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

[Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com>]

Eli Schwartz wrote:
> On 9/12/23 3:05 PM, orbea wrote:
>> On Tue, 12 Sep 2023 14:51:34 -0400
>> Matt Turner <mattst88@gentoo.org> wrote:
>>> 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.
>
> It sounds to me like the last-rite system has worked and achieved the
> desired goal then. It is no longer flying under the radar, and for
> people who use eudev and wish to see it be a supported option, a fire
> has been lit under them to get involved.
>
> Do keep in mind that based on commit history the only person that
> cares about eudev at all for years now is Sam, and that's apparently
> out of mere obligation. He is not listed as an eudev project member or
> package maintainer, the actual eudev project should likely acknowledge
> reality and disband in order to more effectively communicate their
> intent.
>
> None of this is or ever was sustainable -- do not expect people who
> don't use a thing, aren't willing to maintain a thing, but intercede
> out of obligation to be an effective maintainer or be willing to do so
> in perpetuity.
>
> If I had to take a wild guess, "it is still going to be an option into
> the future" actually meant "we aren't ready to treeclean it yet,
> people still use it, so we're gonna see how low-effort it is to keep
> it limping along without any maintainers but also maybe someone would
> like to maintain it".
>
> Sure enough, the total lack of gentoo maintainers for this package
> meant that once people who were engaging with ebuild updates *purely*
> out of a sense of obligation could no longer justify continuing to do
> so when the package wasn't compatible with its reverse dependencies,
> those people decided that it was time to step down.
>
> It's great to see people who do care and actually use the software,
> step up in their place.
>
>


Picking fairly random message to reply too. 

I'm a regular user, for some 20 years now.  I'm also a eudev user at the
moment.  I'm also not a fan of systemd and friends.  It's why I started
using eudev long ago.  So, like eudev, not much on systemd stuff and
currently use eudev.  With that info shared, this is my take on this.

It seems that while eudev is alive upstream for other distros, no one
cares to maintain it on Gentoo anymore because it doesn't serve a
purpose other than avoiding systemd.  While I kinda like that purpose,
I'm not maintaining eudev either.  If no one steps up and pinky swears
to maintain eudev, it will and should be removed from the tree.  After
all, this is about 2 years past due it seems.  While I wish someone
would maintain eudev, I'm not going to jump up and down demanding or
even implying someone should do so.  It sounds like it was easier in the
past to maintain it but upcoming changes is going to make that more time
consuming and require more work.  It appears no one is yet willing to
take that effort on. 

In my opinion, this thread has raised the awareness of the eudev
situation long ago.  If no one steps up, then it is time to retire eudev
and all of us eudev lovers will just have to switch.  This is just the
way FOSS works sometimes.  I recall switching from udev to eudev.  It
was as simple as unmerge one, emerge the other.  I assume it will be
pretty simple and straight forward this time to do the reverse.  I did
see somewhere that one should check configs and make sure there is no
systemd/udev entries, in case it masks or prevents something from being
installed.  I already checked mine.

My vote, give it time.  If someone steps up, great.  If not, we just
have to switch to udev and move on.  Debating it even more is unlikely
to change anything and may even send some running away.  I just wish we
knew just how many people actually used eudev.  Based on this thread, I
know of 2.  I know one of them can't code.  That's me!!  ;-) 

My $0.02 worth. 

Dale

:-)  :-)