Clean out or vault old ncurses test versions

[Jon Turney]

On 21/10/2023 20:00, Brian Inglis via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> On 2023-10-21 11:20, 
> cygwin-no-reply-rDBXBDvO6BXQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org wrote:
>> ERROR: 
>> x86_64/release/ncurses/libncurses++w10/libncurses++w10-6.4-4.20231016.tar.xz is both uploaded and automatically vaulted
>> ERROR: 
[..]
>> SUMMARY: 19 ERROR(s)

So, the reason why this confusing error is being emitted is because you 
are trying to upload a test version 6.4-4.20231016, which is less than 
the existing 6.4-12.20230715 and 6.4-13.20230729 test versions.

The default keep-count-test value is 2 (keep the two latest test 
versions), so it would be expired immediately after upload.

This is an error, because that's not something sensible to do, and 
usually indicates a mistake somewhere along the line.

> Thinking that ncurses i-i.net releases would pause at some point, I have 
> been incrementing the release number and appending the date throughout 
> this year, but it appears not, so I would now like to reset the primary 
> release number to the next after current stable 6.4-3.20230114 and use 
> primary release 6.4-4.2023???? as my test prefix which I would like to 
> make current stable some time soon!

I'm quite clear on what this means, but this seems to be a problem of 
upstream's making, if it really is releasing multiple versions called 
"6.4" (with some date/patch level that isn't part of it's version label)

(e.g. look at https://repology.org/project/ncurses/information where 
there's lots of variants on 6.4.x and no way to compare them because 
individual distros make them up in different ways...)

> Is there any way I can blow away my old test releases 6.4-5.2023... thru 
> 6.4-13.2023... so I can reset the sequence, like listing a bunch of 
> obsoletes somehow:

The problem with the concept of "reset the sequence" is that 
version-release identifiers have an ordering.

Anyone who already has these test releases installed, won't (ordinarily) 
get downgraded to a lesser version.

>      6.4-5.20230514
>      6.4-6.20230520
>      6.4-7.20230603
>      6.4-8.20230617
>      6.4-9.20230625
>      6.4-10.20230701
>      6.4-11.20230708
>      6.4-12.20230715
>      6.4-13.20230729
> 
> or could someone kind person please do whatever is required if I can not 
> do so?

That said, you can use ssh vault command [1] to expunge versions that 
are no longer required.

(and see the caveat there about how setup won't automatically downgrade 
from removed versions)

If you really care about that, you could then upload appropriate 
override.hint files (note that you need one per subpackage) with a 
replace-version: line indicating the withdrawn version-release(s).

(It's unclear to me if this second step is really worth the effort, 
given that only the presumably small number of people who install 
ncurses test releases are affected.)

[1]  https://cygwin.com/package-upload.html#deleting



Finally: you don't need to scrimp and save integers.  I happen to have 
an inexhaustible supply of monotonically increasing ones...