Re: taking over gnucash packaging
On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Adam Heath wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Jeffrey W. Baker wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Adam Heath wrote:
> >
> > > On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Jeffrey W. Baker wrote:
> > >
> > > > Since this is my first Debian package, I have a few questions. What is
> > > > the best way to handle taking over a package if the previous maintainer
> > > > cannot be contacted? I am not implying that John Goerzen is off the air,
> > > > but I haven't heard from him about the package so far, and the 1.6.1
> > > > package is three months old and obsolete for two months.
> > >
> > > A new maintainer forcibliy taking over a package from a long-standing
> > > maintainer? This doesn't sit will with me.
> >
> > Well, I don't really think I'm trying to force anything. I just want to
> > find out: how can I tell if the old author is really working on it, how
> > can I tell if anyone else is working on it, and if neither how can I work
> > on it.
>
> So, why didn't you answer the other questions I had? Those are the real ones
> that need answering.
You didn't answer my questions so I didn't answer yours.
> Again, I wonder what your real goal here is, other than trying to look good to
> your buddies, by maintaining such a package for debian.
I don't think anybody I associate with knows what Debian Linux is. I've
ported Slackware to powerpc, I've written my own DOM implementation from
scratch in C, and I've done a lot of other software projects. I'm not
interested in maintaining this package to show off. I want to maintain it
because my wife uses my gnucash 1.6.4 package on slackware and I want to
use the same version on Debian. As long as I've bothered to package it,
other people can benefit too.
It isn't necessary to attack me personally, after we've just met. I have
simple reasons for wanting this package.
> Your first thought should not be to take over a package, so you can fix the
> bugs. Your first thought should be to fix the bugs, and send the appropriate
> info to the existing maintainer.
Well as I said I've mailed the maintainer and no response for a short
time. He may be on vacation for all I know, that's why I'm asking around.
> It is only after the existing maintainer has not responded for X number of
> days, that you then *start* the NMU process. Note, even at this stage, you
> haven't taken the package over, only done an upload of it.
I haven't uploaded anything at all...
In any case I have other reasons for wanting to be a maintainer if it
means I can package my DOM implementation (when it's ready for its debut).
-jwb
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