[Debian-med-packaging] Bug#636923: RM: libwww5.808-perl -- RC-buggy, NPOASR

[Steffen Möller]

Hello,

On 01/24/2012 09:36 PM, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> reassign 636923 ensembl 63-1
> severity 636923 serious
> quit
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Luca Falavigna wrote:
> 
>> As there's little the FTP Team can do at this point, I'm reassigning
>> this bug to libwww5.808-perl source package, pending a proper fix.
> 
> Since the original report last April, we haven't heard from the
> libwww5.808-perl maintainers at all.  I have run into this same
> problem on multiple machines now, and no one seems to think the
> package's existence is sane, so I'm tempted to suggest just removing
> it, with ensembl as an unfortunate casualty.

Sigh. Wait, please.

> The ensembl package description explains:
> 
>   libwww-perl5.808 will conflict with the latest libwww-perl
>   installation and thus force a downgrade to 5.808, which will disable
>   many other tools on your system. Therefore it is advisable NOT to
>   install this package in parallel with any other software, and/or use
>   a virtual machine or dedicated machine.
> 
> which does not sound like a package that I would expect to find in the
> archive.

But it is not in the archive. It is in experimental, not? Please do
not put too much pressure on us here. Give us time to critical mass
ourselves a bit more.

> However, maybe the ensembl maintainers can come up with some method
> for avoiding this?  E.g., [1] seems to have some ideas that would not
> require such an invasive package.  Cc-ing them.

The package was created for cloud or chroot setups, not for your average
desktop.

We have our Debian Med sprint this week and I take the opportunity to
discuss things there. My personal position is that the change either goes through
upstream or it will not happen. If the removal of the package is a consequence,
then so be it. Mysteriously, those folks run more after the science than
after their "working for them" libraries. So, take note, there are apparently
some communities even more stable than Debian stable :o)

Steffen