[wpkg-users] [Bug 183] Downgrade should fall back to Upgrade when no downgrade rules exist

[Falko Trojahn]

Hello Rainer, Jason, list :)

let me attach my opinion to this discussion.
>
> So I change revision="4" to revision="3.6.3" for Firefox (let's
> assume, for the sake of clarity, that the package revision "4" had
> previously installed Firefox 3.6.2)  As far as WPKG is concerned, this
> is a "downgrade", so it will look for downgrade actions.
>
> But here I run into trouble, because I don't have any downgrade
> actions; I'm not performing a "software version downgrade" ... I'm
> performing an "upgrade" with a package revision that just so happens
> to be less than the previously installed version.
>
> It is not WPKG's job to decide if this kind of scenario is what it
> considers a "downgrade" or an "upgrade".  But I do think WPKG's job
> here is to do something other than telling me, "You have no downgrade
> actions defined, so I will do nothing. Sorry!"
I think, in this case wpkg should just decrement the revision number, if
the checks are true - and there really shouldn't be downgrade commands,
if nothing has to be done but  changing the revision number.
>
> You are saying that I should stick with my old revision numbering
> scheme, and install Firefox 3.6.3 with revision="5".  :(  Or
> alternatively, copy-paste all of my upgrade actions, and rename the
> "upgrade" tags to "downgrade".  Even though I am not doing a
> downgrade.  (Confusing!)
But: when you're decreasing the revision number in e.g. the firefox
package, and you know that there is a possibility that some of your PCs
have an older revision (to take your example: installed is 3.5.9,
package has revision 4, you insert revision="3.6.3"), why not just
specify downgrade cmds identical to upgrade commands,
and all is fine?

*[OT]* the following is perhaps a bit off topic

Anyway, firefox is a special case here, and I'm deploying firefox with
extensions for quite some time now.

For Firefox 3.6.x, I created a new profile/package and use a new, much
easier way for the extensions, see  wpkg.org wiki at
http://wpkg.org/Firefox#Firefox_Extension_Templates.

I expected to have some users/pcs which cannot use 3.6.x for some
reason, so the only thing I have to do is
assigning "firefox35" or "firefox36" profile to the host to change this.

Now, what happens, when I like to downgrade assigning "firefox35"
instead of "firefox36": firefox-extension(s) are removed, firefox36 is
removed, firefox35 is installed, firefox35-extensions are installed (the
old way).

Other way round, upgrading after assigning "firefox36" to the host:
firefox35-extensions are removed, firefox35 is removed, firefox36 is
installed, firefox36-extensions are ok.

Best regards,
Falko