List of modules I need

[David Bremner]

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:11:14 +0100, Richard Holland <holland at eaglegenomics.com> wrote:
> Hi guys,

Hi Richard!  

Don't be too discouraged if response is a bit slow. The perl group is
mainly focussed on fixing bugs now that squeeze has been frozen.

[snip]
> Here's the modules I need:
>  
>  Special cases:

>   * libwww-perl - must be able to install version 5.808 exactly as
>   other parts of my project (stupidly, but beyond my control) depend
>   on features in 5.808 that were removed in later versions. 

There can only be one version of a given package in a given suite, so
when these kind of things are necessary, the package needs to be forked,
and given a new name. Given how 5.808 package is, and the fact that the
package is security sensitive, my personal reaction to having a two year
old version in the archive is not too enthusiastic. In any case, if we
are going to fork the package, someone needs to take responsibility as
the new upstream maintainer (i.e. to deal with non-packaging
issues). Are you able to do that?

>   A package
>   for this version already exists at
>   http://debian.pkgs.cpan.org/debian/ so it should be possible to
>   simply migrate it to Debian Perl? but how?

Generally we package things from scratch, because packages made
automatically (like the one you refer to) don't meet Debian packaging
policy. But this is not such a big hurdle as the problem of uploading an
old version.

> 
>  New modules:
>   * Math::Bezier
>     (no dependencies)
>   * LWP::Parallel::UserAgent
>     (depends on the special case above)
>   * RTF::Writer
>     (depends on libimage-size-perl)
>   * Bio::Das::Lite
>     (depends on libio-stringy-perl, libwww-curl-perl, libreadonly-perl, and the special case above)

Normally just sending email as you did would be perfect and someone
would jump right on it. However, as I mentioned above, most team members
are concentrating on getting the next Debian Stable release out the door
right now. In order that your request not get lost, the best thing might
be to file RFP (request for package) bugs by using "reportbug wnpp" and
following the prompts.

All the best,

David Bremner