[grsch-devbug at ran-dom.org: asterisk-dahdi: MeetMe app should be reincluded]

[Tzafrir Cohen]

Hi,

This is essentially a valid bug report, though it got some details
wrong:

On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 01:27:18AM +0100, Gregor Schaffrath wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> Formally, this is a Devuan bug, but I gather it's inherited from the Debian package list, so it may be of interest to you.

I do hope that the packaging is shared as much as possible. If there are
any other fixes needed in the Asterisk package, I'd appreciate to have
them.

> 
> Bottom line: Upstream flagged an *-app (MeetMe) as 'deprecated' and _reinstated_ the app subsequently in an upstream bugtracker discussion I guess the Debian maintainer did not read anymore (as he figured the app was 'deprecated').
> 
> Therefore, the app, which is alive 'n kickin' (Status: 'extended support' and under active development) got excluded from Debian repositories and all distributions which derive their packages from Debian.
> 
> Devuan bug link: http://bugs.devuan.org//cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=170
> 
> Cheers,
> 		Gregor.
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Gregor Schaffrath <grsch-devbug at ran-dom.org> -----
> 
> Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2017 23:57:02 +0100
> From: Gregor Schaffrath <grsch-devbug at ran-dom.org>
> To: submit at bugs.devuan.org
> Cc: grsch-devbug at ran-dom.org
> Subject: asterisk-dahdi: MeetMe app should be reincluded
> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15)
> 
> Package: asterisk-dahdi
> Version: 1:11.13.1~dfsg-2+deb8u4
> Severity: important
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> I noticed that app_meetme.so , originally part of the asterisk package first got shifted to asterisk-dahdi and subsequently omitted, as the (very old, very basic) app got a 'deprecated' status from upstream in asterisk-10.
> (compare: https://launchpad.net/debian/+source/asterisk/+changelog)
> 
> However, the asterisk community figured that ommission of the app broke functionality of non-deprecated asterisk parts and reinstated the app as 'extended support'.
> (compare: https://issues.asterisk.org/jira/browse/ASTERISK-20134)
> 
> The app itself is alive and being actively modified.
> (compare: https://wiki.asterisk.org/wiki/display/AST/Upgrading+to+Asterisk+11 )
> 

It got shifted to package asterisk-dahdi as meetme depends on DAHDI
kernel-level support to work properly. DAHDI is an out-of-tree kernel
module (sadly. I'd really like for it to be pushed into the tree. I
don't see that happening any time soon). Originally it was a major
dependency of Asterisk (as a good timing source, as well as for Meetme,
where the mixing is done in the kernel). Eventually Asterisk grew more
standard replaccements for both of those. Thus it made sense to move all
of the DAHDI functionality to a sub-package to avoid pulling the DAHDI
packages for every installation of Asterisk.

egardless of that, app_meetme is considered deprecated by the core
Asterisk developers team. Specifically:
* It is in "extended support" status. That is: it is not a focus of
  development. They don't touch it if they don't have to (so is chan_sip
  in Asterisk >= 13, BTW).
* Its build is disabled by default. Not only does it depend on
  build-time "dahdi" dependencies, it also has to be enabled explicitly.
  This is a strong hint that the module is not appreciated.

That said: nothing wrong with re-enabling it (as long as it is in the
asterisk-dahdi binary package. Otherwise it won't work because of
missing DAHDI dependencies). In fact, the source package includes a
patch to re-enable it (called "reenable"). I'm not sure exactly why it
was not applied.

However, app_confbridge has improved since version 11 that you use. So
if there's anybody who uses Asterisk >= 13 and uses meetme, please
speak up and meetme will be re-enabled.

-- 
Tzafrir Cohen         | tzafrir at jabber.org | VIM is
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