On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 08:50:04AM +0100, Markus Koschany wrote:
> On Fri, 23. Nov 21:44 Bart Martens <bartm@debian.org> wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 09:43:16PM +0100, Markus Koschany wrote:
[...]
> > > As far as i understand the removal process [2], ftp-masters need some
> > > sort of reference for such a decision. I hope this thread gathers enough
> > > feedback and can later be considered as such a reference.
> > > [2] http://wiki.debian.org/ftpmaster_Removals
> >
> > I think it's OK to gather a few facts and decide to submit RM bugs if
> > you're convinced that removing the packages is the right choice without
> > much feedback gathering.
>
> Sounds good. But now i'm wondering, why not making the next step and remove
> packages automatically which have been orphaned for more than two years and
> also have a low popcon value for example? If not much feedback gathering is
> required this could be an automatism at the beginning of each release cycle.
AFAIK, low popcon + certain amount of time orphaned alone are not enough
reasons to remove a package from the archive. They are used as a hints to
help removal when real causes exist, which are mainly RC bugs. The amount
of time doesn't make the package work worse, and popcon is just unreliable
as lot of Debian users simply doesn't participate.
Furthermore, why 2 years? Why not 2 months? How much is low? 10? So you
prefer to leave 10 users without some package for gaining what?
Given maintenance of those is usually very very low I don't see the point,
and to me goes against our much beloved "the Universal OS" motto. Remember
Gandalf's words:
“Many in the archive deserve removal. And some out deserve being packaged.
Can you package them? Then do not be too eager to deal out removals in
judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
Well, maybe wasn't talking about packages, anyway...
--
Ricardo Mones
~
Quantity derives from measurement, figures from quantities,
comparisons from figures, and victories from comparisons.
Sun Tzu
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