[development] Drupal Modules and Linux Distros

[Sammy Spets]

Hi all,

On 25-Oct-06 13:32, Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:
> Debian has apparently a policy to never add new features to a stable 
> Debian release, only bug fixes. But since Debian's release cycle is much 
> longer than Drupal's this leads to problems. Drupal's stable release is 
> 4.7 and 4.5 was released about two years ago.

Debian's policy works great for system level stuff, but in the world of Drupal (and other fast-paced 
systems), it's not exactly ideal. This is exactly why backports.org 
exists.

Packaging Drupal up will give end-users the ability to try out Drupal
with ease. Heaven forbid, that they don't like it and have to 
uninstall it. Bring on some intelligent packaging!

-- 
Sammy Spets
Synerger Pty Ltd
http://synerger.com

> Seemant Kulleen wrote:
> >On Wed, 2006-10-25 at 12:29 +0200, Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:
> >
> >>Our relationship with people packaging Drupal has also been rather 
> >>problematic. ;p
> >
> >I hope not with Gentoo...
> >
> >>Also, before you consider doing any package you should check if your 
> >>distribution's release policy matches Drupal's. As a result of such a 
> >>check not being done, Debian ships now with a Drupal 4.5 package which 
> >>isn't maintained by us anymore.
> >
> >Not sure what you mean here -- Gentoo tends to be a moving target, so if
> >4.6 gets deemed as the new upstream stable, Gentoo devs tend to follow
> >up on that in the distro itself (in most cases, anyway).
> 
> Debian has apparently a policy to never add new features to a stable 
> Debian release, only bug fixes. But since Debian's release cycle is much 
> longer than Drupal's this leads to problems. Drupal's stable release is 
> 4.7 and 4.5 was released about two years ago.
> 
> So if Gentoo accepts new features into its new releases, then this won't 
> be a problem.
> 
> >
> >>This is not a thing developers themselves can do anything about. The 
> >>problem is with our way of packaging things. Luckily, this should change 
> >>soon and from there on tarballs once created should be stable.
> >
> >Being completely new to the world of drupal, I'm not sure I understand
> >the packaging method or the changes in store.  Can you point me to a doc
> >where I may learn more?
> 
> http://drupal.org/node/77562
> http://drupal.org/node/90436
> 
> > Also, when will these changes happen?
> 
> Soon(tm)
> 
> Actually, some have already happened. The rest might happen this or next 
> week.
> 
> Oh, and a final word from me: Please don't simply package modules 
> *because* *you* *can*. Contrib is not reviewed in any way. Modules may 
> have serious security holes. Modules may even be abandoned. So first 
> evaluate the modules you want to package.
> 
> Cheers,
> 	Gerhard, wearing his contrib-CVS admin hat