On Wed, Aug 11, 2004 at 03:30:31PM +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
>
> I haven't installed the FC3 Test Release which came out
> a couple of weeks ago, because it was said
> one probably could not upgrade to FC3,
> and I don't really have the time or inclination
> to do a completely new installation when FC3 comes out.
>
> But I was wondering - do these test releases contain anything
> that is not in the update or test RPMs?
> Presumably if a test RPM contains a bug,
> this will be corrected in a subsequent RPM.
> So I am not clear how the test release can take one a cul de sac.
Test releases can take you down a dead end road by abandoning a
source/rpm tree that is found to have trouble.
I know that ASCII art will look broken for some
without a fixed width font, but here is a try.
If you think of a simple source tree.
app1.0 ---> app1.1 ---> app1.2
Next if you think of a simple source tree with one branch.
app1.0 ---> app1.1 ---> app1.2
\---> app2.0 ---> app2.1
Or two branches.
/---> appl3.0.
/
app1.0 ---> app1.1 ---> app1.2
\
\---> app2.0 ---> app2.1
If it found in testing that appl3.x is badly broken
that branch might be abandoned and one of 1.2 or 2.1 selected
to replace it.
Since rpm's have a flow it is likely that no 2.x rpm
would replace the 3.0 rpm from test.
If a critical chunk of code is involved backing it out could require
serious work. The good news is that the rpm model makes it possible,
just not easy. Many of the people on 'test' understand how to do this
and also how tangled and complext it can get. The tangle and complex
stuff is why they recommend a clean install to tidy up after playing
with 'test'.
It can be done but no one realy wants to help random people do the
amount of work necessary to clean up that type of endless mess.
--
T o m M i t c h e l l
Just say no to 74LS73 in 2004
