Re: [gentoo-dev] last rites: sys-fs/eudev

[orbea <orbea@riseup.net>]

On Tue, 12 Sep 2023 14:51:34 -0400
Matt Turner <mattst88@gentoo.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 11:35 AM orbea <orbea@riseup.net> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 12 Sep 2023 15:17:00 +0100
> > Sam James <sam@gentoo.org> wrote:
> >  
> > > Rich Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org> writes:
> > >  
> > > > On Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 9:36 AM Eddie Chapman <eddie@ehuk.net>
> > > > wrote:  
> > > >> in Gentoo. Have any of these 4 maintainers publicly said
> > > >> (anywhere) that they are not interested in being maintainers
> > > >> anymore (which is fine if that is the case)?  We're not talking
> > > >> here about a lone maintainer of some peripheral package that's
> > > >> disappeared leaving an orphaned package.  
> > > >
> > > > It isn't like somebody is censoring the lists or waging commit
> > > > wars on the metadata.xml/mask file.  If somebody was eager to
> > > > maintain it I'm sure they'd have spoken up.
> > > >  
> > > >> I'm an outsider to Gentoo development (just a heavy user for
> > > >> over a decade both personally and professionally) so I might
> > > >> have missed something. I just find it puzzling.  
> > > >
> > > > I'm not puzzled by what is going on, or by your email, because
> > > > it happens basically anytime a high-profile package is
> > > > treecleaned. Yes, Gentoo is about choice, but somebody has to
> > > > actually do work to make the choices viable.  There are always
> > > > more people interested in using software than maintaining it.
> > > > The frustration is completely understandable, but also kinda
> > > > unavoidable.
> > > >
> > > > Repo QA standards don't mean that it has to barely work for your
> > > > specific use case.  The package has to deal with compatibility
> > > > issues with stuff you don't use as well, which is why
> > > > maintaining a system package can be hard work.  It is usually
> > > > less of an issue for more ordinary applications, which tend to
> > > > have fewer interactions.  If it is "good enough" for you as it
> > > > is, then just move it to a private overlay and keep using it.
> > > > You probably would need to override a virtual or two as well.
> > > > Or publish your work somewhere others can use it.  
> > >
> > > Yes. We value having a coherent system with decent UX and we have
> > > to choose what we can support. Users are free to override those
> > > choices in local repositories - and if they want advice on the
> > > best way to do so, they're free to ask.
> > >  
> >
> > As evidenced by the ::libressl overlay where I am repeatedly
> > copy/pasting changes from ::gentoo that have nothing to do with
> > libressl this is not a very good solution. This is a huge amount of
> > redundant and pointless effort that would be better suited being
> > directly in the ::gentoo repo.  
> 
> I think most people aren't going to be swayed by "it's really
> inefficient for me to do $xyz outside of ::gentoo" where xyz is
> something that they find useless.

It doesn't matter if it sways you or not, the reality is that your
argument amounts to forcing people to do a lot of extra redundant work
solving problems that have already been solved out of spite.

> 
> > What would be required so this is not required for eudev too? At the
> > risk of repeating myself its working on my systems and I am willing
> > to look at bugs and put in effort into keeping it functional.
> >
> > I don't think this is a matter of not having people willing to put
> > effort in, but that no one wants to let them have the chance.  
> 
> Conspiracy alert!
> 
> It's been more than 2 years since
> https://www.gentoo.org/support/news-items/2021-08-24-eudev-retirement.html
> 
> People have had plenty of time. More chances than were fair have been
> given. Nothing has changed, except eudev has further diverged from
> upstream udev.
> 

Unfortunately this flew under the radar for a lot of people, when I
asked Sam about this on irc a while ago I was informed (As I
understood) that eudev was still going to be an option into the future
and as the ebuild was still getting updates I never considered this is
how the core Gentoo devs felt.