• ranzispa@mander.xyz
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    2 days ago

    So, the main advantage is that it is ensured that an update will not brick the system?

    That is pretty neat, but it’s been quite a while since the last update which broke something for me. And that was either on arch of switching Debian version.

    I reckon it is nice that you ensure updates won’t break anything, even though I’m not sure that can be ensured, in most cases I had it was the repo itself which made mistakes in packaging the software who broke it and I don’t think there’s solution for that. Either way, I myself do not see this such an advantage as to displace the pain of having everything run in flatpak.

    • j0rge@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Updates can be ensured and broken repositories go away entirely that’s the entire point. I don’t think it’s “nice” I would consider that a basic feature in Linux. If you like Linux your way then that doesn’t go away.

      • ranzispa@mander.xyz
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        2 days ago

        What do you mean? How can it be possible to eliminate a packaging error? If the packaging team makes a mistake you get a broken software, regardless whether you download a binary through a repository or through flatpak.

        • j0rge@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          Because the image never gets built if there’s a packaging error, so the user never ends up on a broken image. A broken package never makes it to the end. If it’s broken the user just doesn’t get an image until the package is fixed and then they get a new image.

          • ranzispa@mander.xyz
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            2 days ago

            I had broken packages getting installed before. They would compile correctly but certain functionality would not work due to how it was packaged. This is not something which can be prevented, I do not believe it is possible.

            • j0rge@lemmy.ml
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              1 day ago

              It is 100% possible and people have been doing it for years. If the package is broken the final product is never built, it’s impossible to ship it to the end user since it’s one whole complete image.

              • ranzispa@mander.xyz
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                1 day ago

                I am afraid we are talking about different things. Recently I had to report a broken package to a repository. The problem was that they mapped a path to the incorrect directory.

                The software compiled and worked correctly, but some specific functionality which needed to read data from that directory was broken.

                I do not think there is a way to prevent this kind of errors.

                • ignominous_wombat@lemmy.ml
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                  18 hours ago

                  I am thinking that they wouldn’t define that as a broken package, since I would consider that a bug that would need to be addressed in the next release. I would expect a broken package not to be able to run rather than simply to have a broken function.

                  • ranzispa@mander.xyz
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                    17 hours ago

                    In normal repos they also test their packages. I do not think it is possible in any distribution repo to ship a binary which did not compile. Dynamic library linking may have some problems I guess, but unless you’re using arch that is generally never a real problem with package manager installations. I have never got a package which plain does not run.