Bug#129847: www.debian.org: no way to get info about gone packages
Package: www.debian.org
Version: 20020118
Severity: normal
When a package is removed from Debian, that doesn't mean it's out of
the question that anybody would like to view its Debian-specific
information.
In fact, getting a note that a package has been removed is +way+ more
user friendly than simply getting "package not found".
As long as there are bug reports, possibly remaining dependencies, or
some other Debian-specifi knowledge about a package around, the
package script (http://packages.debian.org/<packagename>) should IMHO
return pointers to whatever there is, even though the package may no
longer be available for downloading.
A recent example is xv, which is pretty much a de facto standard for
looking at pictures under X, at least in some circles. It is confusing
and distracting to find that there is no info whatsoever about this
package. I can come up with at least the following scenarios where it
makes better sense to provide +some+ sort of data about the package in
question:
1. You imagine the package must exist, because it's pretty standard
on the systems you've used before you switched to Debian, and so
you assume that (for a change) Debian simply provides it under
some weird name instead of the one that you expect. Big search,
much time wasted, no result.
2. You have the package installed, and you want to know why it was
removed. Perhaps there's a serious security flaw you should know
about? Yikes. Panic. Friction.
3. You have the package installed, and want to follow up on a bug
report you sent some time ago.
The result page could perhaps point to an alternative which provides
roughly the same functionality, but that's wishlist country already.
Thank you for considering this request,
/* era */
-- System Information
Debian Release: 2.2
Kernel Version: Linux there 2.2.17 #1 Sun Jun 25 09:24:41 EST 2000 i586 unknown
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