Re: Pending removal of deborphan

[Carsten Hey <carsten@debian.org>]

Hi,

thanks to Russ Allbery's mediation and the release team's generosity the
reason for orphaning this package is gone.  I'm closing this bug now.

* Devid Antonio Filoni [2010-08-11 21:09 +0200]:
> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:03 PM, Michael Gilbert
> <michael.s.gilbert@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'll adopt it if thats what's needed, but I would prefer to co-maintain
> > it.  I personally don't see bug #592068 as severe, and I don't see any
> > other critical issues with the package right now, so I don't really
> > understand the maintainer's dire tone.  I think the package is fine
> > as-is for squeeze.
>
> Well, I would like to maintain it too, but I'm not sure to have the
> needed knowledge. I think Mike's opinions are right and I really don't
> understand maintainer's decision.

I would be happy to accept co-maintainers for deborphan after releasing
the version targeted for Squeeze.  deborphan does not really need
a maintainer team, but if you are interested in contributing to this
package, you're welcome.  Tasks like updating translations or asking
users for status files and reproducing their bugs also must be done, so
a possible lack of knowledge is no valid excuse ;)

Since people tend to run aptitude purge `deborphan` in loops [1] or use
similar constructs I saw in the past (including such that to not ask for
confirmation), non-orphaned packages displayed as orphans would lead to
unintended package removals.  Having even the simplest form of multiarch
package relations in Squeeze+1 would lead to deborphan 1.7.28 missing
those dependencies and thus displaying non-orphaned packages as orphaned
during partial upgrades from Squeeze to Squeeze+1.  Knowingly causing
unintended package removals for those users that use deborphan not the
way it is intended to be used (make an informed decision based on its
output) but blindly trust it based on their positive experience from the
past years is not an option for me nor is it what our users deserve.

Further spamming debian-release does not seem to be necessary, so please
remove this list in possible replies.


Regards
Carsten

 [1] http://web.archive.org/web/20080614041639/http://debaday.debian.net/2007/10/21/deborphan-find-packages-you-dont-want/