[Pkg-samba-maint] Bug#443230: Bug#443230: Bug#443230: Enable net usershare

[Steve Langasek]

On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 06:49:55AM +0000, Christian Perrier wrote:
> Quoting Steve Langasek (vorlon at debian.org):

> > So based on a number of factors (my experiences with other packages like
> > openldap and pam; Joey Hess's enlightening blog entries; past annoyances
> > trying to debdiff packages with changed patches; drinking the Canonical
> > kool-aid), I've recently become convinced that in-package patch systems are
> > really not the way to go at all, and that distributed revision control,
> > whereby we keep a full local copy of the upstream source plus per-patch
> > feature branches that let us easily merge changes back and forth with
> > upstream, is the Right Answer<tm>, and at that point naming patches is no
> > longer an issue (though maybe naming branches is).

> > Obviously we're a long way from distributed revision control right now, and
> > even farther from the "easily merge changes back and forth"; and I don't
> > want to impose such changes on the rest of the team, I myself have been a

> Well, my first and immediate reaction is that it is quite likely to
> set the bar too high for me.

> Most ppl in the team know about my personal reluctance to adopt those
> neat things that are distributed VCS....not because they don't have
> advantages (they have: skilled developers show this daily and I trust
> you guys) but because they really put the prerequisite
> skills much higher.

I'm not sure this is actually true, but it is true that it requires
knowledge of a *different* system for people who are already using CVS or
SVN.  Which is why I'm not pushing a change to git here, I'm just sharing
my views about where I think we should eventually be headed.

Please realize that I'm entirely sympathetic to your position.  I didn't
even learn subversion until d-i forced the issue by converting its repo, and
although I've been familiar with the /principles/ of distributed VCS for
some time I didn't bother learning any of the available ones until starting
at Canonical because I don't like to spend my time learning new tools.  Even
now I've not touched git, but there's increasing network pressure to do so,
now including Samba upstream.

> I'm not entirely enthusiast about the current hype for adopting GIT
> everywhere in Debian for these reasons. I have the somewhat fuzzy
> feeling that this is too elitist to be fully consistent with the need
> we have in the project to keep having new blood join us.

Well, Debian is not driving the adoption of git; several major upstream
projects (Linux and X.org, and of course now Samba) are using it, which
means that as time goes on I think more of our potential developer base is
going to be familiar with distributed VCS already.  

Anyway, the real goal of my message :) was to get feedback on the idea of
importing upstream source into the svn repo, which I think is a good idea
even if we never go any further down the distributed VCS rabbit hole. 
Thoughts on this?

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon at debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/