[Pkg-javascript-devel] Feasibility of GitLab as a Debian package (was: Heads up: Likely scaling back on my involvement in JavaScript team)

[Ben Finney]

Pirate Praveen <praveen at onenetbeyond.org> writes:

> I started getting involved in JavaScript team to keep diaspora and
> gitlab packages in main.

(I am very grateful to your work, not only in package maintenance but
also in providing a focus for the work of many others in the JavaScript
team.)

> Gitlab was included in stretch but it is proposed to be removed from
> buster. [1]

An exchange from that bug report discussion:

    Pirate Praveen:
    > [I am trying to find] other ways to accommodate fast changing
    > software like gitlab. Broadening the definition of backports is
    > one possible option I see. Another option could be to have
    > personal package archive for gitlab.

    Thorsten Glaser:
    > Find a way to pick stable, slow changing versions of it and
    > improve their packaging in testing/unstable so you can backport
    > it.
    >
    > Work with upstream towards that goal. Some upstreams are receptive
    > of stabilising certain versions in order to get packaged.
    >
    > If [the ‘gitlab’ package] upstreams aren’t, they’re probably not
    > worth the effort using the software.

Pirate, to what extent do you agree with Thorsten's assessment?

How broadly does this apply to JavaScript software, or how narrowly is
this applicable to only GitLab? Or some other extent?

> I proposed a redefined volatile archive that can accommodate packages
> like gitlab. I hope it gets accepted.

Dominik George mentions (also in that bug report discussion) he hopes to
bring a propsed redefinition also. I hope that this can be a help to
package maintainers.

My concern, though, is that GitLab is just one example of the JavaScript
developer community being particularly hostile – more than merely
uninterested, but actively working to fight against – long-term stable
releases with ongoing maintenance. GitLab is an example of this, and I
wonder to what extent this is true for *most* JavaScript software that
we would like available as Debian packages.

If that is true, I think moving such software into a special
low-stability, short-term-maintenance section is not part of a solution,
only covering up a problem that needs to be fixed by working with
upstream to improve release and maintenance practices.

-- 
 \         “Money is always to be found when men are to be sent to the |
  `\   frontiers to be destroyed: when the object is to preserve them, |
_o__)     it is no longer so.” —Voltaire, _Dictionnaire Philosophique_ |
Ben Finney