en/glep/glep-0019.html

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<table class="navigation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
       width="100%" border="0">
<tr><td class="navicon" width="150" height="35">
<a href="http://www.gentoo.org/" title="Gentoo Linux Home Page">
<img src="http://www.gentoo.org/images/gentoo-new.gif" alt="[Gentoo]"
 border="0" width="150" height="35" /></a></td>
<td class="textlinks" align="left">
[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Linux Home</a></b>]
[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/peps">GLEP Index</a></b>]
[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0019.txt">GLEP Source</a></b>]
</td></tr></table>
<table class="rfc2822 docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="field-name" />
<col class="field-body" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">19</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">Gentoo Stable Portage Tree</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.8</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0019.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2006/10/10 16:54:34</a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Kurt Lieber &lt;klieber&#32;&#97;t&#32;gentoo.org&gt;</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Withdrawn</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0002.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">26-Jan-2004</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-History:</th><td class="field-body">29-Jan-2004 2-Nov-2004 7-Dec-2004 10-Oct-2006</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr />
<div class="contents topic">
<p class="topic-title first"><a id="contents" name="contents">Contents</a></p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference" href="#status" id="id3" name="id3">Status</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id4" name="id4">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#id1" id="id5" name="id5">Status</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id6" name="id6">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id7" name="id7">Specification</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id8" name="id8">Rationale</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#implementation" id="id9" name="id9">Implementation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatibility" id="id10" name="id10">Backwards Compatibility</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id11" name="id11">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" id="status" name="status">Status</a></h1>
<p>Withdrawn by the author.  &quot;If someone wants to take up the torch, more
power to them, but they should probably start clean with a new glep.&quot;</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" id="abstract" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
<p>This GLEP is intended to propose a series of changes to the Portage tree that
are necessary to facilitate the use of Gentoo in areas where stability and
predictability are of paramount importance, including servers in enterprise
environments, mission critical workstations and other such installations.</p>
<p>The proposed solution involves creating a separate tree in Portage that is
updated far less often than the regular tree.  Outside of periodic updates,
this tree would only be updated with critical bugfixes and security patches.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" id="id1" name="id1">Status</a></h1>
<p>Currently recruiting people who would be willing to help with this GLEP.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" id="motivation" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
<p>Enterprise users typically value stability and a predictable upgrade path
over having the latest packages or features available to them.  Historically,
Gentoo Linux has been unable to provide such an environment due to the dynamic
nature of the Portage tree.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" id="specification" name="specification">Specification</a></h1>
<p>The Gentoo Infrastructure team will need to provide an additional Portage tree
on our rsync mirroring system.  This new tree will house the ebuilds
associated with the stable tree.  It also impacts all Gentoo developers
responsible for creating and updating ebuilds as they will be expected to
integrate the tagging of ebuilds for the stable tree into their normal
development process, both for the quarterly release cycles as well as
off-cycle bug and security fixes.</p>
<p>The Gentoo Documentation team will also be affected as they will be
responsible for updating installation documents to take these new features
into account.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" id="rationale" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
<p>A basic outline of various ways of adding a &quot;stable&quot; tree to Portage was
discussed in the gentoo managers meeting on 26-Jan-04.  Consensus seemed to be
reached that such a solution was needed and that branching the gentoo-x86
repository was the appropriate way to accomplish this.  The largest area of
disagreement surrounded how specific ebuilds should be targeted for inclusion
in the stable tree.</p>
<p>One suggested solution was a simple branch of the CVS tree and having
developers work in two separate branches; one for the stable tree and
another for the traditional tree.  However, it was felt this would prove too
cumbersome in practice.</p>
<p>Another suggestion was to have a small group of dedicated gentoo-server
developers responsible for generating the contents of the stable tree, which
would provide more control and quality assurance over the ebuilds added to the
stable tree.  While this might prove effective for a small number of ebuilds,
it is quite likely that this model would not scale enough to allow for a large
number of ebuilds in the stable tree and, over time, the project would become
resource constrained and unable to meed future deadlines.</p>
<p>While the original draft of this GLEP called for the creation of a stable
keyword, we have since discarded that idea in favor of creating a custom
profile, which will be used to track a subset of packages and versions.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" id="implementation" name="implementation">Implementation</a></h1>
<p>This GLEP will create a new set of cascaded profiles (one per release, not to
exceed two per year) which will contain a subset of packages, including
versions.  This profile will &quot;pin&quot; a Gentoo Linux box to a specific set of
packages and will only be updated for security updates and, in rare
circumstances, major bug fixes.</p>
<p>Because this profile will be cascaded, the option exists for other developers
to create their own profile, containing a subset of packages not found in the
&quot;main&quot; stable tree and include those as part of the overall stable profile.
