reassign 614907 tech-ctte quit Dear Technical Committee,
The "node" and "nodejs" packages both provide a command named "node". The command in the node package is in /usr/sbin; the command in nodejs is in /usr/bin. Both are very important commands that are widely used in their respective communities. Both have, in my humble opinion, too generic of a name. When I heard there was a command named "node", I thought it was going to be a tool for making posts to everything2.com! In the long term, I would be happiest if both were renamed. Unfortunately, both have wide current usage. 1. /usr/sbin/node from the node package is a server used in inetd and ax25d configuration files to support packet radio networks somehow. I am not a subject matter expert, so I cannot say much more. 2. /usr/bin/node is a Javascript interpreter widely used in shebang lines like this: #!/usr/bin/env node and in scripts like this: node /path/to/script.js In cases like this, Debian policy says that the question should be taken up on debian-devel and a consensus should determine which package gets to keep the name. I believe a consensus really is forming, but it is hard to respect that given that I don't understand Pat Ouellette's objections very well. You can find snippets of the (long running) conversation in various places: http://bugs.debian.org/597571 http://bugs.debian.org/611698 http://bugs.debian.org/614907 https://lists.debian.org/debian-hams/2010/08/msg00031.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/08/msg00568.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/09/msg00460.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/02/msg00133.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2012/04/msg00693.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2012/05/msg00012.html https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2012/05/msg00033.html My personal bias is that I would prefer if the technical committee does *not* have to decide which package gets the command. I think that once the stonewalling is over and people start actually trying to work on a fix, we might run into technical complications and it would be useful if the maintainers involved feel free to adapt and discuss with one another appropriate fixes. Unfortunately, I think [1] illustrates that the participants are not willing to discuss reasonably any more. I'd be happy to talk about work so far, transition plans, complications and possible ways forward in a separate message. Thanks, Jonathan [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-hams/2012/05/msg00017.html _______________________________________________ Pkg-javascript-devel mailing list Pkg-javascript-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pkg-javascript-devel