How about a wiki page for recent changes/updates in packages?

jrussell · 2013-01-17 14:36:04

What does everyone think about a wiki page that gets updated with new and recent changes to packages in core and extra maybe?
I just thought of this now after having looked at this https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1217870,
There was a udev rule that isnt implemented after an update but it used from a fresh install....what else are we missing out on?

Are there a number of subtle changes/reworks/updates that happen without people knowing about them without explicitly going looking for a solution or asking a question? I think that there might be.

It would be nice if you could just scroll down to whatever package you are looking for news about in a wiki page which would track all these changes?
Maybe you could subscribe to a package and follow its changes or follow different things about that package.

Or I could even make a page myself that tracks things nicely.

What are your views and thoughts?

*Edit

I enjoy maintaining my arch and looking through the forums...but when works starts up again you miss things.

Here is the example https://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail … 24223.html

*Latest edit

Have I just described what mailman does?

Last edited by jrussell (2013-01-20 12:11:45)

Inxsible · 2013-01-17 16:55:15

the main page will have an announcement if there is some user action required on any update. why do you need another page for it?

Why add the additional task on the devs? That page will also get stale pretty quickly since the devs are all over the world and they do updates at their convenience, so the page will get overwritten within hours --- unless you keep the entries there forever, which brings in another set of problems.

Also in every update you should pay attention to the pacman output so that you don't miss anything.

chris_l · 2013-01-17 17:09:40

jrussell wrote:

What does everyone think about a wiki page that gets updated with new and recent changes to packages in core and extra maybe?

Reading https://www.archlinux.org/news/ is enough.

jrussell wrote:

It would be nice if you could just scroll down to whatever package you are looking for news about in a wiki page which would track all these changes?
Maybe you could subscribe to a package and follow its changes or follow different things about that package.

That actually sounds nice, but is not a wiki article, is more like if the news could have tags, and subscribe to them, like a feed url looking like: https://www.archlinux.org/feeds/news/systemd to subscribe to "news related with systemd" or something.

But devs are busy and I don't think they want to do it. And like I said, reading https://www.archlinux.org/news/ is enough.

EDIT: You can use the current feed at https://www.archlinux.org/feeds/news/

Last edited by chris_l (2013-01-17 17:27:18)

anonymous_user · 2013-01-17 18:11:54

In addition to the front page, you should also read the output of .install files when upgrading. For your specific example, you should have seen this message when upgrading systemd:

etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-slot.rules
This file masks persistent renaming rules for network devices. If you
delete this file, /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-slot.rules may
rename network devices according to ID_NET_NAME_{ONBOARD,SLOT,PATH}
properties of your network devices, with priority in that order. See
the output of 'udevadm test-builtin net_id /sys/class/net/\$interface'
for details on what that new name might be.
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwar … rfaceNames

Trilby · 2013-01-17 18:16:34

If you think it would be useful, write it - it is a wiki.

However, while I think there is something good in your idea, I don't think it is the best way. You suggest a single wiki page that would have information on changes in every package? That would be one enormous page. You say users could scroll through to the package they are interested in ... as most packges for which this would be relevant already have wiki pages, why not just update the existing pages as changes come?

If the idea then is revised to keeping the pages of these packages updated when there are changes, I'm pretty sure everyone would agree that that is a good goal - and any time you are willing to devote to seeing to that woul be of great benefit to the community.

So in short: I suggest keeping the info on the currently existing wiki pages, and if you want them updated, get to it.

jrussell · 2013-01-20 11:54:04

Well it wouldn't be for the devs to maintain, everyone would contribute. I just think this would make it a bit easier to maintain an arch installation for people who cant follow everything and/or dont want to have to follow everything.

It may have helped with for exapmple:
The systemd change here: https://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail … 24223.html
Removing a user from unnecessary groups with the change to systemd
The revised fstab entries with regards to tmpfs

I know alot of these sort of non criticle changes are in the wikis but its quite time consuming to read through all the wikis from time to time, I think my idea might help a lot, Ill look around if there isnt some sort of tracking/wiki software one could use.

*Edit

I was thinking of somthing whereby you would go to a page, and then youd be able to arrange changes by date(As changes are made), or by package by date (packages changes grouped and ordered by date), and then on top of that, have filters for different packages. If anyone knows of any webapp/website that can do this, please let me know Otherwise I could probs make something

Last edited by jrussell (2013-01-20 12:08:39)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-01-17 14:36:04

How about a wiki page for recent changes/updates in packages?

#2 2013-01-17 16:55:15

Re: How about a wiki page for recent changes/updates in packages?

#3 2013-01-17 17:09:40

Re: How about a wiki page for recent changes/updates in packages?

#4 2013-01-17 18:11:54

Re: How about a wiki page for recent changes/updates in packages?

#5 2013-01-17 18:16:34

Re: How about a wiki page for recent changes/updates in packages?

#6 2013-01-20 11:54:04

Re: How about a wiki page for recent changes/updates in packages?

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