Re: core-update scope

[Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>]

On Sat, Aug 31, 2024 at 02:32:01PM -0700, Andy Tai wrote:
> Hi, shall changes to non-core packages like ffmpeg still be in the
> scope of core-updates?
> 
> ffmpeg, for example, is no where near the core of the GNU system like
> glibc, but still it is widely dependent upon.   But it would make no
> sense to have a ffmpeg-team because it is used by packages over wide
> areas, KDE, GNOME and others.   It is not well defined in a package
> realm like GNOME packages.
> 
> The last core-update branch was used to update ffmpeg.  This seems to
> still better to be true or to remain the same, no?

I don't think there is an obviously correct answer to this.

I have considered that Guix could have a "media team" that led the
effort for packages like FFmpeg and others that are in the middle layer
of the package graph and handle media. GStreamer is another candidate,
and of course all the codecs that FFmpeg and GStreamer depend on.

I think that "media" is generally expected by all users of desktop Guix,
and it's not uncommon to use headless Guix to play media (music players,
TV boxes, etc). So there should be lots of support :)

I'd be willing to help with this team if others were interested, but I
can't do it alone. I don't think it would be as hard as integrated
systems like GNOME or KDE, because the inter-package compatibility
requirements for media packages are usually lax, and so the media
formats are defined by standards and the respective codecs are treated
as black boxes by their users.