[Resolvconf-devel] 1.63ubuntu2

[Thomas Hood]

Version 1.63 has reached testing and version 1.63ubuntu1 was released to
Precise Pangolin just before Christmas.  The 1.63ubuntu1 package was
minimally different from the Debian original and it was my intention to
carry on supporting both the Debian and the Ubuntu versions in parallel.
 Taking responsibility for the Ubuntu version seemed necessary since the
package had been very badly supported in Ubuntu for several years.

Subsequently a well-known Ubuntu developer uploaded 1.63ubuntu2.  This
release made a number of gratuitious changes which may have appeared to be
cleanups from the uploader's Ubuntu point of view but which break backward
compatibility with the Debian version.  The changes greatly inflate the
Ubuntu patch and break a long-standing assumption --- that /etc/resolv.conf
must be symlinked to /etc/resolvconf/run/resolv.conf in order to place the
file under resolvconf's control.

I take this as a signal that Ubuntu developers, and especially the uploader
of 1.63ubuntu2, will henceforth take responsibility for the Ubuntu version
of the package.

It seems a shame to fork the package this way, but I guess it's a
consequence of the different development models: maintainer-based and not
maintainer-based.

The advantage of maintainer-based development is that a good maintainer
takes responsibility for a package.  The disadvantage is that a bad
maintainer shirks responsibility and delays progress; and multi-package
changes can be very difficult to make.  The issues with having no
maintainers are the reverse: you can make multi-package changes easily and
MIA maintainers don't delay progress; but as with Ubuntu resolvconf over
the past few years there may be no one who feels responsible for fixing
serious bugs.  Let's hope, therefore, that the Ubuntu uploader feels
responsible for maintaining resolvconf in Ubuntu from now on.
-- 
Thomas
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