[packman] [RFC] Main Dependency Portability was: Re: ffmpeg update to version 2.0

[Marguerite Su]

Hi, mates,

I have a wild idea that instead of crying "new ffmpeg breaks my package!",

we should document/maintain a page or develop a policy about:

How to port some basic functions from ffmpeg 0.7 series -> 1.0 series
and ffmpeg 1.0 series -> 2.0 series, like avcodec_encode_video ->
avcodec_encode_video2 or CodecID -> AVCodecID, which are very easy to
port (you don't have to be a coder at all, Google will help you do
most of the works if you find a similar patch).

Same thing can also apply to gstreamer-0_10 to gstreamer-1_0

Here's the simple reason:

If upstream ffmpeg has been 2.0 now but a package is still using 0.7,
we can consider it as a drop taget or a dead project.

Or, we (Packman) is regularly turning to a trash.

I took a look at Essentials/Extra/Multimedia, there're so many such
_junk_ packages

BTW, the openSUSE policy (who breaks it, who fixes it) doesn't work in
our project, because we're basically amateurs instead of paid
developers. It's not fair to force a main dependency maintainer
(ffmpeg/vlc/Mplayer) to fix all the stuff because almost all of our
packages depend on them.

[RFC 2] Package Maintainership

(A) I saw lots of dependencies which have already been in openSUSE.

We created them just to provide package for, eg: SLE_11. Or we created
them first, then openSUSE have them.

No matter what the reason was, they're not building now.

I think those who introduced them should now be responsible to delete
them. And our repository maintainers should be _very_  careful about
introducing such packages in the future (After 6 months, no one will
know what this package is for).

(B) Some packagers maintain a same package on PMBS as OBS, because in
PMBS, packages can provide extended functions.

But, please make sure such packages on PMBS are _not_ in a _broken_
state. (Remember: After you did an update on OBS, you just finished
half of the work!)

Or such packages will be deleted (eg: chromium-ffmpeg/conky and so on)

We got Packman sponsored to provide extended packages, not to provide
junk/broken packages, we should keep Packman maintained and don't turn
it to a trash. Personally I don't like to _drop_ any single package,
because that package is a day of work from a packager like myself. But
you't can move on if you take too many things on your shoulders.


Greetings

Marguerite