Obsolete dependency report, 2015-May-15

Obsolete dependency report, 2015-May-15

[Yaakov Selkowitz]

Since the last report, we've had three new obsoletions that haven't been
fully resolved yet: icu[1], poppler, and python3.

Thank you to all those that have stepped up or returned to (re)maintain
packages; this allowed for the removal of several obsolete libraries.
We are now down to just three packages which are subject to removal from
the distro if they are not updated in the next couple weeks.

amanda[2]                                    Mark O’Keefe
brltty[2]                                    ORPHANED (Samuel Thibault)
grub[2]                                      ORPHANED (Christian Franke)
khronos-opengl-registry                      Jon Turney
lyx                                          Marco Atzeri
mosh                                         ORPHANED (Reini Urban)
nmh                                          David Levine
octave                                       Marco Atzeri
octave-communications                        Marco Atzeri
python3-h5py                                 Chris LeBlanc
R                                            Marco Atzeri
singular                                     Yue Ren/Marco Atzeri
sng[3]                                       Andrew Schulman
texlive                                      Ken Brown
tin                                          Corinna Vinschen

[1] All the WebKit implementations depend on ICU; there are currently
four of them, and they are all *HUGE*.
[2] subject to removal from the distribution
[3] https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-apps/2015-02/msg00152.html

The master list is kept at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eiQ0Mcp588cVVt5LaYXQG5i_HznVF14k50j_pneGT68/edit?usp=sharing

This page is set for moderated changes, so feel free to strikethrough
your package from the list once its uploaded.

TIA,

Yaakov

Re: Obsolete dependency report, 2015-May-15

[Marco Atzeri]

On 5/15/2015 9:03 PM, Yaakov Selkowitz wrote:
> Since the last report, we've had three new obsoletions that haven't been
> fully resolved yet: icu[1], poppler, and python3.
>
> Thank you to all those that have stepped up or returned to (re)maintain
> packages; this allowed for the removal of several obsolete libraries.
> We are now down to just three packages which are subject to removal from
> the distro if they are not updated in the next couple weeks.
>
> amanda[2]                                    Mark O’Keefe
> brltty[2]                                    ORPHANED (Samuel Thibault)
> grub[2]                                      ORPHANED (Christian Franke)
> khronos-opengl-registry                      Jon Turney
> lyx                                          Marco Atzeri
> mosh                                         ORPHANED (Reini Urban)
> nmh                                          David Levine
> octave                                       Marco Atzeri
> octave-communications                        Marco Atzeri
> python3-h5py                                 Chris LeBlanc
> R                                            Marco Atzeri
> singular                                     Yue Ren/Marco Atzeri
> sng[3]                                       Andrew Schulman
> texlive                                      Ken Brown
> tin                                          Corinna Vinschen
>
> [1] All the WebKit implementations depend on ICU; there are currently
> four of them, and they are all *HUGE*.
> [2] subject to removal from the distribution
> [3] https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-apps/2015-02/msg00152.html
>
> The master list is kept at:
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eiQ0Mcp588cVVt5LaYXQG5i_HznVF14k50j_pneGT68/edit?usp=sharing
>
> This page is set for moderated changes, so feel free to strikethrough
> your package from the list once its uploaded.
>
> TIA,
>
> Yaakov

I am uploading the dependencies of singular now and testing Yue's last
monolithic proposal. If it passes the test as expected I will also 
upload both archs during weekend.

Question: as I plan to readjust the package structure it will enough to 
move the old directories on sourceware

singular-base   : replaced by singular
singular-help   : will remain
singular-icons  : obsoleted
singular-share  : obsoleted
singular-surf   : replaced by surf (that is a stand alone package)

under the singular directory ?
Anything else to not upset "upset" ?

About the other packages:

- I do not consider not using the last hdf5 library a critical issue.
Upstream is bumping SONAME too many times for my appreciation,
HDF5-1.8.15 bumped again to libhdf5_10. Two bumps in the raw for a
minor version release (gr...)

- Octave is on 4.0.0-rc4 so a new package will arrive soon,
   but I will need to update all octave-forge subpackages.
   And it will take a while.

- I will look on R and Lyx but time will be short in the coming weeks.

Regards
Marco

Re: Obsolete dependency report, 2015-May-15 [GOLDSTAR]

[Yaakov Selkowitz]

On Sat, 2015-05-16 at 10:56 +0200, Marco Atzeri wrote:
> I am uploading the dependencies of singular now and testing Yue's last
> monolithic proposal. If it passes the test as expected I will also 
> upload both archs during weekend.

Wonderful!  Thank you very much for helping with this.

