Stable code with unstable dependancies.
| From: | Cipriano Groenendal | Date: | Sat, 30 Aug 2003 21:18:25 +0000 |
| Subject: | Stable code with unstable dependancies. | ||
| Groups: | php.pear.dev | ||
| Request: | Send a blank email to pear-dev+get-20902@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message | ||
Hello list.
First, sorry if this' come up before, but it's something I just noticed.
I know that one of PEAR's main goals is high stability in the code contained
within its ports, so I was kind of surprised when I noticed this just now.
Packages can be declared stable while they still depend upon unstable code.
I tested this just now with some packages that called itself stable, but
depnded upon something that was not yet declared stable. IMHO this should
not be allowed. It's comparable to building a house on unstable ground. The
house may be built sturdy, but that'll do you much good when an earthquake
comes by and eats your land ;)
The same goes for packages. Stable status should mean a package is 100%
tested and known to work as expected. yet in depending upon source
that(AFAIK) hasn't ever bene declared stable, this would not be possible.
Here are /some/ examples that I noticed after installing everything ``pear
download-all'' downloaded for me.
DB_DataObject 1.2 stable => Depends upon
Validate 0.2.0 alpha
HTML_Select_Common 1.1 stable => Depends upon
I18N 0.8.6 beta
HTML_Template_Xipe 1.7.4 stable => Depends upon
Tree 0.2.4 beta
Should something be done about packages like this? IMHO the installer
should, with preferred-state set to
stable only download stable packages,
unless it's -forced. Even better would be if packages depending upon
something unstable could never reach the Stable condition unless all its
dependencies would be. The same requirements could be made for the
Alpha/Beta/Devel levels of stability.
Cipriano Groenendal