Re: libarchive compatibility issue

[Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 05:23:44PM +0100, Tobias Nygren wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:42:21 +0100
> Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost> wrote:
> 
> > > Feel free to submit patches. My interest in retro computing is limited.
> > 
> > sounds like it's time to revert the dependency on libarchive then, and go
> > back to using external commands, if libarchive will not support all of our
> > pkgsrc platforms.
> 
> It is unreasonable to ask of developers to test changes on 10 year
> old(!) releases. In principle every patch that improves backward
> portability of our core components should be accepted into the tree,
> but in the end the burden to write patches naturally must fall on
> those who want to run obsolete releases.

just to clarify, i wasn't asking people to test on hardware or
operating systems they don't have, can't get, or don't know about -
this thread started when someone else did that for us.

and cutting someone adrift with a ''tough luck, you're unsupported''
message, when it's a small compat function that just needs to be
added, strikes me as putting arbitrary barriers in place to being able
to use pkgsrc on a platform that was previously ''supported'' very
well in its day.

regards,
alistair