Andrew?  This has been a lot more work than an average ITA; could Marco
get two gold stars please?

> Question: as I plan to readjust the package structure it will enough to 
> move the old directories on sourceware
> 
> singular-base   : replaced by singular
> singular-help   : will remain
> singular-icons  : obsoleted
> singular-share  : obsoleted
> singular-surf   : replaced by surf (that is a stand alone package)
> 
> under the singular directory ?

As singular-surf is replaced by surf (and not singular), I moved the
former under the latter instead.  Because surf has a lower version
though, the usual cygport OBSOLETES mechanism doesn't help, so I added
an empty 9999-1 upgrade helper manually.

As for the others, that would be the way to proceed; I already created
x86/release/singular for you and moved those others underneath it.  In
order to provide a smooth upgrade path for users, be sure to do along
the lines of the following:

PKG_NAMES="singular singular-help"
singular_OBSOLETES="singular-base singular-icons singular-share"
singular_CONTENTS=...
singular_help_CONTENTS=...

etc., presuming the rest of the singular packages will have a greater
VERSION-RELEASE than the current ones.

> - I do not consider not using the last hdf5 library a critical issue.
> Upstream is bumping SONAME too many times for my appreciation,
> HDF5-1.8.15 bumped again to libhdf5_10. Two bumps in the raw for a
> minor version release (gr...)

Obsolete library packages, while providing backwards compatibility and
delaying the need for (partial) mass rebuilds, also can end up being the
source of latent security issues and other bugs only fixed in newer
versions.  The reason I started tracking these is that we were never
managing to get rid of much of this cruft; instead they would sit around
for years mostly unmaintained.  I'm just trying to keep people aware of
these so we can keep the distribution in good shape.

WRT HDF5 in particular, as the primary consumer thereof, you way want to
consider only shipping an SONAME version bump in coordination with a new
release or rebuild of netcdf and octave.  After all, a "fixed" newer
version doesn't really help anyone if an SONAME change means nobody is
using it yet.

OTOH you're probably not the only one complaining about this.  Is there
an upstream forum for packagers where you could mention the difficulties
this involves, or chime in on others' who have already mentioned the
same?

> - Octave is on 4.0.0-rc4 so a new package will arrive soon,
>    but I will need to update all octave-forge subpackages.
>    And it will take a while.
> 
> - I will look on R and Lyx but time will be short in the coming weeks.

Don't worry, I understand and know you're very much here with us.  FWIW,
I'm still catching up on the ICU upgrade myself.

--
Yaakov

Re: Obsolete dependency report, 2015-May-15 [GOLDSTAR]

[Marco Atzeri]

On 5/17/2015 10:38 AM, Yaakov Selkowitz wrote:
> On Sat, 2015-05-16 at 10:56 +0200, Marco Atzeri wrote:
>> I am uploading the dependencies of singular now and testing Yue's last
>> monolithic proposal. If it passes the test as expected I will also
>> upload both archs during weekend.
>
> Wonderful!  Thank you very much for helping with this.
>
>
> As singular-surf is replaced by surf (and not singular), I moved the
> former under the latter instead.  Because surf has a lower version
> though, the usual cygport OBSOLETES mechanism doesn't help, so I added
> an empty 9999-1 upgrade helper manually.

I missed this your mail, but I saw the change in the structure.
Thanks

>
> WRT HDF5 in particular, as the primary consumer thereof, you way want to
> consider only shipping an SONAME version bump in coordination with a new
> release or rebuild of netcdf and octave.  After all, a "fixed" newer
> version doesn't really help anyone if an SONAME change means nobody is
> using it yet.

Yah
I am upgrading hdf5 and octave this time but is a mere
coincidence of release date.

I will postpone any further hdf5 release

>
> OTOH you're probably not the only one complaining about this.  Is there
> an upstream forum for packagers where you could mention the difficulties
> this involves, or chime in on others' who have already mentioned the
> same?

http://lists.hdfgroup.org/pipermail/hdf-forum_lists.hdfgroup.org/2015-April/008481.html

Unfortunately they seems to NOT understand the concept of stable API.

Regards
Marco

Re: Obsolete dependency report, 2015-May-15 [GOLDSTAR]

[Andrew Schulman]

> On Sat, 2015-05-16 at 10:56 +0200, Marco Atzeri wrote:
> > I am uploading the dependencies of singular now and testing Yue's last
> > monolithic proposal. If it passes the test as expected I will also 
> > upload both archs during weekend.
> 
> Wonderful!  Thank you very much for helping with this.
> 
> Andrew?  This has been a lot more work than an average ITA; could Marco
> get two gold stars please?

Awarded! http://cygwin.com/goldstars/#MA