RFC: Mass rebuild of Fedora Extras before FC5 and how to handle orphaned packges for FC5

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 16:40 +0100, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> Am Montag, den 16.01.2006, 00:55 +0100 schrieb Michael Schwendt:
> > Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> > > And what do we do with orphaned packages?
> > 
> > Kick them. Unless they have been touched by an active FE contributor post
> > FC-4. There have been a few packages already, which do rebuild, but don't
> > work or don't even install without errors. We do the community a disservice
> > if we offer packages, which bear the risk of either being out-of-date or
> > not-working.
> 
> That okay for everybody? Or are there people around that want to build a
> orphaned-packages-task-force that looks at the stuff?

Unfortunately, there's nothing that can help an orphaned package except
to be adopted.  Someone has to commit to fixing the package if it breaks
or has security holes through the FC release cycle.  A task force would
have to be directed at attracting packagers to take on the burden of the
orphaned packages; not just a quick "how do we fix these in time for
FC5?"

That might have some interesting applications... for instance, it could
be part of training new packagers to have someone guide them through
updating and getting an orphaned package back into the fold.  Or someone
could use a particular package for a couple weeks and write a review for
the month that attempts to get packagers interested in continuing its
maintenance.  But I don't think we can put together something scalable
enough to make an impact for FC5.

-Toshio
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