[packagekit] Wishlist for API breaks

[Sebastian Heinlein]

Am Sonntag, den 26.10.2008, 17:11 +0000 schrieb Richard Hughes:
> On Fri, 2008-10-24 at 11:28 -0400, James Antill wrote:
> > On Fri, 2008-10-24 at 15:16 +0100, Richard Hughes wrote:
> > > Any of you on the list want an API break but too afraid to ask?
> > > 
> > > These are the things I want to break API for in the future (not anytime
> > > soon)
> > > 
> > > * Add a severity enum in update detail struct
> > 
> >  You need an API break to add fields? Can't you add them at the end?
> 
> Well, I could, but the DBUS api requires a hard signature. 
> 
> > > Do any of you have any other things on the wishlist?
> > 
> >  There's the install+remove operation, which I think requires a break?
> 
> Do we want an InstallRemove function or something more abstract like:
> 
> SwapPackages(sendmail, postfix)
> 
> As we want to swap the packages, not just do random things. I think the
> UI would get very muddled if we let the users do both actions at once,
> and I think it would be pretty hard for backends to say "we support
> these actions with these other actions (nxn)" and also do the ordering
> correctly.

I could think of adding an option to InstallPackages which allows to
remove conflicting packages. Furthermore GetDepends could also show the
to be removed packages. 

Related to this topic: How do you handle updates which require
additional packages to be installed or removed in yum-land/Fedora? A
real life example are the packages which contain the blacklisted ssh
keys after the Debian ssh desaster. The latest ssh packages depend on
those.

The SwapPackages method would require more logic and conflicts handling
on the PackageKit daemon side. I would favor keeping this in the
backends.

Cheers,

Sebastian