Re: Experimental branch for GRUB

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 03:06:02PM +0800, Bean wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I take a quick look at bazaar, it seems to be working fine. However,
> if we are to use bazaar, I suggest we host the project at launchpad,
> for several reasons:
> 
> Launchpad have a nice web interface.
> 
> Launchpad can build ubuntu package from source code.
> 
> Like GITHUB, launchpad allows users to fork the project and work on
> user branch. This is important for big patch as it usually go through
> several few steps before completion.
> 
> We might want to create a unified repo for grub and grub-extra. As
> grub doesn't  support external module building, split it in two parts
> is not convenient for both developer and user. Therefore, we can
> maintain an unified source tree in the experimental repo, and push
> patch to the corresponding project when applied upstream.
> 
> We don't want to mix bug report for experiential feature with official
> grub2. Launchpad has its own bug tracking system, we can use it to
> process bug report concerning the experimental branch.

I've to go soon and can go in more detail later, but user branches work
fine.  I put two of my local patchsets there just a few minutes ago,
check http://bzr.savannah.gnu.org/lh/grub/people/robertmh/.

I think building deb from snapshots of this experimental branch is a good
idea, and it can be done in any place you see fit, BUT if a proprietary
solution is used, the GNU project can't endorse those (e.g. we wouldn't
link to them).  I haven't followed the latest developments on which parts
of Launchpad have been liberated.  In any case, if this turns out to be a
problem I can assist with the deb-building process (I got almost a decade of
experience with it).

GRUB does support external module building, but it's very impractical.  This
is why in Debian we opted for integrating grub-extras at source level, which
is also more solid (no need for ABI checks).  I intend to make it easier for
external source modules to be integrated into GRUB without need for patching
anything, but I haven't found the time to do this (maybe later this weekend).

As for bug reports, due to the nature of an experimental branch I don't
expect they will be very common.  Anyhow, I'll have a look at Savannah
BTS' versioning capabilities.

-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."