[Debian-med-packaging] Removing git repos on git.debian.org

[Kevin Murray]

Hi all,

On 22:33 15/11, Andreas Tille wrote:
> Hi Kevin,
> 
> Charles has just given an answer.  I'd like to know some details about
> the repositories you intend to remove.
> 
> On Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 11:25:51PM +1100, Kevin Murray wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > What's the procedure for removing entire git repositories on git.debian.org?
> > There are a couple I have created that will either be moved to another team
> > (some python modules that the DPMT wants me to maintain under DPMT)
> 
> In general it is fine to maintain packages in other teams.  The most
> important thing is that packages are maintained properly on a high
> technical level and with hopefully at least one backup maintainer.  If
> this is fulfilled in DPMT feel free to simply move the repository.
> 
> However, if the packages might have a bioinformatics background and are
> mentioned on our tasks pages (may be featuring citation data) it would
> be good if you announce this here explicitly.  In this case I would
> consider also parsing DPMT repository to scan metadata information that
> might be needed on our tasks page.
> 

These four packages (python-sphinxcontrib.bibtex, pybtex-docutils, python-oset
and python-latexcodec) are generic python packages. Sandro Tosi, who I believe
is part of the DPMT, specifically requested these be maintained under the DPMT.
I would probably prefer to do them under Debian Med, as this team seems to have
a much more responsive group of senior members, but Sandro has convinced me
that they should be in DPMT (see https://bugs.debian.org/800358).

> > or never made it (wgsim).
> 
> Could you please be more verbose why your interest in packaging this has
> stopped?  I personally see no need to remove anything just because there
> is no intend to finish it at the moment.  There might be some interest
> by somebody else later.  If you ask me it would be better to just add an
> explanation why you stopped working on this in debian/README.Debian or
> so.
> 

Wgsim isn't a case of an unfinished package, it was a case of me mistakenly
creating the package to start with. Long story short, the samtools package
already packages a wgsim binary, see https://bugs.debian.org/791873. Therefore
(notwithstanding upstream changes) the packaging is unlikely to be useful in
the future.


> > I understand that `rm -rf ./myrepo.git` has the potential to end very very
> > badly.
> 
> I do not think that its to bad to remove an unneeded repository but
> Charles has mentioned a less harsh option.
> 
> > Is there some safer way of removing these repositories? Or is it
> > fine to have them sit there?
> 
> I think its fine to leave something even if it is not finished (as in
> the wgsim case).  The metadata are used on our tasks pages and might
> provide some information for other users.  Adding a reason why the
> work is not continued might be another valuable information.
> 

I think I'll let it fester for now, after adding a README.status. There is a
very remote chance that in the future samtools will remove wgsim from their
source (this was discussed on github[1], but they decided against it).


Cheers,
Kevin


[1]: https://github.com/samtools/samtools/issues/429


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Kevin Murray

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