[petsc-dev] I hate nagupgrade

[Matthew Knepley]

On Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Aron Ahmadia <aron at ahmadia.net> wrote:

> FWIW, I'm introducing a patch in the PETSc distribution in HashStack to
> disable this check from the Makefiles.  I see the value of this being an
> opt-in check the user can run: `make info; make self-update`, but not an
> automated check unless the user opts-in at configure.  That's the
> responsibility of the system/package manager, not a library.
>

I believe asking for the check to be opt-in is the same as asking for
removal. Anyone who would opt-in is
knowledgable enough to update. The check does not target those users.

I don't actually care whether we keep this check. However, I do think the
arguments advanced so far do
not amount to more than prejudice. I don't think a security argument holds
water for a system that
downloads tarballs from other sites without any kind of check.

   Matt


>
> A
>
> On Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 11:21 PM, Karl Rupp <rupp at iue.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>>  There is a difference between a library and an end-user application.
>>> Having "updaters" for end-user applications seems to be the status quo
>>> on Windows and to a lesser extent on Macs, but is resented on Linux.
>>> Having a library do these checks is not okay anywhere.
>>>
>>
>> I remember a session at the Google Summer of Code where some guy from one
>> of the open source wikis shared his experiences with having embedded a
>> 'counter pixel' in a release. In short, his lesson learned was that any
>> kind of "phoning home" is an absolute no-go unless made *very* clear to the
>> users (plus opt-out). This was pre-Snowden, so many people are now much
>> more sensible with respect to these matters...
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Karli
>>
>>
>


-- 
What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their
experiments lead.
-- Norbert Wiener
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mcs.anl.gov/pipermail/petsc-dev/attachments/20141111/e12fc5fb/attachment.html>