Re: Clean out or vault old ncurses test versions

[Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis@Shaw.ca>]

On 2023-10-21 14:15, Jon Turney via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> On 21/10/2023 20:00, Brian Inglis via Cygwin-apps wrote:
>> Thinking that ncurses i-i.net releases would pause at some point, I have been 
>> incrementing the release number and appending the date throughout this year, 
>> but it appears not, so I would now like to reset the primary release number to 
>> the next after current stable 6.4-3.20230114 and use primary release 
>> 6.4-4.2023???? as my test prefix which I would like to make current stable 
>> some time soon!

> I'm quite clear on what this means, but this seems to be a problem of upstream's 
> making, if it really is releasing multiple versions called "6.4" (with some 
> date/patch level that isn't part of it's version label)
> 
> (e.g. look at https://repology.org/project/ncurses/information where there's 
> lots of variants on 6.4.x and no way to compare them because individual distros 
> make them up in different ways...)

Thanks Jon,

The occasional/annual "official" GNU release is 6.4 but i-i.net seems to package 
a new tarball with a date suffix every few days/weeks, after applying patches 
developed or received.
The package naming pattern seems to be some variation of that with some 
punctuation like ours but more fixed.
I should probably just skip the sequential "release" prefix to the date suffix,
as 6.4-2023???? is presumably greater than 6.4-?.2023????, and we have not yet 
implemented EPOCH:V-R dating yet, correct?
>> Is there any way I can blow away my old test releases 6.4-5.2023... thru 
>> 6.4-13.2023... so I can reset the sequence, like listing a bunch of obsoletes 
>> somehow:
>> or could someone kind person please do whatever is required if I can not do so?

> That said, you can use ssh vault command [1] to expunge versions that are no 
> longer required.
> (and see the caveat there about how setup won't automatically downgrade from 
> removed versions)
> If you really care about that, you could then upload appropriate override.hint 
> files (note that you need one per subpackage) with a replace-version: line 
> indicating the withdrawn version-release(s).
> (It's unclear to me if this second step is really worth the effort, given that 
> only the presumably small number of people who install ncurses test releases are 
> affected.)

...and hopefully they ignore the sequential number.

Just to be clear about the process details and best practice:

I should create a dummy local dist tree for superseded versions,
with the tar file names prefixed with "-" and zero length,
and P-V-R.hint files replaced with override.hint files,
each containing "replace-versions: V-R..." for old versions,
then sftp upload that dist tree in a similar manner to cygport upload?

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis              Calgary, Alberta, Canada

La perfection est atteinte                   Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter  not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer     but when there is no more to cut
                                 -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry