From: Jon Turney <jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk>
To: "cygwin-apps@cygwin.com" <cygwin-apps@cygwin.com>
Subject: Bonfire of the Packages
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2023 13:32:59 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <30524a03-4924-4aa0-9ebf-e5a0808226c2@dronecode.org.uk> (raw)
Generally, we have a large number of old, unmaintained packages.
The policy [1] has always been "Packages without an active maintainer
may be pulled from the distribution.", but not actively enforced (in
fact prior to 2022, this used to say "are pulled", but I moderated the
statement, just to reflect reality).
I guess what's needed is an automated process which removes unmaintained
packages, after some period of time in that state.
I'm somewhat ambivalent about doing that, as they are probably of some
use, but on the hand I don't think our users are best served providing
very old packages with unknown numbers of bugs, security problems, etc.,
or which are unsupported upstream.
So, to start with, please give your nominations for the chopping block
here, or volunteer to rescue them via an ITA.
It would be nice to do this in an evidence-based, data-driven manner,
prioritising keeping packages that people actually use, but that
involves building something to collect that data, which I am not
optimistic about being forthcoming.
Here's my personal list:
* python
After python27 (the last python2 version, which has been sun-setted
since 2020), both python36 and python37 should be removed (after
rebuilding any python-* package which don't currently provide 3.8, 3.9
versions)
* gcc-tools-epoch{1,2}-{autoconf,automake}
These were only relevant to people making patches for versions of gcc
which are now historical.
* wxWidgets 2.8?
* vte (soverion 9) (as opposed to soversions 2.90 and 2.91)
* llvm3.5 (only depended on by old clamv versions)
* glade2/glade3 should be obsoleted by glade?
* php
We're currently shipping 7.3, which was out of support Dec 2021.
* X11 DEs
There's a large number of X11 Desktop Environments (list at [2]).
I think we should remove the GNOME and KDE DEs, as they are heavyweight
and do not perform very well under Cygwin. Ideally the LXDE/MATE/Xfce
DEs would get a refresh, but it seems unlikely...
(note this means the desktops, not the applications, although our KDE
and GNOME application stacks also need work to be brought up to date)
There's also some GNOME2 and KDE4 era stuff, which is probably all
obsolete and can be removed.
[1] https://cygwin.com/packaging-contributors-guide.html#submitting
[2] https://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/using.html#using-starting-session
next reply other threads:[~2023-09-24 12:32 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 20+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-09-24 12:32 Jon Turney [this message]
2023-09-24 18:20 ` gs-cygwin.com
2023-09-24 20:13 ` Thomas Wolff
2024-03-24 14:07 ` Python 3.5 and 3.6 removal (was Re: Bonfire of the Packages) Jon Turney
2024-03-24 17:31 ` Marco Atzeri
2024-03-24 17:46 ` Jon Turney
2024-03-24 18:51 ` Brian Inglis
2024-03-27 20:07 ` Jon Turney
2024-03-28 17:50 ` Jon Turney
2024-04-18 6:01 ` Ake Rehnman
2024-04-19 12:16 ` Jon Turney
2024-03-28 17:50 ` Jon Turney
2024-03-29 18:32 ` David Rothenberger
2024-03-30 15:25 ` Jon Turney
2024-04-01 17:16 ` David Rothenberger
2024-04-02 14:38 ` Jon Turney
2024-04-02 14:58 ` Takashi Yano
2024-04-05 12:46 ` Jon Turney
2024-04-05 23:17 ` Takashi Yano
2024-04-01 15:22 ` Jon Turney
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