[pkg-wpa-devel] wpasupplicant: co-operative maintenance (was Re: recent upload to ubuntu (0.4.8-0ubuntu1))

[Kel Modderman]

Scott James Remnant wrote:
>> As a follow up thought, perhaps we could maintain the ubuntu package in 
>> a branch of pkg-wpa svn? That way I could import fixes to the ifupdown 
>> scripts and other enhancements to help you guys along?
>>
>>     
> I don't see how that would help...  Subversion contains no support for
> merging between branches or comparing branches; so it'd end up involving
> more work for us to keep it up to date.
>
> Scott
>   

In that case, please may I request that any changes made by you guys at 
least get announced. I see:

  * Undo 0.4.8-0ubuntu2's replacement of the preinst/postinst/postrm triad,
    which replaced the upgrade-failure proof and policy compliant code with
    "something else".
  * Restore change to ifupdown script that makes "wpa-conf" unnecessary.

Changelog entries like this should have been avoided by announcing some 
sort of intent and/or patch to change this package. As little as one 
line to pkg-wpa's mailing list saying that you've already done it (a 
patch against the archive and brief explanation would be a bonus I guess).

The above changes were made outside of the working archive, an archive 
that strives to be provide a common source package for both Debian and 
Ubuntu. So as I went ahead with business as usual, while simultaneous 
changes were happening only in ubuntu uploads/diff.gz's, these changes 
were reverted, and you had to spend more time re-fixing them. No-one 
wins in this situation; you may feel as if I am not competent, and I 
feel as if I've done something wrong, when in fact, I have not. The 
changes were addressing very important aspects of the packaging, aspects 
which we indeed required assistance with.

Of course, I can safely be ignored if you feel there is no _absolute_ 
need for announcement of any changes you guys make, I make this point 
solely in the interest of healthy co-operative maintenance of the 
wpasupplicant package.

Thanks, Kel.