On-the-wire dependencies

[Eddy Petrișor]

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(cc-ing list since I don't know if you are subscribed)

Josef Spillner wrote:
> I wonder what could be done regarding the issue of different release cycles of 
> game (server) projects and Debian, including its derivates.
> 
> If a game project releases versions X, Y and Z, and is only to host Z on its 
> server, what will distros A and B do if they included X and Y and promise 
> many years of support for it.
> 
> Obviously, depending on specific server versions is a bad idea, but this seems 
> to be increasingly common. For example, there are many packages which have 
> something to do with Google, and if Google changes its remote APIs then the 
> packages will break. They already ceased to offer their SOAP service, and as 
> a result, packages such as libnet-google-perl are basically worthless, unless 
> someone writes a replacement service for it.
> (Hm, I should file a bug report against it...)
> 
> I wonder what can be done about this for games which depend on specific game 
> servers. For example, would there be an issue to let new game clients go into 
> proposed-updates for a stable Debian release if that happens?
> 
> The package dependency management of dpkg is currently entirely unaware of 
> such dependencies, but I think at some point one wants to keep track of this.
> Suggestions?

AFAICT, this is currently covered either by backports or unofficial packages
(either client or server).

Another alternative would be placing such packages under the volatile section,
but I doubt it would be accepted by release managers since new server versions.

Another idea would be to have something like games.debian.net as a server for
the games delivered in Debian stable. There have been some discussions around
this topic, but there are things like bandwidth which are a concern.

Yet another idea is (as a user) to pin packages from testing or try to install
via source the game from testing (by means or srcinst which is able to install
packages from source).


I know, neither of these is a good solution, although the games.debian.net
would be the most smart one, IMHO, but the most expensive, too.

- --
Regards,
EddyP
=============================================
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" A.Einstein
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