From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Hotfixing older Emacsen? Was: [ANNOUNCE] Emacs 25.3 released Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:03:05 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87wp55t0un.fsf@petton.fr> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1505693076 30971 195.159.176.226 (18 Sep 2017 00:04:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2017 00:04:36 +0000 (UTC) Cc: nicolas@petton.fr, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: =?utf-8?Q?Cl=C3=A9ment?= Pit-Claudel Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Sep 18 02:04:29 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1dtjY4-0007mH-St for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 18 Sep 2017 02:04:29 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:34065 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dtjYC-0000NP-DP for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:04:36 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:33724) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dtjX1-0008RJ-VV for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:03:26 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dtjWu-0003TT-Ht for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:03:23 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:47339) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dtjWj-0003Bv-M4; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:03:05 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1dtjWj-0000QY-7h; Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:03:05 -0400 In-reply-to: (message from =?utf-8?Q?Cl=C3=A9ment?= Pit-Claudel on Wed, 13 Sep 2017 01:45:24 +0200) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:218445 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > Crazy though: why don't we hot-patch existing Emacs installations? > Concretely, that would mean including that fix in a widely used ELPA or MELPA package. Then users would get the fix upon the next update. This verges on a universal back door, aka "auto-upgrade" which is a form of malware normally found in proprietary software. We must not do that. No matter what the disease, this "cure" is worse. See https://gnu.org/malware/proprietary-back-doors.html . -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org) Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.