Re: Idea for maintaining packages up for adoption
Le Wed, Jul 13, 2005 at 07:57:32PM +0200, Frank Lichtenheld:
> >
> > As smooth an upgrade as with any other distribution of any operating
> > system, free or not.
>
> Ok, I can understand that it makes it you sad that a package you like
> and use should be removed from Debian unstable.
Well, yes, it makes me sad. But that is not the point. The point is that
some users are relying on packages that are orphaned. Removing those
packages will break their system at the next upgrade.
For me, personaly, I do use a lot of software which are not packaged in
Debian, or too poorly. When I find opportunity, I submit bug reports,
and almost each time with the right patch. But I maintain, for my own
use, a very large bunch of software pieces. One of those is dvidvi: I
use a "customised" debian package, which includes the various patches I
needed to make it work properly with modern TeX documents. I would
prefere it to be a "real" debian package, available to the other users.
> Let's state some facts though:
> 1) 9716 Source packages isn't exactly "only large scale packages"
You claimed in another mail that it might be a good idea to remove
swiftly more of the orphaned packages. How many packages are orphaned, or
depending/suggesting an orphaned one, in the 9716?
For me, as long as it works, a package should be kept.
> 2) There are still way more packages added to Debian than removed each
> month (although that's an estimation, not a proven fact)
Sounds natural: there are more and more people in the free software
community, so there were more packages written in the 21st century than
in the 20th. And it keep growing. Since a removed package is probably
an older software than a new one, it results in the fact than there is
more new ones than removed ones.
> 3) There are about 1000 Debian developers and thousands of Debian
> users out there.
> 4) Not one of them has offered to maintain dvidvi, not you, not the
> maintainers of the packages that depend on it
I did not offer to maintain it, because becoming a maintainer requires
far more than just applying the right patch. I provided the patch, which
is a clue on the fact that I'm helping, but do not have enough spare
time to spend on the "strictly debian" aspect of this (key signing,
mentor, mailing-lists, constitution, and so on).
This is why I proposed a way to help improve this kind of situation.
Regards,
Benjamin.
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