Subject: apk v2.12.0 and v3 update

From: Timo Teras <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2020 16:10:32 +0300

Hi all:

I just tagged v2.12.0_rc2, and if nothing comes up that should be good
to be tagged as v2.12.0. It's mostly a stable release with minor bug
fixes, but it did get one incompatible change: --repositories-file
is now relative to startup path. I tried to add verbose enough error
message if it breaks somehow.

Please let me know if there's any minor issues that might still qualify
for v2.12.0. Otherwise it should be good to go in few days time.

-

In the other news, I've been finally getting work done on the v3-wip
branch. The basic file format is starting to form up, but might still
need fine tuning. The meson based new build system is in. And I just
finished major rework to get rid of most of the globals (apk_flags,
apk_force, apk_verbosity).

The plan I have regarding migration is that apk would be able to
automatically convert any v2 database and indexes to v3. It will
continue to read v2 packages. And finally, during transitional time, it
will write both v2+v3 databases. Eventually the v2 writing can be made
configurable with an option, and finally be removed.

The v3-wip is getting to a state, that I'll probably soon push it to
master, and start working with incremental commits to keep track of
progress. v2.12.0 can be branched to 2.12-stable, and future 2.y-stable
branches can be formed if there needs to be 2.13 or more.

Regarding v3 implementation, it seems to be more or less ending up as a
rewrite various parts. However, the intention is to add also various
tests, and make the code quite a bit cleaner trying to address all the
long term wish list items in issue tracker.

Next steps are: getting the v3-wip rebased and merged to master,
converting all database read-only applets to the new database/index
internals (including reworking what info/search print out), and then
working the way for write support. The new package format will likely
be one of the final items once all the database/index code is updated.

I hope to also start writing monthly reports on progress here. Hoping
to get the v3 out sometime next year. This has been on the todo list
for several years, but there's been too many times "other" things
coming and taking priority. Hopefully, we get to the v3 now when things
are starting to make continuous progress.

Cheers,
Timo