Debian requirements to shipping official releases

[evelikov]

Split from here:

It seems that Debian, and by extension Debian derivatives, have been shipping random git snapshots of kmod for a while now. Looking at repology shows:

• Debian 12, 13, unstable (+ testing not listed) ... effectively for around ~2 years

Looking at other distros over the last 2-3 years

• Arch, Alpine, Gentoo - official releases + the occasional one-off fix
• Fedora - official releases + occasional one-off fix; manually pulled openssl/sha3 support
• opensuse - cannot check, currently carry 5-6 patches with downstream functionality

So overall other distros have not found sufficient bugs/features to go the same route.

I'm wondering: @rfc1036 can you please share your expectations? Ideally they'll be something @lucasdemarchi and me can accommodate. If not, at least we have things documented.

Thanks o/

[rfc1036]

I try to frequently package new snapshots for unstable because the releases have been infrequent and this way I can give more exposure to the new code, but if you believe this to be a bad idea then I will stop.

[evelikov]

Not my call bth.

I'm bringing this up, since the git versions have been in Debian stable releases which seems rather strange. Is there a way to have official releases in the (future) Debian stable, while still using the git one elsewhere?

[rfc1036]

Sure: I could upload the snapshots only to Debian/experimental, but then nobody would use them. :-)
Or else kmod can make a stable release in time for when the next Debian release is frozen.

[evelikov]

It sounds to me that Debian could use a kmod-git package, like we have in Arch (as well as Gentoo). People who want bleeding edge can use that, where majority of people will be using proper releases.

Expecting project releases align with Debian isn't realistic, since people take time off, get sick etc.