Hi. Thanks for your nice email.
Thorsten Alteholz writes ("Re: pm-utils: unauthorised and uncommunicated
removal"):
> this is sad. The RM bug appeared on the tracker page of the package, in
> your packages overview, on the ftpmaster removals page (or on the bug
> page). It was also sent to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org.
Right. But none of those places actually email the maintainer.
> Where would have been a better place to draw your attention to it?
I think ideally the process would have involved a bug against the
package. I appreciate that that's not always convenient.
Would it be possible and sensible to improve your tooling to warn you,
or require additional configuration, when you're removing a package
from sid that is still in testing ? I think that would be an unusual
case. (But that's just a guess; maybe I'm wrong about how unusual it
is.) (And apparently this is quite rare and maybe this bug isn't the
right place to discuss such an improvement.)
> Hmm, the standards version is 3.9.7, the VCS URLs point to a no longer
> existing repository, the last upload was in 2019. This looks rather like
> an abandoned package. But of course, your mileage may vary
Yes. I can see how you would think that. Updating the package to
improve the metadata etc. didn't seem a priority.
For the record, I think your action was perfectly understandable; you
normally don't need to consider whether a removal request is the
result of ill will or conflict. And, I very much appreciate all the
hard work you do with the day to day of ftpmaster. It is difficult
for me to express my thanks for that strongly enough. I understand
that a person who does a lot of work will make the occasional mistake,
too.
I should probably have said all this in my last mail.
> > I intend to re-upload the last version shortly (and reopen all the
> > bug reports).
>
> Yes, please do so.
Thanks. That'll probably happen later today.
Ian.
--
Ian Jackson <ijack...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> These opinions are my own.
Pronouns: they/he. If I emailed you from @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk,
that is a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.
