01/05: doc: Mention separate branch for packages with many dependents.

[Ludovic Courtès]

civodul pushed a commit to branch master
in repository guix.

commit 189b1543cbc2db50e6dd309e84bce4eb503f0493
Author: Ludovic Courtès <address@hidden>
Date:   Thu Jul 28 15:24:37 2016 +0200

    doc: Mention separate branch for packages with many dependents.
    
    Suggested by ng0 <address@hidden>.
    
    * doc/contributing.texi (Submitting Patches): Add note on packages with
    more than 100 dependents.
---
 doc/contributing.texi |    7 +++++++
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/contributing.texi b/doc/contributing.texi
index c0755bb..6496e10 100644
--- a/doc/contributing.texi
+++ b/doc/contributing.texi
@@ -300,6 +300,13 @@ For important changes, check that dependent package (if 
applicable) are
 not affected by the change; @code{guix refresh --list-dependent
 @var{package}} will help you do that (@pxref{Invoking guix refresh}).
 
+Packages with roughly 100 dependents or more usually have to be
+committed to a separate branch.  That branch can then be built
+separately by our build farm, and later merged into @code{master} once
+everything has been successfully built.  This allows us to fix issues
+before they hit users, and to reduce the window during which pre-built
+binaries are not available.
+
 @item
 @cindex determinism, of build processes
 @cindex reproducible builds, checking