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2024-08-30 |
Debian orphans bcachefs-tools |
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One problem fixed release distributions tend to run into, especially fixed distributions with long-term support options, is that upstream software is often built to rely on the latest versions of libraries. This puts fixed-release distributions in a difficult position because they usually don't apply major updates to libraries during the release cycle, but it's difficult to ship new versions of applications if they don't work with older versions of their dependencies. The Debian project is an especially conservative, fixed-release distribution and this places it in an awkward position when it comes to software that needs to be regularly updated. The bcachefs-tools maintainer for Debian has orphaned the package, largely due to the ever-changing dependencies and rapid release cycle of the upstream software. "I suppose if I were upstream I might look into the possibility of at least supporting a larger range of recent dependencies (usually easy enough if you don't hop onto the newest features right away) so that distributions with stable releases only need to concern themselves with providing some minimum recent versions, but even if that could work, the upstream author is 100% against any solution other than vendoring all its dependencies with the utility and insisting that it must only be built using these bundled dependencies. I've made 6 uploads for this package so far this year, but still I constantly get complaints that it's out of date and that it's ancient. If a piece of software is considered so old that it's useless by the time it's been published for two or three months, then there's no way it can survive even a usual stable release cycle, nevermind any kind of long-term support." Additional details are shared in Jonathan Carter's blog post. |
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