Re: rtw88, rtw89 -- options for bringing a couple rtw standalone GitHub repos into backports.git

Johannes,

Thank you for quick reply.

> 
>> I am going to first try a variation of the approach you suggested where
>> I generate backports for Linux versions in the repo in ascending order
>> then have our Makefile detect user's version and install accordingly.
> 
> Wait, no, what? You don't need to detect the user's version or anything.
> 

Ah, yes! Ok, wow. Sorry. Things are finally adding up... ¬‿¬

> No no, misunderstanding here I think. You don't need anything granular
> at all, *all* your users should be able to use a *single* current
> backports-based package.
> 
> The granularity question only comes in when you say have a user who
> reports that something doesn't work. Now what, how do you get them to
> e.g. bisect? Right now you have a git tree they can normally bisect in.
> 
> Now, if you
>   - release backports tarballs for them to use, or
>   - commit the output of backports into a git tree for them to use
> 
> *then* you get into the granularity question, which ends up being a
> trade-off between what's effectively bisectability (you don't really
> need to care about the history, after all, it's preserved upstream), and
> effort on your end to generate (and test) them all.
> 

Right, yes.


>> After that, our Makefile and/or scripts it coordinates will have to
>> detect the user version, then cd into that package, and install it
>> properly.
>>
> 
> No, you should just give them the output of backports (gentree.py)
> directly, it does all this.
> 
>> I am suspending any upstream commit history shenanigans for a
>> later point as making sure the driver is performant and in-line with the
>> up-to-date wireless stack.
> 
> OK, so then you just need to release a single tarball effectively.
> Whether as a git branch or a literal tarball is pretty much irrelevant.
> 


Ok, I now understand.

I think because of the way I was trying to do things before I was 
failing to see how radically backports could simplify the task in many 
ways. The approach I have been using is far away from this way of doing 
things.

I am going to get started now.

Again, thank you for your patience and help.

Thanks,
Brian Witte