Re: Packaging Policy.

[Chris Gray <cgray@tribsoft.com>]

>>>>> Corey Popelier writes:

    cp> My issue is this, 5.5.3 is actually about 5 or 6 versions
    cp> behind the times. It was from about Sept last year if I
    cp> recall. Now I don't know what the status of the maintainer of
    cp> this package is, but what are the Debian policy/ethical issues
    cp> involved if I suddenly piped up and said I had [unofficial?]
    cp> packages available for this?

It's called hijacking a package, and would be unethical unless you
made it very clear that your package is unofficial.  However, if you
think that the maintainer has fallen off the face of the earth (which
isn't such a bad assumption in the case of fetchmail IMHO), you can go
through a whole song and dance described in the developers-reference
package.  But you have to be a developer to do that.

    cp> Would anyone hunt me down with a sizable knife if I ever
    cp> [unofficially] packaged something that appeared to be a tad
    cp> outdated? :)

I don't think so.  Just make sure that it's clear that your package is
unofficial.  

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