Hello
I am the maintainer of the sofa package. A few days ago I received an
odd message regarding a deletion request with the reason being "dead
source". I went and checked and saw no problem with the source
(https://www.iausofa.org/). Looking through the interface I could not
find any way to answer to the request. I had a lot of work, so I
dropped the matter thinking the request would simply be dismissed as
it was obviously in error. However, I received a message that this was
carried out. At no point was I contacted by a human, I only ever
received the cryptic automated messages that were not helpful in
addressing the problem. The situation worries me a bit as this could
be an attempt to hijack a low-visibility package. Besides contacting
the person who has carried out the deletion, which I just did, what
procedure should I follow to ensure that there is no ill-intention and
that the package is fully restored? Thanks you very much.
I've received multiple emails and requests so I'll try to summary all
them here:
The AUR package sofa [1] uses as source URL where to download the
sources an invalid URL [2] which shows a page stating:
We couldn't find the page you were looking for. This is either because:
* There is an error in the URL entered into your web browser. Please
check the URL and try again.
* The page you are looking for has been moved or deleted.
You can return to our homepage by clicking here
<https://www.iausofa.org/>, or you can try searching for the content
you are seeking by clicking here <https://www.iausofa.org/search>.
Therefore the package cannot be built anymore until you have a
previously downloaded copy of the sources or an alternative URL where to
download them.
One week ago someone filed a deletion request [3] for this package being
unusable and unbuildable for the previous reason.
I left the request for some days allowing you to fix the package and
today I checked again the package and it still was including the broken
URL previously indicated, without any change to the package, without any
answer in the AUR page comments, without and reply to the deletion
request. For this reason the package was correctly deleted.
If you want to maintain this package again, you can but make sure to set
a valid URL where to get the sources.
For the future, the package requests [4] can be found on the
aur-requests mailing list [5]
As a general rule, if you'd fixed the package, it wouldn't be deleted.
There's nothing sketchy here, a deleted package can be adopted by anyone
and for a broken package anyone can ask to delete it.
Let's move to now. A user named Navigator has uploaded the same (broken)
package and he's asking to become the new maintainer [6]. Do you plan to
fix this package using a valid URL where to download the sources or can
I give the package sofa to the user requesting to become the maintainer?
Best regards
[1] https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sofa
[2] http://www.iausofa.org/2023_1011_C/sofa_c-20231011.tar.gz
[3]
https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/R4T7SGHZI5K53Q3GALH3VEW3LYX4YY3Q/
[4] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AUR_submission_guidelines#Requests
[5]
https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/[email protected]/
[6]
https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/47NQDP2Y35IDOR7USOLE2YYMV6TRYY4G
--
Muflone
