[arch-general] How to track packages dropped from the repos?

[Carl Schaefer]

> >> Sometimes packages are silently dropped from the repos. This happened
> >> for example in the last few days with mash 0.2.0-3, which apparently I
> >> installed as a dependency for gnome (I guess it is no longer
> >> required). I follow arch-general, arch-dev-public and aur-general, and
> >> as far as I know, this change wasn't announced in any of these lists.
> >> I recall other examples in the last 2-3 years (this is roughly the
> >> time I've used arch consistently), but now I don't remember the
> >> packages involved.
> >>
> >> Currently I try to keep track of these changes by running e.g. "pacman
> >> -Qm" and "pacman -Qdt" once in a while, so it's no big deal. However,
> >> I think it would be interesting to know from a more "official" channel
> >> when a package is dropped and why. This would allow users to be aware
> >> of the change and decide whether the package is still needed (and act
> >> accordingly, e.g. if the package is dropped to AUR, one could
> >> subscribe to comments or check for updates) or can be safely
> >> uninstalled.
> >>
> >> I searched without finding anything decisive (e.g. these threads [1]
> >> [2] suggest possible workarounds in the form of scripts). I wonder if
> >> better methods to track dropped packages exist; if not, would it be
> >> feasible to implement a solution, e.g. a list where dropped packages
> >> are announced, similar to "last rites" in gentoo?

yes, most arch users could write a script to track this after the fact,
but personally I like the idea of advance notification.  Perhaps a
mailing list could be created for each repository, e.g.

arch-core-notification
arch-extra-notification,
etc.

New packages could be announced automatically.  Deletions could be
announced a week in advance, with any discussion taking place on
arch-general.  Maybe something like this is already going on among the
TUs; if so, there's at least a bit of interest in making that more
visible.

Carl