[HPLIP-Devel] Please announce hotfixes, and please don't do away with the point releases

[Henrique de M. H. <hm...@de...>]

On Fri, 26 Jan 2007, dwelch91 wrote in hplip-help@l.s.n:
> How to fix:
> 1. Remove line 205 of the file "/usr/share/hplip/levels" (as root)
> or
> 2. Copy the attached file "levels.py" to "/usr/share/hplip/levels" (as root)
> 
> This will also, or course, be fixed in the Feb. release (ver. 1.7.2).

Many thanks for the patch and for the impressive fast delivery of a fix, it
will be in the Debian package for 1.7.1.

However, it would not be in the Debian package if I didn't make it a point
to read every post to this mailinglist, even while moderately swamped with
other work.  Maybe the Ubuntu guys would have noticed it and picked it up,
then I'd notice it eventually and grab it from their tree, but still...

So, I am respectfully asking you guys to either CC us downstream distro
maintainers directly, or to at least CC hplip-devel on all patches/hotfixes.
If you could tag the message somehow (the standard used almost everywhere I
know of is [PATCH] or [FIX]), it would be even better.

Also, I ask you to not do away with the point releases.  An 1.7.1.1 quick
fix release with this patch would be welcome.  And if other simple,
obviously-right fixes show up before 1.7.2, further point releases would,
too.  The key reasoning here is to get minimal latency for these fixes for
those who care.   They don't really require the full-blown regression
testing and QA a regular hplip release does, so they can be sent out much
faster.

I know it gets trickier with your installer package, but it would not be
that difficult to teach it to look in the current directory where it is
being run from for "hplip-<release>.<patchlevel>.patch" and apply the ones
above the current installer patchlevel.   Non-cummulative patches make this
easy.  Users could download the point release patches to the same directory
as the installer, and it would apply them over as an upgrade run.  There
would be no need to regenerate (and therefore, test) the entire installer
package for every point release.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh