[Samba] Samba v3.0.23a BROKE my network

[Chris Hall]

On Mon, 29 Jan 2007 Gerald (Jerry) Carter wrote
>Chris Hall wrote:
>> ...but doesn't change my opinion that software should be written to
>> avoid obscure failure caused by obvious misconfiguration -- particularly
>> in the case of an upgrade which turns a previously working configuration
>> into a broken one !

>Chris,
>
>This is not a pass the buck argument, but I would push back
>on the Fedora folks (IIRC the original context correctly).
>No one should have pushed out a 3.0.23a from 3.0.14a via yum.
>We have been constantly saying that upgrade releases
>(when the minor number changes) has significant differences
>from past releases.  The letter releases are bug fix only.

Well, OK... but is there a 3.0.14x which contains all the bug and 
*security* fixes that 3.0.23 contains ?

>So you can tell us (developers) that we should make such
>sweeping changes and in response I would state that package
>maintainers for a distro should not push out such sweeping
>changes without properly notifying the distro users.

These days one feels nervous if one is not running the latest, stable 
version, on the basis that it should be the most secure.

Last time I ran yum it updated 171 packages.  The only way that it is 
practical for me to keep up to date is to depend on the developers to 
ensure:

   - either, the updates are upwards compatible (if necessary, by
     updating configuration)

   - or, the new software stops gracefully and points me in the right
     direction to complete the update

And I would expect the second case to be (very) rare, and driven by a 
serious need or (better) a significant feature advantage.

As a developer I understand the cost of upwards compatibility.  But 
where it used to be a matter of convenience when occasionally upgrading 
for new features, it is now a matter of necessity when frequently 
upgrading to maintain maximum security.

If I were maintaining a distribution, running to many hundreds of 
packages, I doubt I would feel it was practical if each one could carry 
its own little surprise !

Chris
-- 
Chris Hall   @ Home                                         +44 (0)7970 277 383