Re: Zephaniah E. Hull (warp@debian.org) MIA ?
* Martin Michlmayr <tbm@cyrius.com> [040314 16:56]:
> * Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr> [2004-03-11 13:34]:
> > Is Zephaniah E. Hull (warp@debian.org) is MIA?
> > his last upload is nearly one year ago.
> >
> > He maintains GPM which is an important piece of software. The sid
> > version is the same as the woody version and has some problematic bugs.
> > Also GPM upstream has changed and there have been several new upstream
> > versions (latest is 1.20.1, I think).
>
> FWIW, I talked to Zephaniah in April 2003 about his packages, and he
> agreed to give some away but wanted to keep others, including gpm.
> gpm has traditionally been a mess, and I don't think there was a
> maintainer upload since I talked to Zephaniah. I think the best
> approach would be to diff the new upstream with the package in Debian
> and tell your insights to Zephaniah; I think he responds to mail.
Hello there,
I just rejoined the Debian-QA list. I sent two and received two emails
with Zephaniah between Feb 24 and Feb 28th. I have not heard back from
him regarding this attached email yet. I am glad I was able to catch
this conversation as it began asking the same questions I posed
recently.
Technically I'm not an MIA DD, I'm retired, but same difference. :-)
Regards,
--
-- Grant Bowman <grantbow@grantbow.com>
----- Forwarded message from Grant Bowman <grantbow@grantbow.com> -----
From: Grant Bowman <grantbow@grantbow.com>
To: "Zephaniah E. Hull" <warp@mercury.d2dc.net>
Subject: Re: GPM Activity
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 05:27:17 -0800
Message-ID: <20040228132716.GB3812@grantbow.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.5.1+cvs20040105i
* Zephaniah E. Hull <warp@mercury.d2dc.net> [040227 17:57]:
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2004 at 05:34:36PM -0800, Grant Bowman wrote:
> > * Zephaniah E. Hull <warp@mercury.d2dc.net> [040227 06:04]:
> > > On Tue, Feb 24, 2004 at 08:00:41PM -0800, Grant Bowman wrote:
> > > > I don't mean to be rude, but are you still an active Debian maintainer?
> > >
> > > Yes, I am.
> >
> > Wow, I'm very surprised to hear from you. I was just today battling
> > with GPM quite a bit today with my 2.6 kernel upgrade. I'm sure you are
> > aware that the package needs some serious attention, right?
>
> For 2.6 it needs to be thrown out and replaced with an exceedingly small
> program that does not know much, except exps2 from /dev/input/mice with
> some button remapping ability, and MAYBE can speak over the libs.
I've learned alot reading the 2.6 source code and can think of several
alternative and viable ways to proceed beyond what you suggest, however
I want to stay focused and not digress right now from the primary reason
I contacted you.
> My life is quite a bit too, well, I'm not in a position to write it
> right now.
Respectfully, after looking through the bugs [1] for GPM and the source
package status [2] it seems clear to me that the package needs some
active maintenance work to be completed. I must assume from this
exchange (both quality and quantity) that you don't have the time.
I also see from your other source packages [3] that source uploads from
you have been rare. I can't really speak to these other two packages,
but it's something that I noticed. While this doesn't actually mean
anything, it confirms my assumption.
Why am I looking at this stuff? I've recently installed imwheel,
installed new kernels on more than one machine and of course been
reconfiguring gpm. I was asking (without reply) on #debian IRC "so
given gpm's upstream tarball is from Oct 2001, 1.20+ availability
http://bugs.debian.org/147462 (no reply from maintainer) and
http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gpm.html is the maintainer missing?"
I was looking at policy [4] for guidance. I'm glad you replied and are
not officially MIA, however it's clear to me that you need some kind of
help with the GPM source package.
Well, now what do I suggest? Some of these are assumptions on my part,
so just speak up if you disagree.
Solutions to the lack of an updated package of any kind include NMUs
(short term), co-maintainers (long term, perhaps Sponsor/Advocate [5]),
or not working with the GPM source package, handing it off via the WNPP
[6] in one of several ways (below). What would you like to do?
What options do we not want to pursue? I would like to help, but I'm an
MIA Debian Developer myself. I need to remember my GPG key :-(. So I
can't upload NMUs though I might be able to create one. It doesn't look
like you want to put GPM up for "adoption" (RFA) in the WNPP or worse
yet "orphan" (O) it. I respect that. I also respect that you are busy
with real life now and may not have much time to devote to GPM. Posting
to debian-qa, debian-mentors and/or debian-devel makes no sense until
you decide how you want to proceed.
Doing nothing is an option, I suppose. However this does a disservice
to all Debian users who rely on you to keep GPM updated. The package
right now effectively seems to be in limbo given your lack of replies to
bugs that I can see. Since everyone in Debian is a volunteer, I would
like to work with you to come up with a plan of how you would like to
proceed and assist in any way that I can.
I look forward to hearing from you.
--
-- Grant Bowman <grantbow@grantbow.com>
[1] http://bugs.debian.org/gpm and
[2] http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gpm.html
[3] http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=warp@debian.org
[4] http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/ch-beyond-pkging.en.html#s-mia-qa
[5] http://www.debian.org/devel/join/newmaint#Sponsor
[6] http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/
----- End forwarded message -----
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