[Pkg-xfce-devel] Xfce plans for the squeeze cycle

[Yves-Alexis Perez]

On dim, 2009-08-16 at 14:41 +0200, Marc Brockschmidt wrote:
> As announced on dda [RT1], we want to get an impression when releasing
> Squeeze is feasible. We have proposed a (quite ambitious) freeze in December
> 2009, and some developers have noted that their planned changes wouldn't be
> possible in this time frame. So, to find out when releasing would work for
> most people, it would be great if you could answer the following questions:
> 
> * Which major upstream releases of Xfce are expected in the next two
>   years? Which of those are material for Debian stable, which might be a bit
>   flaky?

Xfce 4.8 is supposed to be release in april 2010. Then Xfce 4.10 (or so)
in early 2011, but it's not really scheduled yet and the Xfce team has
little manpower and that's an issue when talking release management.
They're trying to do it well for 4.8, and there are already release
plans and schedules available:

http://wiki.xfce.org/releng/release-model
http://wiki.xfce.org/releng/4.8/schedule

> 
> * How much time do you usually need from a new upstream release of Xfce
>   to a stable Debian package in unstable?

At the moment, I am more/less the only one working on it, but it's not
that long. For 4.6 I prepared the migration in my own repos and
experimental, using 4.6 pre-releases.  What can takes time and delay the
upload is:

- personal availability (if I'm the only active one in the team);
- upstream delays;
- restrictions in unstable uploads (for migrations).

> 
> * How many "big" transitions will the upcoming changes cause? When should those
>   happen? Can we do something to make them easier?

We'll have the exo-0.3 to exo-1 change. Dependencies are limited to
pkg-xfce packages and most will be part of the new release:

corsac at hidalgo: apt-cache rdepends libexo-0.3-0  | tail -n +3 | sort -u
  exo-utils
  libexo-0.3-0-dbg
  libexo-0.3-dev
  libthunar-vfs-1-2
  ristretto
  squeeze
  thunar
  thunar-media-tags-plugin
  thunar-volman
  xfburn
  xfce4-clipman-plugin
  xfce4-panel
  xfce4-places-plugin
  xfce4-settings
  xfce4-terminal
  xfce4-verve-plugin
  xfce4-volstatus-icon
  xfdesktop4
  xfmedia

There will be the Thunar port to GIO. Thunar-vfs will be dropped from
the thunar package (still be present as an external lib, for packages
not ported to the new Thunar-gio lib). I'm not sure atm how I'll handle
that but it'll sure take some time.

There will be few new packages (libgarcon for menu handling, which will
be a freedesktop.org lib) which will require NEW too.

Basically, looking at the planned release date, if the freeze is in
december 4.8 won't be in Squeeze. For 4.8 to be present in Squeeze, I
guess I would have to be able to upload it (so no freeze, or freeze
exception) until (mid or end) may 2010. I'm not sure how it fits into
your plans, but I'd say I'm fine with having Xfce 4.6 in Squeeze, don't
delay the freeze of us.

Cheers,
-- 
Yves-Alexis