[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] The Big Bump checklist

[Reinhard Tartler]

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 19:44:58 (CET), Uoti Urpala wrote:

>> Regarding how much time it takes to do such a transition properly,
>> please have a look at this to get an impression what work is involved
>> here: http://release.debian.org/transitions/ffmpeg.html
>
> I don't see how that would be relevant.

It shows the extend of packages that require rebuilding because of the
avutil major bump we did for 0.5->0.6. Imagine we did an API change that
required code changes (like dropping deprecated interfaces). Now imagine
that some of those packages haven't been updated (not even upstream) for
years! [*]

While the solution for these problems is straight forward (i.e., get the
source code changed and uploaded), this can take longer than 'a few weeks'.

> Nothing discussed here would set a deadline on how quickly distros
> would have to get rid of all package versions using the pre-bump
> library packages. The only expectation is that distros have the new
> library version available within a month of release. If you are able
> to _start_ a transition like the above then you've already completed
> that step.

I see, I clearly misunderstood this part of your mail. Still, we cannot
expect downstream projects like media players---and to that extent
distros---to adapt their release and freeze schedule because of us.


[*] No, I'm clearly not saying we shouldn't do that! At some point we do
need drop old, deprecated API. All I'm saying is that we should be aware
of the consequences. Ideally, we give clear advice what should be used
instead of what has been deprecated, removed, and dropped so that
projects (and if they are unresponsive, package mantainers) can port to
the new API.

-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4