[Pkg-javascript-devel] Node.js and it's future in debian

[Jonathan Nieder]

Hi Stefano,

Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
> On Wed, May 02, 2012 at 01:02:14PM -0400, Patrick Ouellette wrote:

>> (I added leader at debian.org to the Cc: because this is something that
>> I think needs addressed at the leadership level)
>
> In that case, please clarify what you expect from me :-), especially
> taking in account the fact that DPL's leadership cannot rule on
> technical matters.

I think there has been some uncertainty about procedure.  For example:

- When policy 10.1 refers to maintainers reporting naming conflicts to
  debian-devel and trying to find consensus about which program is to
  be renamed, is that consensus among the maintainers of the packages
  involved or some other group?  In other words, is stonewalling an
  acceptable and viable strategy?

- Policy says that in the absence of consensus, both packages must be
  renamed.  A number of people have mentioned that that looks like a
  bad outcome from the users' perspective.

  Policy also states that different packages must not install commands
  with different functionality with the same name.

  If a consensus develops around a solution that does not follow
  policy, could it be implemented?  There is something of a precedent
  for this kind of question in the transition plan for the
  gnuit/git-core command name conflict.  This was before my time, but
  if I understand correctly then update-alternatives was used for one
  release to multiplex between the actual commands and a wrapper
  script that used command line arguments to figure out which command
  was meant.  Ugly as sin (and not a good technical example here), but
  it happened because the maintainers of those packages and the
  release team agreed it was the best we could do.

Thanks,
Jonathan