Nut upsdev - Aug 2013 - apcsmart dev branch

Hi,

The devel branch has some long standing updates implemented - mostly a 
result from past bug/issue reports. Among those:

- selectable normal / canonical mode (useful in windows and perhaps with 
some problematic usb/rs cards)
- some compat entries
- certain (old) class of psus returning something else through 'b' 
treated as a whole set
- can handle mutlivalue entries (e.g. 'T')

I'm still a bit reluctant to merge it without a bit wider exposure, so 
if anyone has a possiblity to test it with some apc units - any feedback 
would be most welcome.

On Aug 9, 2013, at 7:18 AM, Michal Soltys wrote:
> I'm still a bit reluctant to merge it without a bit wider exposure, so
if anyone has a possiblity to test it with some apc units - any feedback would
be most welcome.

Apparently, a lot of people are using NUT via packages, so:

 * users might not want to build from source if things are working

 * the packagers might not pick up a 2.7.x dev version, or it might be a while
before it gets much use

 * users can always fall back on apcsmart-old

Not much we can do about the first two points, but if you want, we can put a big
warning in the apcsmart-old banner that it will eventually go away, and they
should report any bugs encountered with the new apcsmart driver.

IMHO, we have to balance the hassle of users upgrading against the burden of
maintenance for drivers with such wide arrays of supported hardware.

-- 
Charles Lepple
clepple at gmail

Hi Michal and Charles

--
(sent from my eeePad... please excuse my brevity)
Le 10 ao?t 2013 03:04, "Charles Lepple" <clepple at gmail.com> a
?crit :
>
> On Aug 9, 2013, at 7:18 AM, Michal Soltys wrote:
>
> > I'm still a bit reluctant to merge it without a bit wider
exposure, so
if anyone has a possiblity to test it with some apc units - any feedback
would be most welcome.
>
>
> Apparently, a lot of people are using NUT via packages, so:
>
>  * users might not want to build from source if things are working
>
>  * the packagers might not pick up a 2.7.x dev version, or it might be a
while before it gets much use
>
>  * users can always fall back on apcsmart-old
>
> Not much we can do about the first two points, but if you want, we can
put a big warning in the apcsmart-old banner that it will eventually go
away, and they should report any bugs encountered with the new apcsmart
driver.
>
> IMHO, we have to balance the hassle of users upgrading against the burden
of maintenance for drivers with such wide arrays of supported hardware.

I'm 2nding Charles: it's the usual chicken&egg game.
I've always applied the transition path as you currently do
(new-<driver>,
<driver> and old-<driver>), which is somehow the best and only
option we
have. It should probably be documented in the "New driver" chapter.

Now, if you're not fully confident in a mod, provide an option to fallback
to the previous behavior, when easily applicable and making sense.
Otherwise, apcsmart-old is there (up to NUT 3.0 imo).

cheers
Arno
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