[opam-devel] [Caml-list] OPAM: retiring 3.12.1 testing?

[Adrien Nader]

Hi,

On Mon, Feb 16, 2015, Anil Madhavapeddy wrote:
> Dear OCaml list,
> 
> We are currently testing the following compiler versions on every pull request to OPAM;
> 
> - OCaml 3.12.1
> - OCaml 4.00.1
> - OCaml 4.01.0
> - OCaml 4.02.0
> 
> We will shortly have to test 4.02.1, and would also like to test trunk snapshots of the
> compiler as an "allowed failure".
> 
> Running 6 compiler revisions per package puts quite a bit of stress on our Travis CI
> resources, and so it's probably time to retire OCaml 3.12.1 from the testing matrix.
> 
> Before we do this, I'd like to get a sense for how many people still care about ensuring
> that their packages work well on the 3.12.1 series, or if there are still distributions
> for which this support matters.  If there is still sufficient interest, we can continue
> to support 3.12.1 for some time.

For yypkg/win-builds I've done a quick survey of what's in Linux
distributions. I was mainly interested in moving past 3.12.1
compatibility for my own code but found it undoable before the end of
this year or maybe early next year.

Ubuntu 12.04 has 3.12.1 and is still supported and widespread. 14.04 has
4.01.0 but isn't very old. Debian has a similar combination for its
versions. I think 4.02.0 wasn't picked by linux distributions with
long-term support (including RH if I'm not mistaken).

3.12.1 is really widespread and I think it has to be kept for a fairly
long time. 4.00.0 is basically never used. 4.01.0 is widespread and will
be widespread for some time. 4.02.0 is nowhere to be seen. I believe
4.02.0/1 and maybe 4.02.2 won't be picked up either (unless 4.03.0 takes
close to two years to be released).

I'd say: keep 3.12.1, 4.01.0, 4.02.whatever-is-the-most-recent (because
that's what ocamlers use) and trunk. Dump the others (i.e. 4.00.1,
4.02.0).

-- 
Adrien Nader