Arch Linux

daniel_shub

Member

Registered: 2012-06-21

Posts: 89

Should pkgrel of Python packages be bumped?

Whenever a new version of Python is released, AUR python packages generally need to be rebuilt against the new version. Often, nothing needs to be changed in the PKGBUILD and all the user needs to do is rerun makepkg. It is not really that easy since pacman will not know the rebuilt package is a new release if the pkgver and pkgrel do not change. Of course the user can force pacman to "reinstall" the package. One solution I have seen requested on the AUR is to bump the pkgrel even though nothing changes. The packaging guidelines (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Python … guidelines) do not address this issue. Things get further complicated because some of the AUR helpers detect the Python version change and rebuild the AUR packages and other do not, I think.

Is there guidance someplace about what to do with AUR python packages when the Python version changes?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,119

Re: Should pkgrel of Python packages be bumped?

I used to, but I don't anymore. You mention pacman not knowing that the rebuilt package is different really isn't an issue, pacman doesn't treat it any differently. You tell it to install it, it installs it.

The main reason I don't, more generally, not just python, is that you really don't know the state of the user's OS. Are they using the {kde,gnome}-unstable repos? testing/community-testing? Are they on a different distro that moves slower? There's no way of predicting when you should bump the pkgrel.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,300

Re: Should pkgrel of Python packages be bumped?

Ultimately AUR packages are the responsibility of the user and they should be aware enough of this need to do that, if you are a maintainer and want to do it to inform people using helpers you are free to do so, but it's not really a strict requirement.

AUR helpers in general aren't considered supported, do how they handle this individually shouldn't factor in

Last edited by V1del (2023-05-08 21:40:53)