[aur-general] Package disown request for haskell-platform

[Peter Simons]

Hi Alexander,

 > It's been almost a year since haskell-platform was updated (31st of
 > July 2009). Over two months ago, I sent a package disown request.
 > Usually, this is pure routine and is carried through. This time, the
 > reply was that the package is maintained by the Arch Haskell Team
 > using automated scripts.

a couple of days ago, I requested that haskell-hsdns be disowned so that I can
take over maintenance, but my request was declined, because, apparently, that
package is updated "in an automatic way" (despite the fact that it is quite
clearly not). That seems to be a misconception among ArchLinux maintainers.

It is true that an utility program exists -- cabal2arch -- that converts
Haskell cabal files into ArchLinux PKGBUILD files. That conversion process is
automatic. However, the process of detecting new versions, generating an
updated tarball for AUR, and uploading that tarball to AUR does *not* happen
automatically. A human being has to do all that manually. In fact, there are
plenty of out-of-date packages on AUR. To name just a few:

  haskell-funcmp        http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=18122
  haskell-hsemail       http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=17746
  haskell-hsdns         http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=17745

The ArchHaskell team has done an awesome job getting virtually all of
hackage.haskell.org into AUR, and they deserve a lot of credit for that effort.
Yet, the fact of the matter is that these packages are not updated
automatically, or even frequently. Just like any other package, Haskell
packages can become out-of-date, unmaintained, and obsolete. AUR maintainers
ought to realize that when dealing with user requests that concern Haskell
packages.

Another thing that is frustrating is the fact that the Haskell packages shipped
in 'extra' are out-of-date, i.e. they have been generated with an older version
of cabal2arch than all other PKGBUILD files on AUR. For example, all Haskell
packages on AUR were updated to install the packages' user documentation a
while ago. The Haskell packages in extra, however, were not. So I wonder: why
do extra/haskell-* packages behave differently than all other Haskell packages
on AUR? This doesn't seem like a good idea. I filed a bug report about that,
<http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/17960>, but it has been ignored for the last 4
months.

As far as I can tell, Haskell support in ArchLinux has been deteriorating
rapidly in the last few months. The current state is such that some people
stand up and try do something about it. Unfortunately, we can't, because the
AUR maintainers seem to believe that haskell-* packages are sacred somehow and
mustn't be touched by anyone except those "automatic updates".

Take care,
Peter