Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Last rites: net-nntp/inn

[Richard Freeman]

On 01/11/2010 10:43 PM, Jeremy Olexa wrote:
> (A general reply, not targeted towards you, Rich)

No prob - my post wasn't really directed personally at anybody.

>
> Speaking on behalf of the treecleaners:
> The fact is, some of us have never heard of "inn" and until Gentoo has
> some sort of "popularity tracking" software/tool, the treecleaners will
> continue to mask unmaintained software.

Yikes - just goes to show how NNTP is starting to fade into the past.  :)

I'm not sure if it would cause undue overhead, but perhaps a solution 
would be to:

1.  Open a bug stating that the package will be discarded - assign to 
the maintainer.  This gives the maintainer a chance to wake up.  You can 
even do this without having to try to contact them first which might 
save you a step if you're doing that now.

2.  Periodically post a list of packages that have said bugs logged for 
more than two weeks on -dev-announce - reference the bug number.  That 
gives the community at large a chance to pick up the package.

3.  In another two weeks, if some dev hasn't stepped in to maintain, 
then mask as usual.  Don't announce this since anybody who cares should 
have CC'ed themselves on the bug.

4.  Of course, security issues / etc take priority and appropriate 
action is taken quickly (try to find a maintainer, but mask otherwise).

I'd think that if you tagged bugs appropriately you could largely 
automate #2 and #3 - just query for bugs over a certain age with a given 
keyword or whatever.

This would probably lengthen the time needed to get rid of a package, 
but it wouldn't really increase the work needed by too much.  You 
already announce on the list that you're masking packages - now you'd 
announce two weeks earlier and skip the announcement when the mask is made.

This is just a suggestion, but it does eliminate the need to try to make 
judgment calls about whether a given package is or isn't "important."

Rich