On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:28:19 +0200 Jakub Wilk <jwilk@debian.org> wrote: > * Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org>, 2010-06-15, 08:50: > >What about if Debian QA packages were all to be deemed suitable for > >DM upload, including those which have been orphaned for over 2 months > >without a change of maintainer? Maybe when an orphaned package is > >uploaded with the change of maintainer to Debian QA, the DM upload > >field could also be set? > > If a package is neglected, it is *harder* (sometimes way harder) to > maintain, which makes it *less* suitable for DMs. I disagree completely. A new package has no end of potential pitfalls and non-obvious problems which inexperienced maintainers will miss. A "stale" or neglected package has at least had some attention in the first place and only needs a few tweaks, not a wholesale update to the latest-greatest-cool-gizmo status. Whether a package is orphaned or not has no particular bearing on the complexity of the packaging task compared to NEW packages. Adding yet another python script or CPAN package is not useful. Fixing stuff that is already in use is more helpful. Some are more difficult than others, same with NEW packages - it is up to the maintainer to decide. At least with an orphaned package, the maintainer often has a waiting community of users. New packages might take months to get more than a dozen users. This isn't about updating the upstream code, just keeping orphaned packages ticking over on something approaching current Policy instead of something pre-dating Etch. > I consider QA/adoption uploads without DD assistance unacceptable. A QA upload might just be a case of updating the Maintainer and fixing some lintian issues. You could see it "fixing stuff without the hassle of writing the manpage and copyright file". Could be more appealing than a new package where everything has to be done at once. OK, there are difficult packages which are orphaned but there are difficult packages which would be new to Debian too. There's also the instant feedback, instead of waiting for the package to get through NEW. There's no need to bring orphaned packages up to DH7, migrate the packaging into git or change all the patches over to a new system and the rest; it's orphaned, just make sure it is lintian clean, close a few bugs if you can. The existing packaging may be out of date but that's fine, unless the maintainer is going to adopt the package, it can stay "behind current" as long as it works. *Interest* in the package is much more important than the current state of that package. Encouraging maintainers to invest their time in QA makes more sense than adding more NEW packages to become the QA workload of the future. Directing everyone at NEW is counter-productive and encourages more horrible first-time packages. At least if people spend time on QA then the bugs filed against packages in QA stand half a chance of being fixed. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/ http://e-mail.is-not-s.ms/
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