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

On Aug 30, 2025, at 4:12 PM, Jean-Yves Migeon (NetBSD) <jym%helkyn.org@localhost> wrote:

Le 30/08/2025 à 21:33, Benny Siegert a écrit :
If we have version 5 and 6 now, and 6 doesn't work for everyone, I think I would prefer for the removal to happen after the branch.

-6 should work for everyone, it is the project's purpose to be a 1:1 replacement for getmail-5.

I have no problem with keeping a getmail5 package around. Both can live together -- ATM this is actually the case.

Sorry I missed your earlier mail, and thanks for sticking with this.

My understanding (informed in part by https://pyropus.ca/software/getmail/documentation.html#python3-getmail6 ) is that the situation looks regrettable all around. No 3-compatible version is available or expected from the original author, which is unfortunate, and therefore it’s not surprising that someone else decided to make a 3-compatible version… and it’s unfortunate how not great that fork has seemed (perhaps until now) to be.

I haven’t used getmail in quite some time, so I’m happy to defer to those of you who’ve tried 5 and 6 lately about how well they’re working lately.

Clearly getmail 5 is on its last legs, and will have to be removed if and when we ever get rid of Python 2.7. Until then, my vote is that the least confusing move is to match upstream’s names of “getmail” and “getmail6”. If we as a group have a strong preference for “getmail5” and “getmail”, I’d go along with that.