Meta-package naming for Xenial LTS backports

[Tim Gardner]

On 07/29/2016 10:37 AM, Andy Whitcroft wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 08:40:46AM -0700, Tim Gardner wrote:
>> On 07/27/2016 08:04 AM, Andy Whitcroft wrote:
>>> We have been discussing some naming for new meta-packages to allow for
>>> automatic rolling upgrades between Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernels
>>> within the LTS series.  This thread aims to firm those up.
>>>
>>> Currently we have meta-packages of the following forms:
>>>
>>>     linux{,-image,-headers,-signed,-tools}-<flavour>[-<variant>]
>>>
>>> The flavour then represents the primary use case for the kernel (for
>>> example generic and lowlatency) and the optional variant currently is
>>> used to identify the HWE kernels (lts-<series>).  For example:
>>>
>>>     linux-image-generic-lts-xenial
>>>
>>> The desire is to offer a rolling HWE kernel, this means a kernel variant
>>> which is updated automatically to the latest available HWE kernel within
>>> the LTS.  We would expect that to update to the next HWE kernel at each
>>> point release.  We wish to offer this in two forms, rolling until we
>>> reach the next LTS release and continuing to roll after an upgrade.
>>> Finally we wish to be able to offer early accesss to these updates as
>>> soon as they are available for testing purposes.
>>>
>>> We are proposing the following variants:
>>>
>>>     -hwe-16.04
>>>     -hwe-rolling
>>>     -hwe-16.04-early
>>>     -hwe-rolling-early
>>>
>>> So for example:
>>>
>>>     linux-generic-hwe-16.04
>>>
>>> /me puts up some substantial scaffolding round his bikeshed.
>>>
>>> -apw
>>>
>>
>> I think the first 2 are fine. What is your intended use for "-early" ?
>> I'm reluctant to endorse something like "-early" if it isn't a release
>> requirement. Otherwise it'll get forgotten and grow stale.
> 
> The intent of -early is it updated on the same cadance as the main ones,
> but it switches from lts-Y to lts-Z on first availability rather than
> waiting for the point release.  So they are the same much of the time,
> then when a new lts-Z is available that one will switch to it, we
> stablise it, and then the non -early one moves over to join it.
> 
> -apw
> 

In the interest of bike shedding, perhaps "-dev" would be more descriptive.

rtg
-- 
Tim Gardner tim.gardner at canonical.com