On Tue, Sep 10, 2002 at 09:03:09AM +0200, Raphael Hertzog wrote: > Le Mon, Sep 09, 2002 at 11:46:05AM -0700, Michael Cardenas ?crivait: > > we have a number of packages that were orpnahed 2 or 3 years ago. > > > > I think we should have a process whereby if a package does not get a > > maintainer in a certain amount of time, we remove it from the archive, > > and list them in the wnpp report as "sehcduled for removal on DATE". > > I fully agree. But the best solution would be to have a team which would > try to found new maintainers before : > - by asking the old maintainers > - by asking upstream mailing lists (and upstream authors) > - by asking some patch contributors (in the BTS) > - by asking maintainers of packages that depend on it > > If they fail, then the package should be removed. But if nobody > volunteers to do that job, then the packages should be dropped > right now (take care to check reverse depends before asking for the > removal of package). > > What do people think about this ? Would some people be interested by doing > this job ? > I think this sounds good. (of course, since I started this discussion) But in thinking of a name for a list about this, or in thinking of who should do this, it seems clear to me that this should be part of debian-qa's responsibilities. After all, removing old stuff that noone uses makes for a higher quality distro. Also, it seems that by announcing in the WNPP that a package will be removed on a particular date, you are in effect asking the old maintainers, the people who have sent in patches, and maintainers of packages that depend on it, since all of those people are DD's and are on debian-devel-announce. I would be willing to work with debian-qa on doing this. But, what should be the threshold? How old does an orphaned package have to be before we make an active effort to find a new maintainer or remove it? -- michael cardenas | lead software engineer | lindows.com | hyperpoem.net "To ask the hard question is simple." - W.H. Auden
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