[Nix-dev] Broken package

[Michael Raskin]

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Pjotr Prins wrote:
> Michael: a broken package is no reason to comment it out. Because of
> late binding nothing will happen. I think the only acceptable

Unfortunately, it actually caused a few failures on buildfarm. Buildfarm
really checks that all packages can be instantiated, so missing patch
ruins everything.

> behaviour is to *fix* it or remove it if it has been pending for too
> long.

Fixing is no options when there is a missing patch. I assume it actually
was needed. Silently killing patch usually yields nothing over
commenting out a package. I do fix packages that break build when there
is an understandable fix that requires no external knowledge.

Removing long broken package is worse than commenting out because
restoring requires some non-trivial actions.

> Unfortunately it did go in before it was ready. I can't even remember
> what the patch was for ;-).

That's very unfortunate. I assume it was something that was needed..

> I'd rather have you E-mail me directly in a case like this one, or
> just note it on the mailing list a package is broken.

Well, some other commits caused massive rebuild.. It would be nice if
buildfarm got to it. If a package cannot be built, it is OK. It can be
removed or  commented out from build-for-release after the main build is
complete unless the package is fixed by then. But it actually killed
instantiate phase. So the only way to make buildfarm build what it
should (without highly probable silent loss of functionality) was to
comment out the package.

I'd say that historically broken (as in failing to be instantiated)
packages get commented out rather often and rather quickly..
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