[aur-general] Idea for AUR improvement

[Xyne]

Heiko Baums wrote:

> Am Fri, 1 Jun 2012 20:20:14 +0200
> schrieb Marcin 'sirmacik' Karpezo <marcin at karpezo.pl>:
> 
> > I think you misunderstood me. It's not about taking packages back if
> > they are maintained. It's about giving orphaned packages back to the
> > previous maintainer if they are still orphaned and he has logged in
> > again and pushed some new packages to AUR or started maintaining some
> > other packages. 
> 
> What do you think a maintainer has orphaned a package or a package was
> orphaned by a TU? Maybe the maintainer isn't interested in maintaining
> it anymore? So why would you give those packages automatically back to
> those previous maintainers who are not interested in them? They most
> likely would feel annoyed by that and will orphan them again.
> 
> If you are interested in maintaining an orphaned package, feel free to
> adopt and maintain it yourself.
> 
> Sorry, but really pointless idea.


Um, I don't think you understood his idea, but at least it didn't stop you from
replying with your usual abrasive tone.

Simplified version:
User Foo maintains x packages in AUR
Foo decides to leave Arch for another distro
Foo orphans his packages because he does not expect to be able to maintain them
Foo later realizes how much better Arch is and returns to Arch as a prodigal son
Foo is now ready to resume maintenance of his old packages *if necessary*
Foo sees that y packages have been adopted and Foo is happy
Foo would like to easily re-adopt the (x-y) packages that are still orphans

He's just asking for a way to simplify finding the old packages *that are still
orphans*.


Now that the request is clear, I will say that I don't think this should be
done on the AUR itself. As already mentioned, there are not many users who
drop everything in the AUR and then come back (even if "they always come back").
Such a user could just write a script that:

a) compiles a list of currently maintained AUR packages
b) re-adopts them if they are orphans

The list generation and orphan detection could both be done with python3-aur,
but that cannot (yet?) log in and perform user operations.