Unmaintained Debian packages section&BTS tags
I propose that an unmaintained archive of Debian (& non-free) packages be
created. This archive is to be kept separate from Debian just as non-free
is.
I further would call for someone to maintain a "test" archive as has been
suggested for other new archive systems/directories/areas.
Having BTS entries for unmaintained packages is useful, however perhaps
a flag is needed for them to reduce the work of debian-qa and other bug
squashers. For this reason I would like there to be a tag for unmaintained
packages and I would like their bugs to remain on the BTS.
In my (would like) to do list that I posted to debian-user a while ago I
said:
"Why are packages removed from the archives? There are many reasons, but
sometimes it's hard to find out. There should be some way of recording
this especially for those who track unstable on an infrequent basis.
Perhaps an entry into the Debian BTS under the package name?"
Below are some notes that I have been keeping on this subject:
*debian-devel "Re: Work-needing packages report for Sep 6, 2002" thread
discuses unmaintained archives and brings up some points.
*unmaintained package != bad package
*unmaintained should not be in Debian's stable release (and most people
say should not be in "Debian" unstable either)
*As stated there is a list in the archives (
http://ftp-master.debian.org/removals.txt ) is a list of packages removed
from the archives.
* http://ftp-master.debian.org/removals.txt 's list of reason types is
good, however simple sometimes the reason for a request is imho not good
enough. For this reason, unless their are legal problems, the original
package source and diff *should* be kept somewhere.
****I will (eventually) consult with debian-qa as to why unmaintained
packages are removed from unstable. I do not believe this to be a
productive process, but perhaps a new location is needed for such
packages.
*https://sourceforge.net/projects/markybob/ is a project to make as many
deb's as possible.
***An archive of old deb's is kept on archive.debian.org ?
I have more ideas on this subject, however with my limited time (school is
eating my time) I would like to see someone pick this up.
Drew Daniels
Graduating Dec 2002 and looking for work. My resume is at:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umdanie8/resume.html
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