On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 02:24:20PM +0800, Paul Wise wrote: > On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 1:34 PM, Adam Borowski wrote: > > > we should have some way to query if anybody would object to a package's > > removal? > > We definitely need better ways to connect with package users, but it > might be hard to do that in a privacy preserving way. Perhaps > something similar to popcon, but in reverse could help there. A > web/onion service where users can download details of packages that > might need user attention, along with an opt-in client that > periodically downloads the current list and matches it against user > preferences and installed packages.
Here's an idea: what about a new type of WNPP bug, "Intent-To-Remove"? An user interested in future releases is usually a contributor of sorts, thus often has "devscripts" installed. We already have rc-alert and wnpp-alert, adding a cronjob that checks for new ITRs and mails you (once!) if there's one that matches one of your installed package would require no server-side changes and only a trivial copy client-side. It'd obviously need to be put into a package on its own (as "devscripts" shouldn't access network by default), but "if [ -x /usr/bin/torify ]; then torify itr-alert; else itr-alert; fi" is not exactly rocket surgery. A maintainer would then file "ITR: dasher" and wait for responses before requesting RM. It'd be especially great for QA. I have the following script: .--====[ qarc ] #!/bin/sh rc-alert -dU \ `wget -qO- http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/orphaned| sed -ne 's/.*<li><a href="https\?:\/\/bugs.debian.org\/\([0-9]*\)">\([^:<]*\)[: ]*\([^<]*\)<\/a>.*/O \1 \2 -- \3/; T d; p; : d'| cut -d' ' -f 3` `---- and whenever I stare at its output, 95% entries make me think "would anyone give a damn about this?", shrug and look away. Once stretch is released, we'd file thousands of ITRs, listen to the crickets for a bit, then greatly decruft the archive! Without, there's no knowing if we'd harm someone (although if popcon is 4 or so, that's probably telling enough). Meow! -- A MAP07 (Dead Simple) raspberry tincture recipe: 0.5l 95% alcohol, 1kg raspberries, 0.4kg sugar; put into a big jar for 1 month. Filter out and throw away the fruits (can dump them into a cake, etc), let the drink age at least 3-6 months.