[Debian-med-packaging] gnuhealth in testing blocking new Tryton series

[Emilien Klein]

Hi Mathias,

2014-05-01 14:06 GMT+02:00 Mathias Behrle <mathiasb at m9s.biz>:
> CCing Maintainer and Uploaders
>
> Hi Emilien, hi Andreas, hi all,
>
> gnuhealth, gnuhealth-client and gnuhealth-server [1][2] are currently blocking
> the new Tryton series 3.2 from entering testing.

Thanks for updating the Debian packages for the latest Tryton release.

> AFAICS the gnuhealth project just released version 2.4.1 with an update for the
> 3.0 series [3], but I couldn't detect a message or roadmap for the migration to
> 3.2.

The version 2.4.1 of GNU Health is the one currently packaged in
Debian {unstable|testing}. It indeed depends on Tryton 3.0, and is not
supported to be run under Tryton 3.2.
The next release of GNU Health will be able to run on Tryton 3.2. I
have reached out [4] to the GNU Health development team to enquire
what the expected release date for that new version will be. I expect
it to come in the next ~2 months.

> Since the migration of gnuhealth to the current Tryton series doesn't seem
> to be imminent, it seems to be the appropriate way to remove gnuhealth from
> testing. AFAIS this should be done by the maintainer filing the bug for
> release.debian.org at packages.debian.org (correct me, if I am wrong).

The goal of the Debian project as a whole is to release the *stable*
distribution (roughly every 2-3 years, but in practice "whenever it's
ready").
In any case, the freeze for the next stable version is in roughly 6
months: the 5th of November 2014 [5].

I see no reason in this case for removal of a functioning package from
the Debian archive.
We could start discussing versioned packages, but I have to admit I'm
not a fan of this approach unless absolutely necessary.

A few months back I started a discussion with the GNU Health
development community to figure if the dependency was really that
strict. The answer was yes [6].

> So I want to ask you to file the removal bug for testing or to agree, that I
> can file it.

To summarize and be explicit: I do not plan to file a removal request,
nor agree to you filing it.
The newer GNU Health version should be released in time for it to be
packaged for Debian before the Jessie Freeze.
And in any case, both Tryton 3.0 and GNU health 2.4 are versions that
are currently still supported by their upstream, so there's no reason
to remove any of those from the testing distribution. It is part of
our Debian maintainship to support those packages (e.g. by backporting
security patches if needed) to the best of our extent.

I appreciate your patience, and will make sure to package the newest
GNU Health version as soon as it is made available.
    +Emilien
[4] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/health-dev/2014-05/msg00006.html
[5] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2013/10/msg00004.html
[6] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/health-dev/2014-02/msg00019.html