Re: forking source: dcc
On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 22:28, Martin Michlmayr <tbm@cyrius.com> wrote:
> > A DD may choose to use Debian as the primary distribution point for
> > the source of a program that they are developing.
>
> Oh, sure. What I meant was that a different name should be taken for
> the package than what upstream uses. I don't think you should put
> "dcc" with that name in Debian when the intention is to fork from the
> original dcc. If this was the case, people might hear about the dcc
> tool, then see that "dcc" is in Debian, start using it and realize
> that it's not the dcc they wanted after all.
In that case we should rename cron. Paul Vixie has not contributed any code
to it for a long time AFAIK. We should also start incrementing the program
version number (83 Debian revisions should justify at least a version 3.1).
I think that the least confusing thing to do might be to rename cron as the
Greenland cron and refer to it as a derivative of Vixie cron.
Steve, I hope you don't mind me using you as an example. I think that what
you have done is a good example of how to maintain a project without an
upstream developer.
> > Programs which are forked in Debian include PAM, cron, and sysvinit
> > is coming close. I think it would be better for everyone if we just
> > acknowledged what's happened and call these Debian forks.
>
> Sure, I agree, but there is a large difference between a program
> deviating from upstream over time and someone clearly starting with
> the intentions of creating a fork.
Every time I've forked a program I have not had any intentions to do so. I've
just deviated from upstream and had them not be responsive to patches, not
appear to exist, or directly reject my patches.
My observation suggests that this is common. I don't recall an example of
someone saying "I'm going to fork this project" and ever doing anything
serious, in such cases I don't even expect to see any code released.
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