Miwa Susumu <miwarin%gmail.com@localhost> writes:
> 2018-05-24 0:32 GMT+09:00 Thomas Klausner <wiz%netbsd.org@localhost>:
>> On Thu, May 24, 2018 at 12:31:16AM +0900, Miwa Susumu wrote:
>>> package does not exist(MASTER_SITE not found, domain expired...).
>>> remove package from pkgsrc-wip. is procedure ok?
>>>
>>> 1. remove package file and directory.
>>> 2. remove package name from wip/Makefile.
>>> 3. git commit, git push.
>>
>> Yes, that works.
Can you explain a bit more about how you are deciding to remove things?
In pkgsrc proper, removal of packages is almost always preceded by a
note to the list proposing to remove, and the criteria are more or less:
- upstream package is really not maintained
- upstream package is so out of date that nobody should run it
- it is believed that there are almost no users, or it is so unwise to
run it that we are comfortable telling anybody running it that they
are out of luck, without understanding their situation
For wip, the barrier to adding is essentially zero, and it isn't really
reasonable to ask for such discussion per package removal. By the same
logic, a package in wip that is useful to somebody can remain, even if
the original source is hard to find.
Also, some people do package proprietary software, so restricted
downloads are a normal case and not cause for removal. (I sent you a
private note asking for a revert of the removal of a package with a
download link.)
From your commit messages, I see "MASTER_SITES not found", which is much
less than the typical reason. I suspect that in many cases, trying to
find an upstream would reveal that there has not been any activity for
many years, and the normal criteria are in fact met. I wonder if you
have been doing that, or just noting that a script failed to fetch from
the MASTER_SITES variable?
Finally, there is a MAINTAINER field, and I hope you have been writing
to MAINTAINER before removing -- but I haven't seen "mail to $MAINTAINER
bounced" in any commit messages.
I spot-checked one recently removed package, and indeed on searching
there was no sign of an upstream, just mentions in mailing-list archives
from 10+ years ago. I wrote to $MAINTAINER and got a bounce. And the
package was a plugin for a program that is itself obsolete. So that
particular removal seems fine. I checked a few others that border on
things of interest to me (e.g., guile-anything) and all of those
removals seemed appropriate too.
In general, I do think it is good to clean up cruft. The hard question
is what exactly is cruft, vs useful to someone. So I'm just asking for
a little more clarity about your process, given that you are into "large
scale changes" territory.
Thanks,
Greg
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature