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>> # Upstream is dead and gone. |
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>> # Masked for removal on 20130302 |
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> |
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> Erm, so this is the _only_ reason - dead upstream? |
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|
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++ |
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|
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Please, please, stop removing packages for no reason! |
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This happens now way too often: |
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|
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app-dicts/ispell* |
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app-portage/epm |
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app-text/ispell |
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games-arcade/bitefusion |
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games-arcade/xboing |
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games-action/trackballs |
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games-emulation/xmame |
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... |
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|
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These are just some of the previous examples which I remember |
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because I had to put them in my local overlay. |
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|
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None of these removals alone was so valuable to me that I saw |
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a reason to step up, but the removals for no reasons accumulate |
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previously so much that I see the need to say something: |
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|
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You are destroying the charme of gentoo by systematically |
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removing all these little tools and toys. The availability |
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of a lot of software was once a strength of gentoo, so removing |
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these things is really bad, especially if it happens for no |
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real reason. |
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|
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I was understanding if e.g. someting was removed which needs |
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the <gtk-2 or <qt-4 framework or something similar and had |
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a dead upstream. But just needing a small tool like imake (xboing) |
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or having open feature requestes (epm) or even nothing and |
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just dead upstream is IMHO really not a reason. |
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|
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If something really does not compile anymore and nobody cares, |
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then remove keywords (or, for god's sake, mask it); |
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if something might theoretically become a security issue (xpdf) |
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then it should be masked. |
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|
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But please do not throw things out of the tree unless |
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really necessary: |
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|
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It does not hurt anybody to have such package in the tree, |
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but removing it - especially if upstream is dead - means |
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that the tarbalös will be removed from the mirrors and thus |
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nobody is able anymore to install it (even if he would care and |
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fix some minor issues) unless he had kept a copy on |
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his local machine (which will mean in the future that he can only |
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do it if he had used gentoo already many years ago and cared |
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during the time of the removal). |
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|
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(If the resources are an argument: I am not speaking about monster |
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packages taking gigabytes of data - these might need to be |
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discussed separately - but mainly about reasonably sized packages |
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which even if summed up do not take much data). |
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|
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Regards |
| 62 |
Martin |
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