[Pkg-mailman-hackers] [Mailman-cabal] Re: removal from Debian

[bendikker at vfemail.net]

I have forwarded this message to maintainers at gnu.org and rms at gnu.org .



Quoting Pierre-Elliott Bécue <peb at debian.org>:

> Hi,
>
> Sorry for taking so much time to answer.
>
> Le mercredi 02 octobre 2019 à 10:37:00+0000, bendikker at vfemail.net a écrit :
>> No, that was not a joke,
>>
>> I do understand what you as mailman want to do. Im just surprised
>> that mailman is a gnu package.
>> You as a GNU package could at least inform GNU. That is why
>> I now also cc maintainers at gnu.org .
>
> I think you miss some intel regarding the current situation.
>
> Being part of GNU only means two things : being a free software and
> being part of a GNU/Linux system. It doesn't bind any component one to
> another. In that sense, there is nobody to warn, should mailman3 have
> been depending on libmatheval and willing to change such a fact.
>
> BUT, it's not the case. Mailman3 *transitively* depends on libmatheval
> *in Debian*, because as the maintainer of Mailman3 suite in Debian, I've
> decided to rely on uwsgi to provide the web frontend, and uwsgi does
> depend on libmatheval.
>
> So here the Mailman3 developers are not making any choice. I, as a
> Debian Developer, am making the choice to ask the *Debian* uwsgi
> maintainers if they could drop libmatheval dependency so that uwsgi
> doesn't get expelled from Debian, and hence, mailman3 doesn't get
> expelled along with uwsgi.
>
> There are many reasons why this path is the best one:
>
>  1. libmatheval is no longer maintained
>  2. In Debian, no package currently relies on the features the math plugin
>     provided by uwsgi (this plugin being the only reason why uwsgi depends
>     on libmatheval)
>  3. Keeping libmatheval into Debian would mean making it guile-2.2
>     compatible, which is a lot of work that should be done upstream, and
>     that no developer is willing to do
>  4. It's better to have some software out of a distro than having it
>     ill-maintained with a stick for the sake of keeping something in the
>     archive.
>
>> Ok, Im not a programmer, but earlier I thought it is unsure you manage to
>> find a solution.
>> Maybe then, I thought, GNU itself might be able to manage libmatheval (which
>> I myself strongly doubt).
>
> This is not the first, and won't be the last GNU project that gets
> unmaintained and takes the dust on a shelf. It's the principle of having
> people working on their personal time on projects. Some live, other die.
> It's a classic thing.
>
>> Sorry, this is my last post on this subject.
>
> I hope this helps you to understand my choice.
>
> --
> Pierre-Elliott Bécue
> GPG: 9AE0 4D98 6400 E3B6 7528  F493 0D44 2664 1949 74E2
> It's far easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.




-------------------------------------------------
This free account was provided by VFEmail.net - report spam to abuse at vfemail.net
 
ONLY AT VFEmail! - Use our Metadata Mitigator to keep your email out of the NSA's hands!
$24.95 ONETIME Lifetime accounts with Privacy Features!  
15GB disk! No bandwidth quotas!
Commercial and Bulk Mail Options!