Re: epoch bump request for gnome-calculator

Hey Jonas

On 26/09/2018 16:59, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
>> More recently, I have worked to reduce the difference between Debian
>> and Ubuntu packaging for many GNOME packages. It gets very tedious to
>> need to upload gnome-calculator in Debian and then do a separate
>> upload in Ubuntu (along with all the required Vcs merging, updating
>> and tagging) just to add the epoch in Ubuntu. It would be a lot nicer
>> if I could just sync the Debian package to Ubuntu.
>>
>> So is it appropriate to bump an epoch in Debian to match an important
>> downstream's epoch?
> 
> Please no: Don't adopt in Debian mistakes done in downstream distros.

I appreciate where your sentiment regarding this issue comes from, but I
think it comes across as a bit snide.

Jeremy has pulled a lot of weight making GNOME a first class citizen in
Debian, and I think you should rather look at it from the perspective
that a DD is spending a lot of time on duplicate work that effectively
ends up being busy work.

No one like epoch bumps but I know Jeremy wouldn't suggest anything
without spending a considerable amount of time putting thought in to it.

Personally I think you should reconsider before shooting off a 'no' so
quickly. And on that note I also agree with you that Debian shouldn't
pay for downstream mistakes, but this is clearly a bit different and a
bit more than that.

-Jonathan