These cases will be treated on a one-off basis.</p>
<p>The initial version will be x86 only, though other people will be encouraged
to provide separate stable profiles for other arches.  It is expected that any
effort to provide a stable tree for any arch or flavor of Gentoo will follow
the basic outline of this GLEP to ensure consistency for our users.</p>
<p>In addition to a custom profile, this GLEP will also create a separate rsync
repository, &quot;gentoo-stable-portage&quot;, which will be available on all servers in
the rsync.gentoo.org rotation.  This repository will be <em>identical</em> to the
main gentoo-portage repository except that the --delete flag will be removed
from the rsync option that populates the tree.  This will ensure that users of
the stable profile will not have to worry about ebuilds for their packages
disappearing.</p>
<p>Stable profiles will be maintained on an N - 2 basis.  That is to say that we
will maintain a stable profile for the most current release, plus the previous
two releases.  With the expected release schedule for 2005, this will result
in each profile being supported for approximately 18 months.  Future versions
of the stable portage tree may seek to increase the life of these profiles.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" id="backwards-compatibility" name="backwards-compatibility">Backwards Compatibility</a></h1>
<p>All features proposed here are new additions to existing processes and
features.  There should be no impact on existing features and functionality.</p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" id="copyright" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
<p>This document is licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share
Alike license. (<a class="reference" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0</a>)</p>
</div>

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271	g2boojum	1.1	<col class="field-name" />
272			<col class="field-body" />
273			<tbody valign="top">
274			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">19</td>
275			</tr>
276			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">Gentoo Stable Portage Tree</td>
277			</tr>
278	g2boojum	1.5	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.8</td>
279	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
280	g2boojum	1.5	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0019.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2006/10/10 16:54:34</a></td>
281	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
282			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Kurt Lieber <klieber at gentoo.org></td>
283			</tr>
284	g2boojum	1.5	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Withdrawn</td>
285	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
286			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
287			</tr>
288	g2boojum	1.5	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0002.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
289	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
290			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">26-Jan-2004</td>
291			</tr>
292	g2boojum	1.5	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-History:</th><td class="field-body">29-Jan-2004 2-Nov-2004 7-Dec-2004 10-Oct-2006</td>
293	g2boojum	1.1	</tr>
294			</tbody>
295			</table>
296			<hr />
297	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="contents topic">
298			<p class="topic-title first"><a id="contents" name="contents">Contents</a></p>
299	g2boojum	1.1	<ul class="simple">
300	g2boojum	1.3	<li><a class="reference" href="#status" id="id3" name="id3">Status</a></li>
301	g2boojum	1.5	<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id4" name="id4">Abstract</a></li>
302			<li><a class="reference" href="#id1" id="id5" name="id5">Status</a></li>
303			<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id6" name="id6">Motivation</a></li>
304			<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id7" name="id7">Specification</a></li>
305			<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id8" name="id8">Rationale</a></li>
306			<li><a class="reference" href="#implementation" id="id9" name="id9">Implementation</a></li>
307			<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatibility" id="id10" name="id10">Backwards Compatibility</a></li>
308			<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id11" name="id11">Copyright</a></li>
309	g2boojum	1.1	</ul>
310			</div>
311	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
312			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" id="status" name="status">Status</a></h1>
313			<p>Withdrawn by the author. "If someone wants to take up the torch, more
314			power to them, but they should probably start clean with a new glep."</p>
315			</div>
316			<div class="section">
317			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" id="abstract" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
318	g2boojum	1.1	<p>This GLEP is intended to propose a series of changes to the Portage tree that
319			are necessary to facilitate the use of Gentoo in areas where stability and
320			predictability are of paramount importance, including servers in enterprise
321			environments, mission critical workstations and other such installations.</p>
322			<p>The proposed solution involves creating a separate tree in Portage that is
323			updated far less often than the regular tree. Outside of periodic updates,
324			this tree would only be updated with critical bugfixes and security patches.</p>
325			</div>
326	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
327			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" id="id1" name="id1">Status</a></h1>
328	g2boojum	1.3	<p>Currently recruiting people who would be willing to help with this GLEP.</p>
329			</div>
330	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
331			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" id="motivation" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
332	klieber	1.2	<p>Enterprise users typically value stability and a predictable upgrade path
333	g2boojum	1.1	over having the latest packages or features available to them. Historically,
