[OpenAFS] Re: Ubuntu

[Sergio Gelato]

* Andrew Deason [2012-04-05 12:22:09 -0500]:
> On Thu, 5 Apr 2012 17:20:03 +0200
> Sergio Gelato <Sergio.Gelato@astro.su.se> wrote:
> 
> > My reading of the Ubuntu wiki is that for serious bugs like the ones
> > in 1.6.0pre1 one can apply for a Stable Release Update.
> 
> "one can" as in, anyone? Or do we need someone with ubuntu/canonical (or
> just a debian developer)?

The procedure is documented in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates .
A key step is "Ask a bug supervisor to nominate [a bug in Launchpad] for the
appropriate Ubuntu releases". I take it that anyone can ask a bug supervisor
to intercede, just as anyone can get a Launchpad account and file bug reports.

> > What I usually do is take your Debian source packages and backport
> > them myself to the Ubuntu releases I wish to support
> 
> I may be misreading this... are you saying this as something you do just
> at your site, or are you related to the official Ubuntu packages in some
> way?

I'm doing this for my site.

> On Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:02:28 -0700
> Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> wrote:
> 
> > This is at least partly my fault, at least sort of.
> 
> This is quite a stretch. I have a hard time imagining that pulling
> things from sid at random points and putting them in a 'stable' ubuntu
> release without oversight works well, but... apparently it does often
> enough, if they keep doing it.

> I know we have people generating PPAs that seem to be paying reasonable
> attention to OpenAFS releases. Is it a ton of work to try to get that
> packaging or those people involved with the official Ubuntu packages? I
> don't know much about how Ubuntu works wrt maintainers and such, but as
> far as I can tell this is going to keep happening unless we have someone
> close to Ubuntu actively paying attention.

While it would certainly be helpful to have someone with a direct interest
in OpenAFS as part of Ubuntu's MOTU team (which is in charge of the Ubuntu
openafs packages) maybe one can achieve useful results simply by filing
bugs in Launchpad (and following up on them, e.g. by testing proposed updates;
see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openafs/+bug/333197 for an
example of an SRU for openafs that was approved only to fail for lack of
testing feedback at the end). 

Remind us: what are the reasons (bugs) why one really doesn't want to run 
1.6.1pre1? That's what Ubuntu looks set to release with later this month. 
Of course one could ask them to just upgrade to 1.6.1 final, but at this
late stage they may want a very strong motivation. In fact, with the
final freeze being next Thursday it's probably more realistic to aim for
an SRU shortly after they import 1.6.1 final into the next development
release; still, the bug report(s) can be filed now.