Re: s/getmail/getmail6 before freeze (package superseding)

["Jean-Yves Migeon (NetBSD)" <jym%helkyn.org@localhost>]

Le 30/08/2025 à 21:53, Greg Troxel a écrit :
>    In theory when we have multiversion packages, we have fooX and fooY,
>    so there's less confusion.  So renaming getmail to getmail5 should be
>    considered, keeping in mind the cost of disruption.

That can be done.

I am looking for guidance, pkgsrc guide is not straightforward in these 
cases.

What we have:
- mail/getmail, which is -5. Long unmaintained, requires python 2, but 
remained used for a long time due to blocking bugs that prevented its 
natural switch to -6 years ago.
- mail/getmail6, which is a way of getting getmail6 on the system, for 
those that had OSes were it somewhat works (by luck), or testing.

FWIW both can be installed alongside. But to me the installation looks 
unfortunate, and error-prone for those that want a clear update path:

(v5) mail/getmail/PLIST  => bin/getmail5
(v6) mail/getmail6/PLIST => bin/getmail

>    When we have a reason to have multiple packages, we stay at versioned
>    names for a while, until we're sure we don't need to go back.  Needing
>    multiple versions is a sign of an unhealthy upstream (or the larger
>    community), but that's normal.  Perhaps this upstream was unhealthy
>    and there's a new healthy upstream and this situation can reasonably
>    be expected to continue.

We can live with a mail/getmail5 and mail/getmail6. I suggest having 
mail/getmail "aliased" to mail/getmail6 though (considering the above)

>    This seems like a removal proposal (to drop getmail5), and those
>    belong on pkgsrc-users title as such.

There is no mail/getmail5 package (for now).

It is more about moving mail/getmail to -6, and considering the above 
PLIST extract, how the transition can be done without too much hiccup.

>    It's not clear to me if anybody actually wants to run getmail5.   Part
>    of the removal proposal would include an argument that there aren't
>    any users, or that the pain of maintenance (which seems near zero)
>    outweighs the # users.

Considering what other OSes have done, either people moved away to 
getmail6 or another solution (imapsync being one).

pkgsrc remains an exception as it can provide both -5 and -6 at the same 
time with python 2 and 3, which is quite a feat by itself if you ask me.

>    If getmail(5) is unmaintained upstream, the DESCR should note this.

Noted. It will.

--
jym@