[Pkg-rust-maintainers] Bug#796256: Bug#796256: Please consider packaging a Rust version that allows #![feature(...)]

[Angus Lees]

tags 796256 upstream wontfix
close 796256
thanks

On Fri, 21 Aug 2015 at 06:03 Josh Triplett <josh at joshtriplett.org> wrote:

> Quite a bit of the Cargo ecosystem makes use of #![feature(...)] to
> enable unstable features.  Rust release builds prohibit this by default:
>
>
> /home/josh/.cargo/git/checkouts/rust-fuse-e03750e721e8762f/master/src/lib.rs:12:1:
> 12:18 error: #[feature] may not be used on the stable release channel
> /home/josh/.cargo/git/checkouts/rust-fuse-e03750e721e8762f/master/src/
> lib.rs:12 #![feature(libc)]
>
>       ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Please consider providing a package of rustc that allows these
> feature-gates.
> (That doesn't necessarily have to be a nightly version.)
>

Hrm.  I think this means you're asking for a rustc-nightly.deb - or some
other arbitrary periodically updated snapshot of rustc compiled with
--channel=nightly to "unlock" opt-in unstable features.

I can completely understand this desire, but I think this inconvenience is
a completely desired outcome of the "Stability as a Deliverable" Rust
strategy[1].  As a *distribution* I feel like shipping a nightly package
would be directly subverting this strategy and as such I consider this a
wishlist bug against the upstream policy/mechanism.

Personally, I'm reluctant to break the release-channels experiment so close
to the 1.0 release.  We may well declare it failed and do something
different in future, but right now I think Debian has an important role to
play in demonstrating what the "stable" Rust world looks like and providing
pressure for upstreams to avoid unstable features.

I hope you can understand why I'm going to close this upstream+wontfix - at
least for now.  Please feel free to reopen and/or continue the discussion
if you disagree.

[1] http://blog.rust-lang.org/2014/10/30/Stability.html

 - Gus
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