Request for help: Distro releases and library version table

[Thomas Bushnell BSG]

Josh Sled <jsled at asynchronous.org> writes:

> On Sat, 2005-10-15 at 17:48 -0700, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:
>> In the case of Debian, this isn't the way it goes.  Don't target
>> Debian sarge; target Debian unstable, which is in progress now.
>> 
>> The freeze is expected sometime about a year from now.
>
> Hmm, maybe I wasn't clear.
>
> Especially since it's been so long since the last release, we should
> seek to make the next release one that can work on fielded systems.  As
> such, it shouldn't depend on libraries that are currently in the
> unstable/testing/development track of distributions.  We should release
> something that can conceivably be compiled and/or packaged for
> distributions that exist in the world today.  "Today", here, is defined
> as "released for 6 months".

Really, this isn't how Debian works, and it isn't how Debian users
normally get software.

Please trust me, I know what I'm talking about.

> Certainly when the next Debian stable release is frozen we should have
> an updated version of gnucash that's using contemporary libraries.  But
> I'm focused on now, not a year from now, right now.

Right now, *NO* new gnucash will go into Debian stable.  Period.
Targeting Debian stable only gets you a "new" gnucash that is unused
by Debian users.  The Debian stable archive *will not change*, and
*will not* include any new gnucash *of any sort*.

Debian unstable/testing (which is not like Red Hat; Debian
unstable/testing are used daily by a gajillion people) *will* get
whatever is released.

If you make a release that compiles against Debian stable, and does
not compile against Debian unstable, you will have produced a release
that almost no Debian user will touch.  

Thomas