[Pkg-javascript-devel] alioth is down: what to do with those 119 packages ?

[Paolo Greppi]

Il 01/06/2018 08:09, Pirate Praveen ha scritto:
> On Friday 01 June 2018 11:08 AM, Paolo Greppi wrote:
>> Hi as you know, since yesterday alioth is dead.
> 
> I think there will be a read only mirror.
> 
>> There's still quite a few packages from the js-team sitting in the
>> new queue with the vcs* fields in debian/control set to:
>> https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-javascript/...
>>
>> To find out which they are, try the "Debian NEW Packages fancy view" at:
>> http://212.237.56.209/
>> check the "Only show active packages" checkbox then type this as search string:
>> "https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-javascript/" 
>>
>> They are 119 ATM.
>>
>> As mentioned here:
>> https://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/pkg-javascript-devel/2018-May/026296.html
>> this work has been planned for a while.
>>
>> Unfortunately most of the ITP owners failed to even register on salsa, nor have 
>> we prepared team uploads.
>> You can track the WIP here:
>> https://salsa.debian.org/js-team/current_itps/boards?label_name[]=NEW-alioth
>> (BTW, they are 114 there so 5 are missing)
>>
>> Currently only node-ansicolors and node-classnames are in the RFC (request
>> for comments) column i.e. almost ready for sponsoring.
>>
>> My proposal is to ask ftp-master to reject them all.
>> This is fair to them and will clean up the queue.
> 
> I don't think changing vcs url is worth a reject.
> 
>> After that, we have all the time in the universe to reassign ITPs,
>> prepare team uploads etc.
>>
>> Paolo

Weren't packages supposed to be lintian-clean before uploading for the 1st
time ?
Those 119 are not because they get W vcs-deprecated-in-debian-infrastructure.
And that's the FORMAL issue.

But the real issue is that neither the ITP owner nor the team have been able
to fix this simple issue, in all those months.

For the new contributors, the question is whether they are "able and interested
in not only releasing packages but also in maintaining them":
https://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/pkg-javascript-devel/2017-January/017236.html
For the team, the question is whether we have the resources to make all those
NMUs and sponsored uploads.

If we are not sure about these things, it's better to be realistic and not dump
on ftp-master the load of rejecting them.
Let's rather ask for rejection: we'll gain in credibility !

Paolo