The future of src:ntp
Hi,
a couple of years ago (in 2017) I stepped up to help bring src:ntp back
in shape because I needed it for work. All uploads since that time have
been made by me. An RFH bug had been open the whole time and just
recently got the first message for five years, which made me remember my
plan.
Back then cleaning up the official ntp.org package in Debian was without
alternatives, because ntpsec was not born yet and chrony did not have
any traction in the Debian world (as far as I could tell).
However, development for ntp.org is slow, upstream still using BitKeeper
is cumbersome, and even the testsuite needs to be fixes on some
architectures for new releases. Both ntpsec and chrony are (from my POV)
the better alternatives now. To a point where I would rather use chrony
for new deployments, but I'm shying away from not using my own work
anymore for the lack of real-life testing.
I could just step down as a maintainer/uploader and have the ntp
packaging bitrot, but this would be a large disservice to our users
(unless someone else continues to maintain it). I think another option
would be to migrate to one of the alternatives for Bookworm.
ntpsec and ntp should be largely configuration compatible, so even a
takeover of the binary package names might be practical.
What do you think?
Bernhard
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