On Fri, 15 Oct 2021 10:55:40 -0600 Charles Cazabon wrote:
>
> So: fork is fine. Imposing a large support burden on the original project is
> not. I would appreciate it if this package/project was renamed to something
> that does not contain the word "getmail" or anything confusingly similar.
I have a specific suggestion for Debian to address this issue.
1. The upstream author, or if he refuses, the Debian package maintainer, can
pick a new package name that does not pollute my getmail package,
community, mailing list, and trademark, and which will stop imposing this
unwelcome support burden on me and the getmail mailing list/community.
I don't know what name you'll pick; for the rest of this proposal, let's
use "go-grab-my-email" as an example.
2. Package it for Debian. Have it use the `Obsoletes: getmail` metadata so
that users upgrading a Debian system have getmail correctly removed and
the go-grab-my-email package installed, similar to what happens with the
"getmail6" package now.
3. Additionally, make the new package display an informational screen via
apt-listchanges when getmail is removed and go-grab-my-email is installed.
It should say something like:
The getmail package has been deprecated because the current version
depends on Python 2.7, which has been removed from Debian Foo.
From now on, run `go-grab-my-email` instead of `getmail`. This package
aims to be a backwards-compatible Python 3 port of getmail.
This provides a seamless upgrade path for current getmail users, explicitly
deprecates the getmail package and explains why to the user, installs the
replacement package, and tells the user what happened and how to continue with
their current getmail configuration.
And since they're no longer installing "getmail" or running "getmail", my
getmail users' mailing list and my personal email are no longer inundated with
poorly-documented support requests arising from users' confusion over the
"getmail6" name, or indeed their complete ignorance of the fact that getmail
has been removed and getmail6 installed on their system.
I have had a number of requests from users who reported problems to me and were
not even aware this package had been installed on their system in place of
getmail during an upgrade.
Thank you,
Charles
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Charles Cazabon <charlesc-getm...@pyropus.ca>
Software, consulting, and services available at http://pyropus.ca/
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