cvs commit: src/lib/libc/gen fts-compat.c fts-compat.h

[Matthew D. Fuller]

On Tue, Aug 28, 2007 at 12:37:36PM +0400 I heard the voice of
Yar Tikhiy, and lo! it spake thus:
> 
> Perhaps we'll have to prune away the oldest unreleased versions
> periodically, but then some people will have to rebuild their old
> ports.

Well, but you can rebuild the ports before the fact.  That's smooth.

>From a how-miserable-life-is standpoint, and given the two cases:

1) We have a new version of XYZ ABI that new compiles will build
   against.  The old one will be removed in 6 months.  At that time,
   anything built before today will break.

2) We're putting in a new version of the XYZ ABI.  Anything built even
   momentarily before you installworld will break instantly after
   that.

One of the choices is much, much, _much_ nicer than the other.

A good percentage of programs on a given server will probably get
rebuilt over 6 months as a matter of course, as new versions come out.
The only disruption (1) will cause is that stuff that wouldn't
otherwise will need to be rebuilt "sometime in the next few months" to
keep working after the flag.  It can be handled smoothly (not
'automatically', perhaps, but a passingly attentive sysadmin can
easily jump the river without any visible issues).  (2) can't.  It'll
disrupt everything, and there's no way to prepare for it in advance.


Of course, it'd be nice to have "3) Everything always works forever".
But (1) is in practice very close to that, and likely a leetle bit
less work  :)



-- 
Matthew Fuller     (MF4839)   |  fullermd at over-yonder.net
Systems/Network Administrator |  http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/
           On the Internet, nobody can hear you scream.