Re: Dealing with upstream issues

[zimoun]

Hi,

On Mon, 27 Jun 2022 at 16:32, Maxime Devos <maximedevos@telenet.be> wrote:

>> Maybe I misunderstand the point.  To me, the aim of the package
>> submission is the inclusion in Guix.  AFAIK, the Guix project is not
>> applying any standard audit on the upstream code before inclusion.
>> 
>> Therefore, if the upstream code is poor in some areas, then it is not
>> blocking for the package adoption in Guix…
>
> I think there should be some degree of standards (where I mean
> standards in the non-shodyness sense of the word, not in the sense of
> specs, though specs would be nice too) and of audit (bundling, malware,
> non-free, bugs) -- some of which are blocking (bundling, malware, non-
> free, some bugs), some of which aren't (some other bugs).
>
> E.g., see removal of unmaintained Python, of some old SSL libraries

You are mixing unrelated topics, IMHO.

We have policies, not standard.

«A policy is a set of ideas or plans that is used as a basis for making
decisions, especially in politics, economics, or business.» 

«A standard is a level of quality or achievement, especially a level
that is thought to be acceptable.»


>> > My view is that such issues should be reported upstream but cannot
>> > alone
>> > block package adoption in Guix.
>> 
>> I agree; we cannot fix the world. ;-) In the case of patch#55541, the
>> issues of cross-compilation can be reported directly to upstream
>
> Agreed -- I did not ask that explicitely in #55541, but the implied
> question was to report it upstream (or fix local, that could be done
> too).  But my point is that this should have been done _before_ merging
> the patch.

So, what are you explicitly asking? :-)


>> and another Debbugs number could be open.
>
> Would be pointless.  Standard policy seems to be to leave the debbugs
> issue unresolved forever, then someone does some cleanup in debbugs to
> close the debbugs number due to lack of activity or such.  Things would
> be delayed forever.

Old unsolved bugs are still open.  The cross-compilation of one package is
an issue for sure, but:

 1. it is not an issue for inclusion in Guix
 2. it has to be solved by people interested by cross-compilation

Other said, it cannot be asked to submitter to fix unrelated-to-Guix
issue on upstream code.  Although cross-compilation issue is somehow
related to Guix. ;-)


Cheers,
simon