[pkg-boost-devel] Comments regarding boost1.40_1.40.0-1_amd64.changes

[Steve M. Robbins]

Hello Torsten,

On Wed, Sep 09, 2009 at 12:34:26PM +0000, Torsten Werner wrote:
> Hi Maintainer,
> 
> Version: 1.40.0-1
> 
> That would be the 3rd upstream version of boost in unstable after boost1.38 and
> boost1.39 and this needs a lot of ressources (mirror disks, network bandwidth,
> buildd and developer time). Please provide a roadmap which version of boost do
> you intend to maintain in Debian.

The roadmap was hashed out on debian-release last Spring [1].  

The constraints are:
  (a) Boost is on a quarterly release cycle [2], and
  (b) Someone always wants the newest Boost [3], but
  (c) Adapting to a new version sometimes takes time [see 1].

So we adopted the following practices:

1. Allowing multiple versions of boost in the archive to address (c):
users and dependent packages may choose to stick with a given version
for some time, possibly until upstream has adapted to the new Boost.
We settled on allowing 2 versions of Boost.  As soon as 1.40 hits the
archive, I'll file a removal bug for 1.38.

2. Using boost-defaults as a convenience (similar to python-defaults &
gcc-defaults) for those who just want "the default boost".  This
addresses concerns about having to update build-dependencies at each
release.

This has been working fine since May.  I hope this addresses your
questions.

Thanks,
-Steve


[1] See threads starting at:
    http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2009/03/msg00147.html
    http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2009/04/msg00251.html
    http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2009/05/msg00011.html
[2] https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/ImprovingPractices
[3] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=545704
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