[aur-general] Moving packages to Community

[Ray Rashif]

On 6 February 2011 02:31, Gergely Imreh <imrehg at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Recently a couple of my packages have been moved to Community but the
> process feels a little uneasy to me.

This has come up a couple of times before, and we all know it is very
wrong to move a package from [unsupported] _without prior notice_. We
have since been reminding each other, but it looks like the word
hasn't reached some of us.

Perhaps it is time to put this in the guidelines? We cannot just
assume that everyone would be in the know, although I expect that the
individuals we (s)elect to take care of the AUR have at least this
much understanding. But I don't think that's the main issue here,
which brings me to:

> My proposition is: could it be a policy to check with the maintainer
> first before initiating a move? If someone wants to keep a package
> then they should be able to, especially since they could not have been
> doing such a a bad job if their package has become popular.

Now, this is something I find very strange. I wish I had the previous
discussions to link to, so you could better understand what I am about
to mention.

You have to understand that the AUR started out with a purpose, a
purpose which has not, and will not for the foreseeable future,
change. It serves as a platform for proposing packages for
redistribution, and not a platform for competition. Imagine:

* Jane needs package foobar
* Jane cannot find package foobar in the repositories
* Jane creates package foobar for her own use
* Jane now wants to share package foobar so this cycle does not repeat

When you upload a PKGBUILD, you are _sharing_ that PKGBUILD. If a
Trusted User wants to adopt it, that's a good thing for the community.
You don't have to feel challenged, because we are all users, one and
the same, TU or not. You can continue providing assistance if you see
the need, by communicating with the TU.

When I myself started out contributing PKGBUILDs to [unsupported], I
did it hoping one day they will receive enough votes and be adopted by
a TU, enabling the packages to be redistributed to the masses in
binary form, easily accessible with the package manager. I believe
this is the true spirit, the Arch Spirit.

Of course, it is not wrong to want to keep maintaining a package
yourself. It just does not make sense to me. If you really have a
problem, report the packages affected and we can drop them for you.