Unstable EPEL? (frequent package updates)

[Andy Gospodarek]

On Tue, Jul 01, 2008 at 02:54:36PM +0100, Paul Howarth wrote:
> Ray Van Dolson wrote:
> >I'm somewhat torn though.  It's one thing to not update something that
> >provides an API to other programs, but maybe less of an issue to update
> >a client only program -- something like freehoo (CLI Yahoo messenger
> >client) which is something I would hate to see stuck at a really old
> >version just because it's against policy to update it.
> 
> I think there's a good case for a distinction between "top-level" 
> packages (like freehoo) and those that other packages depend on as you 
> say. And there's precedent for that in RHEL too, given that RHEL 5.2 has 
> a firefox 3 beta for instance.
> 

Well put, Paul.  Packages that mostly run standalone are appropriate
candidates for a rebase (like freehoo and firefox), but those that serve
as libraries or building blocks for other components should try to stay
as stable as possible from an ABI/API perspective.

I would like to think we can make this as open as possible (no rules
yet) and defer to the judgment of individual package maintainers when
deciding whether a rebase or backport is the way to go.  Generally those
closest to the code know which change is best -- they will just need to
be prepared with an answer that is better than, "I was too lazy to
backport" if they cause a lot of problems for users when rebasing.

-andy