Depending on external libraries

[Egbert Eich]

Keith Packard writes:
 > 
 > Around 10 o'clock on Mar 11, "Kendall Bennett" wrote:
 > 
 > > Assuming that you have somewhere to get an 'upstream' version from that 
 > > will be correct and work for what you need.
 > 
 > No, jhbuild also allows you to point your configuration at a custom 
 > version of the package if upstream is really unable (or unwilling) to help 
 > out.  But frankly, the number of upstream developers unwilling to 
 > cooperate with X development is vanishingly small; I haven't had a single 
 > problem getting needed fixes pushed upstream.

Right. This certainly has improved over the past years.

 > 
 > > you will potentially have release timing issues with upstream projects
 > > that can't be solved in time for an official release.
 > 
 > No.  Our dependencies should always be on *released* versions of the 
 > upstream projects.  If we plan a release assuming the availability of an 
 > upstream release, then either our release will pend the upstream, or the 
 > dependency should be revoked.
 > 

Right. That requires the upstream package to be released in a timely manner.
This is however an argument that works both ways: A lot of projects
that depended on features of X got constipated by the long release cycles.
The theory is that the smaller size of the modules will independend
and therefore more frequent releases of parts that have been changed.


Egbert.