[openstack-dev] [all] Setting epoch in setup.cfg??

Thierry Carrez thierry at openstack.org
Mon Jul 13 08:38:09 UTC 2015


Ian Cordasco wrote:
> On 7/10/15, 03:44, "Thierry Carrez" <thierry at openstack.org> wrote:
>> Also you'll find that the various distros use different epoch values for
>> the same software, because epoch are also used to cover local blunders
>> in packaging and historical artifacts. That is why epochs should be
>> local to each packaging system and specifying it upstream is imho
>> counter-productive.
> 
> So, unpopular opinion time, but I think we restrict ourselves way too much
> based on a false notion that the only people who consume OpenStack are
> consuming it via downstream packages. Joshua has pointed out a very real
> use case (deploying inside a virtual environment) and there are also cases
> where people build from source and will be (attempting) to upgrade from
> 2015.1.x to 11.0.0 or 8.0.0. Even if people only use PyPI as a way of
> determining version order, using epochs will be significantly better for
> them. Perhaps I'm too late to the discussion, but it also appears no other
> opinions were solicited for it, especially not from users or operators.
> 
> Specifically, I'd like to understand why using a feature of PEP 440 to
> explicitly indicate a shift in version numbering is "counter-productive".
> It seems like it would be very productive for people who aren't tightly
> integrated into the development process.

By "counter-productive", I meant: likely to generate more confusion than
clarity. If you provide an epoch in the version and it doesn't match
downstream packagers ones, it's hard to rely on it.

That said, I can see your point: people who consume from pip would like
to have epochs too, epoch-sanitized versioning should not be reserved to
distros.

What I want to avoid is releasing nova-2!12.0.0.0.tar.gz tarballs,
because that would be ugly (and confusing, with distros all having their
own idea of an epoch set as well). But I don't mind including an epoch=
parameter in setup.cfg if that makes pip happier.

Could you detail what your preferred system would look like ?

-- 
Thierry Carrez (ttx)



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