# First, make sure this bug gets a place
retitle 42695 Need mechanism to detect unmaintained packages
reassign 42695 general
thanks
On Tue, Aug 10, 1999 at 17:13:11 +0200, Ottavio G. Rizzo wrote:
> Therefore I suggest that, if a package does not get updated in a
> reasonable time, all bug reports get forwarded to the real maintainer.
We should have a mechanism in place that ensures that unmaintained packages
will be noticed as such, and picked up by the quality assurance group; from
there, upstream bugs can be forwarded and non-upstream bugs delt with
directly.
Debian-qa, manpages-it appears to have been abandoned; please take it over.
> Of course the idea that a user will report a bug in the package (as
> opposed to a bug in the packaging) to the distribution packager and not to
> the real responsible is completely idiotic, but who am I to say that?
I for one still consider it a very sane approach. In my experience, users
often do not have the knowledge, or provide the information to decide
whether a bug is a packaging bug, or an upstream one. A Debian package
maintainer acts as a filter between users and upstream maintainers, causing
upstream not to be bothered with irrelevant bug reports (packaging-related
ones) or duplicate ones, and ensuring that upstream gets bug reports that
are useful. Also, having a bug tracked in a formal way ensures that the
issue will get dealt with (even when the Debian maintainership of a packages
changes, or upstream development changes or moves).
Ray
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