Re: [Xen-devel] [Patch v3 0/2] Remove figlet from the source tree

[George Dunlap <george.dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/25/2013 11:00 AM, Andrew Cooper wrote:
> This series removes the hacked up version of figlet from our source tree.
>
> Patch 1 replaces the use of figlet in the build system.
>
> Patch 2 has been deliberately omitted for brevity.  It consistes of removing
> "xen/tools/figlet/figlet" from .gitignore, and deleting all files in the
> directory "xen/tools/figlet/"
>
> The series as a whole can be found on the 'remove-figlet-v3' branch of
> http://xenbits.xen.org/git-http/people/andrewcoop/xen.git
>
> George:
>    This is purely a build change, so I request that it be included for 4.4
It's not purely a build change -- figlet is not installed by default on 
a number of distros (Ubuntu didn't have it); and on those systems, this 
will silently change remove the figlet-like lettering from boot.
And in any case, a build change still introduces a risk (however small) 
that there will be a bug in the build under certain distros / 
configurations which will have to be fixed, and may slip the release.
Remember our criteria:
1. A bug-free release
2. An awesome release
3. An on-time release

Your freeze exception analyses tend to focus exclusively on #2 -- 
moreover, on the positives of your patch ("w00t, no crappy figlet fork 
in-tree!") and not on the potential negatives ([User doesn't notice new 
figlet requirement] "That's weird, why did the banner go away?  It was 
kind of cool.").  Please stop and think carefully about *each* of the 
criteria before making a recommendation.
From a release perspective, I think the benefits out-weigh the risks, so:

Release-acked-by: George Dunlap <george.dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

From a patch-review perspective: Although it's clear we need to remove 
figlet from the tree, I'm afraid that the effect of this on most people 
will simply be to have the banner silently disappear. There's no way we 
could have something in the build that would prompt people, is there?  I 
can't really think of a non-intrusive way at the moment, but maybe 
someone has some ideas...
 -George

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