thenktor wrote:And just idea: we could add a file $packagename-chaneglog.txt to the repository, where all past versions with changes are listed.
I think that is overkill to do for each package. Anyone can easily create that list with grep packagenme CHANGELOG.TXT anyway. That assumes that changelogs stay there and not get deleted with each version as they do in zenwalk
JRD wrote:A web interface coupled with e version control systme (svn ?) could solve all of this.
I will explain a bit futher if you like (I have no time today).
1. There should be a web interface where packages can be uploaded
2. The uploaded packages get stored in an "upload cache"
3. There could be a page that shows the packages in the upload cache. Trusted users should mark them as tested. When 3 users have marked as tested the package could automatically go to the repository.
4. When a upgraded package goes to the repository, the old version should be saved in a backup directory.
Will there be a separate repository for user-uploaded packages, ones that don't all get verified by trusted users? An untrusted, or suspicious, "use at your own risk" repository?
Sparky wrote:Will there be a separate repository for user-uploaded packages, ones that don't all get verified by trusted users? An untrusted, or suspicious, "use at your own risk" repository?
I don't like this, too. You can get a bunch of bad quality packages from linuxpackages.net if you want.
What about a wiki entry with links to the private package accounts.
I sometimes packages software which isn't very packaging-friendly and/or doesn't confirm to the packaging rules (something like missing desktop, ...) and just put them into my unofficial folder, so that anybody could use them, I have a backup and not the pain of maintaining it.
I know that you were/are hosting quite some of those, gapan.
JRD wrote:A web interface coupled with e version control systme (svn ?) could solve all of this.
I will explain a bit futher if you like (I have no time today).
I would be interested in hearing a bit more about this as I had quite good experience with vcs lately. But I can't exactly imagine how it's used for a distro.
I think svn is ok, because usually a distro doesn't need good branching and merging support.
Although I've had a quite good experience with bazaar.
gapan wrote:I don't really like the idea of unofficial, unsupported packages... Same reason I wasn't very fond of ZUR and uploading packages there only.
There's two sides to a medal. On one hand you have build scripts and stuff that are prepped for zenwalk, and (hopefully) work. On the other hand is no 100% reliability. An AUR-like approach with trusted users should amend that.
Also, one could run a check against stuff available on slackware's own mirrors and slacky.eu to eliminate any redundancies if present. I think that would greatly diminish the possible amount of packages.