getting stable in the tree? Or is that up to the maintainer?

bunder · Post by **bunder** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:21 am

from what i can see, you'd have to file a "stable request" bug... i'd perhaps start by asking the package dev, as i don't have any experience in getting packages fast-tracked through portage.

cheers

genmich · Post by **genmich** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:33 am

Ok, thanks!

tanderson · Post by **tanderson** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:38 pm

Well, the process is that usually the maintainer asks for something to be marked stable. The arch teams then test it to make sure there are no regressions. Then if they are satisfied it goes stable. The place you can help for now(while you aren't a developer) is in the testing. This is a rather large part. If you run amd64, you'll want to know we are way behind on stabilization bugs.

http://tinyurl.com/2uanmp

Is a list of all the bugs that need work. If you like testing enough, you can become an Arch Tester, which will make your reports more trustworthy to the arch teams.

Cheers,
Thomas

rahulthewall · Post by **rahulthewall** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:36 pm

So, if I add the following lines to my make.conf I would be able to help in the testing?

Code: Select all

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="-x86"

AllenJB · Post by **AllenJB** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:42 pm

You don't need to take your whole system testing to aid testing (in fact, I'd recommend against it personally). You can equally (or even better) aid testing using just package.keywords and only unmasking / keywording the packages you are interested in. The arch testers will do it this way, using a completely stable system except for the package(s) they're currently testing.

rahulthewall · Post by **rahulthewall** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:45 pm

Yeah, that is what I am currently doing. It was just that my package.keywords was getting bigger and bigger and so I thought why not go the full monty.

I guess since I am that eager to test xorg-7.3 I will just go ahead and give it a go.

tanderson · Post by **tanderson** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:58 pm

rahulthewall3000 wrote:So, if I add the following lines to my make.conf I would be able to help in the testing?
Code: Select all
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="-x86"

You would probably want

Code: Select all

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

rahulthewall · Post by **rahulthewall** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:14 pm

gentoofan23 wrote:
rahulthewall3000 wrote:So, if I add the following lines to my make.conf I would be able to help in the testing?
Code: Select all
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="-x86"
You would probably want
Code: Select all
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

As far as I know I have to use this:

Code: Select all

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="-x86"

to be able to use the testing branch of the x86 architecture. Correct me if I am wrong.

renrutal · Post by **renrutal** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:54 pm

rahulthewall3000 wrote:As far as I know I have to use this:
Code: Select all
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="-x86"
to be able to use the testing branch of the x86 architecture. Correct me if I am wrong.

If you want to use the testing branch as your default install, yes.

If you want to test a set of packages to stabilize it, you do it in a stable environment, only unmasking the specific set of packages you want to stabilize.

You don't do stabilization in an unstable environment.

steveL · Post by **steveL** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:58 pm

[post=4814915]Tip on stabilising stuff[/post]; apparently stabilisation requests are welcome, if people are using packages without issue and there's been no bugs reported.

Phoenix591 · Post by **Phoenix591** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:55 pm

the testing branch is ~(arch) , not -(arch) . I've been running a "testing" gentoo for a few months, things have seemed stable all around here. im on x86 btw.

rahulthewall · Post by **rahulthewall** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:29 pm

g2g591 wrote:the testing branch is ~(arch) , not -(arch) . I've been running a "testing" gentoo for a few months, things have seemed stable all around here. im on x86 btw.

Then maybe you can tell me something about Xorg 7.3. I recently installed it and everything seemed to work fine except the mouse and touchpad. The touchpad pointer always jumped back to the center of the screen whenever I tried to go to the edge of the screen. And the pointer of my USB mouse only moved in a vertical direction.
Any idea what might be causing this.

arnvidr · Post by **arnvidr** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:13 am

I had trouble when upgrading to Xorg 7.3 too, and it was solved by re-emerging a package related to the mouse. It might have been x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse

yoshi314 · Post by **yoshi314** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:50 pm

What I want is some information on the process of packages being marked as stable. How does that happen, and how long does it take?

i believe it takes much more time in source-based distro than in a binary one , because there are much more factors to consider, and much more dependency combinations to test.

steveL · Post by **steveL** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:34 am

yoshi314 wrote:
What I want is some information on the process of packages being marked as stable. How does that happen, and how long does it take?
i believe it takes much more time in source-based distro than in a binary one , because there are much more factors to consider, and much more dependency combinations to test.

Yeah; my feeling is that Gentoo does a lot of the in-depth testing for a great deal of software that everyone else uses. It's easy enough to get everything compiling on one setup (which is what a binary distro effectively is.) The quality of Gentoo bug reporting, both to upstream and from its users, is excellent imo; Gentoo users might be a bit naive as far as #bash is concerned

but they are a delight to work with, since you're expected to be able to read and use your brain to maintain the box ;p

antonlacon · Post by **antonlacon** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:16 am

rahulthewall3000 wrote:For example, xorg-x11-7.3 is masked. While on some other distros it is already the default.

Because X Server 1.4.0 is buggy. 1.4.1 has been in the planning stage for a few months now, with its release originally scheduled for last November. http://www.x.org/wiki/Server14Branch

I wouldn't be surprised if it was skipped entirely for Xorg 7.4 (X Server 1.5.0) due in April/May. http://www.x.org/wiki/Releases/7.4

ylonghome · Post by **ylonghome** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:56 pm

upgrading to Xorg 7.3 is too hard...

How long do packages remain masked?

How long do packages remain masked?

Re: How long do packages remain masked?