Re: [gentoo-dev] the graveyard overlay

[Andrew Savchenko <bircoph@gentoo.org>]

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On Fri, 8 Jul 2016 10:11:45 -0500 William Hubbs wrote:
> I'm starting a new thread so this will be a completely separate
> discussion.
> 
> On Fri, Jul 08, 2016 at 05:56:04PM +0300, Andrew Savchenko wrote:
> > On Fri, 8 Jul 2016 10:42:14 -0400 Rich Freeman wrote:
> > > On Fri, Jul 8, 2016 at 10:30 AM, Anthony G. Basile <blueness@gentoo.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Also there's some debate in IRC about whether or not these packages
> > > > should be lastrited or dropped to maintainer-needed.  These forks are
> > > > not in good shape upstream, so I think it makes better sense to
> > > > p.mask/lastrite and then move them to the graveyard overlay when I
> > > > remove them from the tree in 30 days.
> > > >
> > > 
> > > IMO the criteria should be whether they work or not.  Not whether
> > > upstream is more or less active.
> > > 
> > > If they're blockers on other work, by all means cull them.  However,
> > > if the biggest problem with them is that they're using a few inodes in
> > > the repo, then they should probably stay.
> >  
> > +1
> > 
> > Best regards,
> > Andrew Savchenko
> 
> There is also an overlay for packages that are removed from the official
> tree [1], and imo that is where old software should go if it doesn't
> have an active maintainer.
> 
> I don't know why we haven't been using this, but using it more than we
> have makes a lot of sense.

When software is in the main tree, it is a subject of tree-wide
changes like GLEP 67 update, package moves and so on. In a
separated overlay it will be completely abandoned and it may create
inter-overlay dependencies issues (e.g. when A is an old
package from the tree and package B from some overlay depends on A,
so if A will move to graveyard, B will be broken).

I completely do not understand why having "old" software in tree is
a problem, if such software have no serious issues and is not
blocking major progress. If software _is_ sufficiently broken, then
indeed move it to graveyard.

As I said yesterday on IRC, one of the greatest virtues of Gentoo
is its ample spectra of packages available in the main tree. I do
not understand why it should be killed for nothing.

Best regards,
Andrew Savchenko

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