[Mageia-dev] Package removal proposal

Sun Aug 26 16:15:04 CEST 2012

'Twas brillig, and Johnny A. Solbu at 25/08/12 02:42 did gyre and gimble:
+> On Saturday 25 August 2012 02:33, Olivier Thauvin wrote:
+>> For me obsolete should be reserved for replacements or rename, nothing
+>> more.
+> 
+> I agree on this.
+
+So in two years time, we add a new package with the same filename as one
+of these old package, we may get some very strange edge cases on package
+upgrades/installer because keeping these old, no longer shipped packages
+installed is still "supported" (of course this could happen even if the
+old package were obsoleted properly, due to package install order on
+upgrades)
+
+What about when there are security issues in the old package? Do we just
+drop it and then wash our hands of the whole affair and don't give a
+crap when a user's system is completely compromised?
+
+In my opinion we should run a tight ship. If users want to use something
+we no longer ship, then they still have several choices:
+ 1. Don't install task-obsolete and add it to their skip.list.
+ 2. Do a local compile+install into /usr/local of the software in question
+ 3. Package it and become a contributor (assuming the reason for
+dropping the package was due to a lack of maintainer rather than a
+specific desire/reason (i.e. legal))
+
+For all of these options the user is both informed and can make a very
+clear, concious choice about how they want to proceed and know the
+consequences of doing so.
+
+
+Obsoletes in packages which genuinely replace the old one seem
+reasonable and uncontroversial.
+
+Col
+
+-- 
+
+Colin Guthrie
+colin(at)mageia.org
+http://colin.guthr.ie/
+
+Day Job:
+  Tribalogic Limited http://www.tribalogic.net/
+Open Source:
+  Mageia Contributor http://www.mageia.org/
+  PulseAudio Hacker http://www.pulseaudio.org/
+  Trac Hacker http://trac.edgewall.org/
+