[Nix-dev] Why having releases if you break things in it often

[Stefan Huchler]

Hello Freddy,

yes I think that html5lib thing would it be. So it was at least a
security fix, so you dont just update stuff to update it, which would
make releases pretty useless concept :)

So except you want security updates you dont have to update your system?
I think automated tests could fix that...

something like systemctl status flexget | grep running or something like
that.

Of course you cant write a test for every cornercase, but that bug seems
pretty obvious and easy to reproduce (install/upgrade flexget).

Sorry I formulated that message a bit trollish, but just wanted to learn
why how releases are done in nixos.

Also a hint why list-derivations and boot options in grub dont are the
same would be interesting? Maybe when I run gc or optimise they vanish
from grub?

Stefan


Freddy Rietdijk <freddyrietdijk at fridh.nl> writes:

> Hi Stefan,
>
> Regarding flexget. There were some security issues with an (indirect) dependency, html5lib, and thus
> html5lib was upgraded. Maybe that broke flexget, I don't know. 
>
> The main issue is just a lack of maintainers. It's relatively straightforward to add a package to Nixpkgs, but
> maintaining a package set this size that also keeps growing is becoming increasingly harder.
>
> Freddy
>
> On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 10:07 AM, Stefan Huchler <stefan.huchler at mail.de> wrote:
>
>  So because I dont need always newest versions on all of my boxes, I
>  selected the 16.xx chhannel.
>
>  There are here and there some minor issues as example kodi here and
>  there crashes maybe 1-3 times a week. Could be extentions or something.
>
>  For that and other reasons I update here and there all few weeks maybe
>  the maschine.
>
>  So one advantage of course is that if I notice that something does not
>  work I can boot a old configuration, so I dont have to deal with some
>  updates that broke stuff or rollback.
>
>  But I wonder how you can break relativly often stuff (at the moment
>  there seems to be a python dependency problem with flexget, that makes
>  the daemon crash), in a "stable" release channel.
>
>  I mean if I use debian, and stick to my "channel"/release, normaly
>  nothing breaks, as long as I use only their package installer, pip
>  updates of course broke stuff. If I use fedora, well I get maybe some
>  upstream changes like new kernel versions, but normaly they brake also
>  nothing.
>
>  So if "stable" channel makes updates that are not needed (the older
>  version of flexget works fine), whats the point or the criterias of
>  those releases? I could then just use the newest version, if I have to
>  relay on rollback / boot old versions anyway, I dont really see the
>  point of "stable" channels.
>
>  I had pretty good experiences with using the rolling channel, but had
>  many times break stuff in the stable channel.
>
>  Also the tools around generations / boot-generations is very confusing,
>  why do I have 3 4 options in the nix-env --list-generation overview but
>  20 in the boot menu.
>
>  But thats a 2nd different issue I guess.
>
>  Just wonder what your policies are.
>
>  Other stuff that broke on me in the past, was latex packages as example.
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  nix-dev mailing list
>  nix-dev at lists.science.uu.nl
>  http://lists.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/nix-dev