Re: Version Woes

[Derek Atkins]

Frank,

Frank Crawford <address@hidden> writes:

> I don't know about other distributions, but Fedora is actively
> discouraging any Python2 applications.
>
> Python 2.6 and Python 2.7 is only for essential applications that have
> not yet been ported, and actually need approval to ship.  If there is
> already a port of an application to Python3,such as rdiff-backup,
> approval will not gain approval.

So backup isn't essential?

> In fact, if you review what is available in Fedora 32 you will see that
> most things that had both Python2 and Python3 versions now only have
> Python3 versions, and many other things have just been dropped.

Sure, but rdiff-backup is special because version 2 is not backwards
compatible with version 1 over-the-net.  If it were, we wouldn't be
having this conversation.  However if you have a client/server backup
solution using rdiff-backup, right now both ends need to be the same
version.  This means there needs to be a transition period where both
versions are available.

I think this argument can easily be made.

>> So, frankly, based on that 2.6 is still being shipped after 7 years,
>> I
>> think we have a good DECADE before we'll stop seeing Python 2.7.
>
> The biggest issue with running any Python2 packages is that there will
> be no security patches for the underlying framework.

I don't see that being an issue..

> Saying that, there is nothing stopping you from pulling down an old
> copy of rdiff-backup 2.8 and maintaining it yourself, as once you put
> it on there, nothing will change (ever).
>
> In addition you can run both rdiff-backup 1.2.8 and 2.0.0 on the same
> system, however, you will have to do the renaming required to hold
> both.  With package installation, we have to ensure that the names and
> metadata are different, otherwise you get clashes which stop the
> installation of one or other of the packages.

I don't see why we can't have an "rdiff-backup" which is version 2, and
an "rdiff-backup1" which is 1.2.8.  It's not the first time this has
been done before.

Just look at Mailman!  Fedora ships both Mailman2 and Mailman3 packages
which can co-exist on a server.

Sure, *I* could go install both myself and solve the problem for myself.
That's not the point.  The point is to make sure someone who is just a
regular software user doesn't get boned because they update one system
and suddenly their backup solution doesn't work anymore.

>> -derek
>
> Regards
> Frank

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       address@hidden             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant