On Sun, May 23, 2010 at 03:25:11PM +0200, Alexander Wirt wrote: > > The DEP1 does't specifially encourage fixing anything else than the BUG > > at hand, and that's a very good rule for actively maintained packages. > That dep thingys are no policy. imho these uploads violate the nmu policy.
Well, DEP1 got implemented in developer's reference, which kind of
define the NMU policy. However that's not the point IMO. At least
according to Tony reply I can see that the work-flow for NMU has been
followed properly for most parts (e.g. by using the DELAYED queue,
fixing important bugs---which *is* allowed by NMU guidelines, etc.).
The main problem is that the changes performed have been a bit too much
overzealous, even if with the best intentions. All would have been fine
if things like "switching to quilt" have been avoided, and we would have
been here thanking the NMU-ers.
All in all, I can also understand the desire to fix that kind of things
in a package which is clearly unmaintained, but that should come with an
upload which also orphan the package or change the maintainer (of course
according to the processes for that). The guiding principle AFAICT is
that when you NMU a package you generally hope that the proper
maintainer will eventually integrate your changes, that's why they
should be minimized. If, on the contrary, the package is de facto
orphaned, it's pointless to strive for minimality (but then, again, the
package should be orphaned or worse).
Finally, just a plea for everybody participating in this thread. NMU
guidelines should be followed properly, that's out of discussion.
Nevertheless please try not to discourage too much (properly done) NMUs,
as we've a big inertia problem in Debian about maintainers with
less-than-stellar reaction time, and NMUs are one of the best tools we
have to counter that.
Cheers.
--
Stefano Zacchiroli -o- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7
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