Pulseaudio version in Jessie

[Niels Thykier]

On 2014-09-05 06:32, Felipe Sateler wrote:
> Dear release team,
> 
> I'm writing in order to discuss the status of Pulseaudio for Jessie.
> Pulseaudio currently sits at (upstream) version 5 for jessie.
> 
> [...]
> So, the question is will we be able to ship pulseaudio 6? It is fairly
> clear that the final release will not be on time for the freeze.
> However, the release candidate may be introduced in time. The upstream
> policy after a release candidate is only bug fixes and doc/translation
> updates[3]. So I was thinking maybe an exception for the final release
> could be made if the release candidate arrives early enough. We have
> never managed a freeze I believe there are 2 main questions:
> 


Hi Felipe / Pulseaudio maintainers,

I apologise for the tardiness on our part.  Thanks for bringing this
problem to our attention.

If I understand you correctly then the consequence of the regression is
Debian loses support for the following bluethooth devices:

 1. "Health" devices
    - I do not quite a clear view of what these are.  If you have an
      example it would be nice.

 2. Hands-free devices in Cars

I presume that the lost support in question is "only" audio (which for
the 2. part would still be very bad).


> 1. Is such a plan (uploading the RC pre-freeze and the final release
> post-freeze) acceptable?


For me, such a plan /could/ be acceptable provided that:

 * The new major version of pulseaudio is both API and ABI backwards
   compatible!

   - A transition would be a deal-breaker for me at this point.

 * The current issues in the release candidates are not (new) RC bugs.

   - Keep in mind that we may need to have pulseaudio reverted to the
     old version should such issues turn out to be worse than
     anticipated.

 * You are aware that the Debian RT view of "necessary bug fixes" do
   not always coincide with upstreams view of "necessary bug fixes".

   - During the freeze we will reviewing all changes and we reserve the
     right to question/reject any (part) of them.

      - Keep in mind that we get more defensive as the freeze
        progresses!

   - You may have/want to cherry-pick changes frequently during the
     freeze (at a much faster pace than upstream makes releases).

   - You may have to support a "bastard" version for Jessie that
     consists of the release candidate plus only (some) of upstreams
     patches.



> 2. If so, when would be "early enough"? That is, until what date could
> the RC be uploaded to Debian?
> 
> [...]

The sooner the better, although you may want to start with experimental
to ensure it still builds on all architectures.

*If* we go down this path (and I am *not* saying the release team is
ready to commit to it), then I would highly prefer that we adopt the
noblest of traditions in Open Source:

  /Release early, release often./

Smaller changes are (often) easier to review and has a higher chance of
being accepted.

~Niels