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GLEP: 19
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Title: Gentoo Stable Portage Tree
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Version: $Revision: 1.4 $
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Last-Modified: $Date: 2004/01/30 02:41:45 $
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Author: Kurt Lieber <klieber@gentoo.org>
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Status: Draft
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Type: Standards Track
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Content-Type: text/x-rst
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Created: 26-Jan-2004
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Post-History: 29-Jan-2004
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Abstract
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========
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This GLEP is intended to propose a series of changes to the Portage tree that
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are necessary to facilitate the use of Gentoo in areas where stability and
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predictability are of paramount importance, including servers in enterprise
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environments, mission critical workstations and other such installations.
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The proposed solution involves creating a separate tree in Portage that is
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updated far less often than the regular tree. Outside of periodic updates,
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this tree would only be updated with critical bugfixes and security patches.
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Motivation
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==========
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Enterprise users typically value stability and a predictable upgrade path
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over having the latest packages or features available to them. Historically,
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Gentoo Linux has been unable to provide such an environment due to the dynamic
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nature of the Portage tree.
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Specification
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=============
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The Gentoo Infrastructure team will need to provide an additional Portage tree
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on our rsync mirroring system. This new tree will house the ebuilds
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associated with the stable tree. It also impacts all Gentoo developers
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responsible for creating and updating ebuilds as they will be expected to
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integrate the tagging of ebuilds for the stable tree into their normal
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development process, both for the quarterly release cycles as well as
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off-cycle bug and security fixes.
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The Gentoo Documentation team will also be affected as they will be
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responsible for updating installation documents to take these new features
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into account.
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Rationale
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=========
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A basic outline of various ways of adding a "stable" tree to Portage was
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discussed in the gentoo managers meeting on 26-Jan-04. Consensus seemed to be
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reached that such a solution was needed and that branching the gentoo-x86
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repository was the appropriate way to accomplish this. The largest area of
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disagreement surrounded how specific ebuilds should be targeted for inclusion
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in the stable tree.
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One suggested solution was a simple branch of the CVS tree and having
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developers work in two separate branches; one for the stable tree and
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another for the traditional tree. However, it was felt this would prove too
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cumbersome in practice.
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Another suggestion was to have a small group of dedicated gentoo-server
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developers responsible for generating the contents of the stable tree, which
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would provide more control and quality assurance over the ebuilds added to the
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stable tree. While this might prove effective for a small number of ebuilds,
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it is quite likely that this model would not scale enough to allow for a large
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number of ebuilds in the stable tree and, over time, the project would become
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resource constrained and unable to meed future deadlines.
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The suggestion that seemed to get the most traction was the creation of a new
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"stable" keyword which would be added to appropriate ebuilds. The use of
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"stable" would signify ebuilds that are ready for production in the stable
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tree while "~stable" would be reserved for ebuilds which may be appropriate
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for the stable tree, but may require further testing before being deemed
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"ready for production". Off-cycle bug fixes and/or security updates may be
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examples of ebuilds that require the ~stable tag.
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Implementation
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==============
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While a 'stable' keyword was originally proposed, after further review, it was
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determined this offered no way to allow arch-specific stable ebuilds. As
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such, this GLEP proposes the use of 'stable:<arch>' and '~stable:<arch>'
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(stable:x86, stable:ppc, etc.)
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A new, stable tree will be created by scanning for the 'stable:<arch>' and
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'~stable:<arch>' keywords in the ebuilds and pulling those ebuilds and
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associated files into a separate branch of CVS. The stable tree should have
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the following features:
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* Updated quarterly. Frozen during other times except for security/bug fixes
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* All ebuilds should remain in the tree for a minimum of one year. This
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allows users to upgrade as infrequently as once per year without risking
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the stable portage tree leaving them behind without an upgrade path.
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As mentioned above, the "stable" tree will be updated quarterly, ideally in
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unison with the release schedule of the main Gentoo branch. This tree will be
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untouched outside of this update schedule except in the following cases:
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* Security fixes and patches which result in a GLSA
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* Bug fixes for bugs ranked as 'maj' or above (may be overridden at the
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discretion of the package maintainer.)
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In both cases, the maintainer of the package will be responsible for ensuring
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these patches are properly committed to the stable tree out of cycle.
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Backwards Compatibility
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=======================
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All features proposed here are new additions to existing processes and
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features. There should be no impact on existing features and functionality.
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Copyright
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=========
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This document is licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share
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Alike license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0)
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