Strange package dependency problem

[Richard Hally]

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	fedora-test-list-bounces at redhat.com
[mailto:fedora-test-list-bounces at redhat.com]  On Behalf Of William Hooper
Sent:	Friday, March 19, 2004 11:04 PM
To:	fedora-test-list at redhat.com
Subject:	Re: Strange package dependency problem

Let me expand on this so it doesn't sound so harsh...

William Hooper said:
>> Are you complaining about people complaining?  Maybe they are
>> complaining because yum and up2date are not working?
>
* up2date and yum are working just fine.
Bulls*!t, sometimes they just hang, sometimes they blow chunks. Take a look
at the number of bugs that have been filed on them. Doesn't that give you a
clue that something is wrong?

The package tree is broken.  Since this is development, this is not
unexpected.

Dependencies are sometimes fixed the next day. Maybe a little test before
the days build is released would catch some of these. And the messages could
be improved to describe what needs to be excluded!!
>> Why don't
>> either of those programs just skip the packages that are having
>> problems and continue on?
>
> Because that isn't what they are designed to do.

I want to know where there are problems so I can find out if they are on
my side or if the tree is broken.

> [snip]
>
>> The package management system is not working when it holds up
>> multiple packages in the queue that don't have dependency
>> problems for one or two that do.
>
> The package management system is continuing to provide you with a
> consistent system and not breaking your existing packages.
>
>> If that is the way the package
>> management system is designed then maybe it should go back to
>> the drawing board.
>
> Let us know when you have code to test.

The time spend coding these features for a condition that shouldn't happen
in Real Life(TM) doesn't make sense.  It makes more sense to put that time
into FC2 Test2 (which by definition will be a non-broken tree).  And no, a
Test1 release is not Real Life(TM).

Imo, you just don't get. Things Happen(tm),  more robust programs handle
them and especially in a network environment it is important to do so. And I
not just talking about "dependencies".

I'm sure that if you came up with some good quality patches that Seth
would look at them, but from where I'm sitting it is a waste of precious
developer time.
If you don't you think volunteer time is more precious than "developer" time
think about doing without it.
Every hour spent by a developer on making improvements in this fundamental
facility will save tens or hundreds of hours of other peoples time. That
savings could be better spent on the areas in which they are interested.  In
my case, SE Linux, which some people seem to think is holding up the whole
mess.
And further more, an addition to the hardware and bandwidth supporting
downloads would also payoff handsomely as well.

Richard Hally