Re: Cygwin x86 end-of-life

[Thomas Wolff <towo@towo.net>]

Am 12.11.2022 um 17:08 schrieb Jon Turney:
> On 11/11/2022 20:02, Thomas Wolff wrote:
>> Hi Achim,
>>
>> Am 11.11.2022 um 20:50 schrieb Achim Gratz:
>>> Thomas Wolff writes:
>>>>> I plan to pause package uploads this coming Monday (2022-11-14),
>>>>> before starting the re-organization of the package repository to
>>>>> make this archive.
>>>> Although expected for a while, the exact date is now a very short-time
>>>> announcement. Can we have a moratorium for a short while?
>
> So, if not now, when?
Well, first, I think it's not a good idea to change and over-interpret a 
plan in this way. The announcement for a year or so has been "cygwin 3.4 
will not support 32 bit anymore". This does not imply that the 
repository will be closed so any other package would not be allowed 
anymore to provide updates. What about security updates? Basic 
functionality?
I think a plan to freeze the repository would need a separate and 
explicit announcement, and some decent period from then.
>
> Is this actually going to cause you problems, and if so what are they 
> specifically, or is this just a case of "change is bad"?
Well I would certainly wish to upload a few more updates for mintty also 
for 32 bit, and also one other package of mine, to know their 32-bit 
packages are in a good final state. Mintty 3.6.1, for instance, has an 
exotic crash condition to be fixed but I wouldn't like to make an upload 
in a hurry this weekend.
>
>>> That moratorium is already running for more than a year:
>>>
>>> https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin/2021-October/249690.html
>> That message does not announce a blocking of further 32-bit package 
>> uploads, and not a precise date for such hard step either. So please 
>> let's not commit a violation of the principle of least surprise.
>
> Sorry if this was communicated in a surprising way, but there is also 
> another, important principle at work here, the principle of least 
> effort, or as we might call it in this application "the principle of 
> not inventing more work for Jon Turney to do".
Understood, but is it really work to just not touch the repository for 
another few weeks?