1 |
On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 11:36 PM, Vaeth |
2 |
<vaeth@××××××××××××××××××××××××.de> wrote: |
3 |
> |
4 |
>>> # Upstream is dead and gone. |
5 |
>>> # Masked for removal on 20130302 |
6 |
>> |
7 |
>> |
8 |
>> Erm, so this is the _only_ reason - dead upstream? |
9 |
> |
10 |
> |
11 |
> ++ |
12 |
> |
13 |
> Please, please, stop removing packages for no reason! |
14 |
> This happens now way too often: |
15 |
> |
16 |
> app-dicts/ispell* |
17 |
> app-portage/epm |
18 |
> app-text/ispell |
19 |
> games-arcade/bitefusion |
20 |
> games-arcade/xboing |
21 |
> games-action/trackballs |
22 |
> games-emulation/xmame |
23 |
> ... |
24 |
> |
25 |
> These are just some of the previous examples which I remember |
26 |
> because I had to put them in my local overlay. |
27 |
> |
28 |
> None of these removals alone was so valuable to me that I saw |
29 |
> a reason to step up, but the removals for no reasons accumulate |
30 |
> previously so much that I see the need to say something: |
31 |
|
32 |
If folks do not want to maintain it anymore, then it will be removed. |
33 |
Feel free to contribute to Gentoo and maintain the packages. |
34 |
|
35 |
> |
36 |
> You are destroying the charme of gentoo by systematically |
37 |
> removing all these little tools and toys. The availability |
38 |
> of a lot of software was once a strength of gentoo, so removing |
39 |
> these things is really bad, especially if it happens for no |
40 |
> real reason. |
41 |
|
42 |
Gentoo is not a software archival service. |
43 |
|
44 |
> |
45 |
> I was understanding if e.g. someting was removed which needs |
46 |
> the <gtk-2 or <qt-4 framework or something similar and had |
47 |
> a dead upstream. But just needing a small tool like imake (xboing) |
48 |
> or having open feature requestes (epm) or even nothing and |
49 |
> just dead upstream is IMHO really not a reason. |
50 |
> |
51 |
> If something really does not compile anymore and nobody cares, |
52 |
> then remove keywords (or, for god's sake, mask it); |
53 |
> if something might theoretically become a security issue (xpdf) |
54 |
> then it should be masked. |
55 |
> |
56 |
> But please do not throw things out of the tree unless |
57 |
> really necessary: |
58 |
> |
59 |
> It does not hurt anybody to have such package in the tree, |
60 |
> but removing it - especially if upstream is dead - means |
61 |
> that the tarbalös will be removed from the mirrors and thus |
62 |
> nobody is able anymore to install it (even if he would care and |
63 |
> fix some minor issues) unless he had kept a copy on |
64 |
> his local machine (which will mean in the future that he can only |
65 |
> do it if he had used gentoo already many years ago and cared |
66 |
> during the time of the removal). |
67 |
|
68 |
Again I highly recommend archiving the software yourself; but I don't |
69 |
think Gentoo should be doing it. |
70 |
|
71 |
-A |
72 |
|
73 |
> |
74 |
> (If the resources are an argument: I am not speaking about monster |
75 |
> packages taking gigabytes of data - these might need to be |
76 |
> discussed separately - but mainly about reasonably sized packages |
77 |
> which even if summed up do not take much data). |
78 |
> |
79 |
> Regards |
80 |
> Martin |