334			Gentoo Linux has been unable to provide such an environment due to the dynamic
335			nature of the Portage tree.</p>
336			</div>
337	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
338			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" id="specification" name="specification">Specification</a></h1>
339	g2boojum	1.1	<p>The Gentoo Infrastructure team will need to provide an additional Portage tree
340			on our rsync mirroring system. This new tree will house the ebuilds
341			associated with the stable tree. It also impacts all Gentoo developers
342			responsible for creating and updating ebuilds as they will be expected to
343			integrate the tagging of ebuilds for the stable tree into their normal
344			development process, both for the quarterly release cycles as well as
345			off-cycle bug and security fixes.</p>
346			<p>The Gentoo Documentation team will also be affected as they will be
347			responsible for updating installation documents to take these new features
348			into account.</p>
349			</div>
350	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
351			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" id="rationale" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
352	g2boojum	1.1	<p>A basic outline of various ways of adding a "stable" tree to Portage was
353			discussed in the gentoo managers meeting on 26-Jan-04. Consensus seemed to be
354			reached that such a solution was needed and that branching the gentoo-x86
355			repository was the appropriate way to accomplish this. The largest area of
356			disagreement surrounded how specific ebuilds should be targeted for inclusion
357			in the stable tree.</p>
358			<p>One suggested solution was a simple branch of the CVS tree and having
359			developers work in two separate branches; one for the stable tree and
360			another for the traditional tree. However, it was felt this would prove too
361			cumbersome in practice.</p>
362			<p>Another suggestion was to have a small group of dedicated gentoo-server
363			developers responsible for generating the contents of the stable tree, which
364			would provide more control and quality assurance over the ebuilds added to the
365			stable tree. While this might prove effective for a small number of ebuilds,
366			it is quite likely that this model would not scale enough to allow for a large
367			number of ebuilds in the stable tree and, over time, the project would become
368			resource constrained and unable to meed future deadlines.</p>
369	g2boojum	1.5	<p>While the original draft of this GLEP called for the creation of a stable
370			keyword, we have since discarded that idea in favor of creating a custom
371			profile, which will be used to track a subset of packages and versions.</p>
372			</div>
373			<div class="section">
374			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" id="implementation" name="implementation">Implementation</a></h1>
375			<p>This GLEP will create a new set of cascaded profiles (one per release, not to
376			exceed two per year) which will contain a subset of packages, including
377			versions. This profile will "pin" a Gentoo Linux box to a specific set of
378			packages and will only be updated for security updates and, in rare
379			circumstances, major bug fixes.</p>
380			<p>Because this profile will be cascaded, the option exists for other developers
381			to create their own profile, containing a subset of packages not found in the
382			"main" stable tree and include those as part of the overall stable profile.
383			These cases will be treated on a one-off basis.</p>
384			<p>The initial version will be x86 only, though other people will be encouraged
385			to provide separate stable profiles for other arches. It is expected that any
386			effort to provide a stable tree for any arch or flavor of Gentoo will follow
387			the basic outline of this GLEP to ensure consistency for our users.</p>
388			<p>In addition to a custom profile, this GLEP will also create a separate rsync
389			repository, "gentoo-stable-portage", which will be available on all servers in
390			the rsync.gentoo.org rotation. This repository will be <em>identical</em> to the
391			main gentoo-portage repository except that the --delete flag will be removed
392			from the rsync option that populates the tree. This will ensure that users of
393			the stable profile will not have to worry about ebuilds for their packages
394			disappearing.</p>
395			<p>Stable profiles will be maintained on an N - 2 basis. That is to say that we
396			will maintain a stable profile for the most current release, plus the previous
397			two releases. With the expected release schedule for 2005, this will result
398			in each profile being supported for approximately 18 months. Future versions
399			of the stable portage tree may seek to increase the life of these profiles.</p>
400	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
401	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
402			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" id="backwards-compatibility" name="backwards-compatibility">Backwards Compatibility</a></h1>
403	g2boojum	1.1	<p>All features proposed here are new additions to existing processes and
404			features. There should be no impact on existing features and functionality.</p>
405			</div>
406	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="section">
407			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" id="copyright" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
408	g2boojum	1.1	<p>This document is licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share
409			Alike license. (<a class="reference" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0</a>)</p>
410			</div>
411	g2boojum	1.5
412	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
413	g2boojum	1.5	<div class="footer">
414	g2boojum	1.3	<hr class="footer" />
415	g2boojum	1.1	<a class="reference" href="glep-0019.txt">View document source</a>.
416	g2boojum	1.6	Generated on: 2006-10-10 20:23 UTC.
417	g2boojum	1.1	Generated by <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">Docutils</a> from <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a> source.
418	g2boojum	1.5
419	g2boojum	1.1	</div>
420			</body>
421			</html>