Steve Langasek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Packages need to have maintainers -- meaning, someone needs to take > responsibility for the package. Orphaned packages *routinely* slip into > stable releases with release critical bugs that have been in the package > for a year or more, sometimes even introduced by a QA upload. We don't > know if these packages have users, but we *do* know there's no one in a > position of responsibility over the packages who's using them and is > fixing bugs that appear during use!
After having spent a couple of hours looking at the bug database for orphaned packages yesterday, my feeling is that what orphaned packages really need are users who will actually use reportbug. Yes, they also need maintainers to fix the bugs or apply patches, but the vast majority of packages that I looked at have no bugs or only a few wishlist or porter bugs, no significant problem reports from people who actually use the package. And yet, we know from cases like dvidvi that apparently people have run into bugs and have even fixed for themselves, but there's no sign at all of this activity in the BTS. I think that if we had active users of a package who would report the bugs when they happen, orphaned packages wouldn't be as much of a risk. They have undetected RC bugs not because there isn't a maintainer so much as because there are no users reporting those bugs into the BTS. > If you think there is an application missing from Debian, perhaps you > should file an RFP. I agree with most of what you say, but sadly, right now, I don't think this is useful advice. I personally have a lot of generic porting experience, and would in some cases be willing to package software that I don't personally care about because other people would find it useful, but the RFP process is not currently useful for locating such software. There may be other tools available that I don't know about, but I would personally be surprised if anyone could extract useful information from <http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/requested> in its current form, other than searching for software one is packaging just for BTS cleanliness and to avoid creating duplicate bugs. I also wonder how many people using reportbug to file RFP bugs actually read through the full list of outstanding requests to make sure the package isn't already listed under another name. The rest of WNPP is very useful, but RFP isn't as much. I'm not entirely sure what would make it more useful. Perhaps aggressively closing any RFP that's been open for more than six months or a year would help? -- Russ Allbery ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
