bug#41388: [PATCH] Mark metamail.el as obsolete

bug#41388: [PATCH] Mark metamail.el as obsolete

[Stefan Kangas]

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Severity: wishlist

The metamail package was last released in 1994, according to one source
below.  It seems to have been removed from most GNU/Linux distributions
a long time ago due to being buggy and unmaintained.

Removed from Redhat around 2004:
    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=152675

Removed from Debian around 2009:
    https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=274451

Also see this opinion:
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59876940/linux-metamail-package-how-to-build#comment105884140_59876940

I suggest we mark our support for metamail as obsolete.  Users could use
it for a time until we remove it, but we should not encourage anyone to
do so.

Any objections?

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas

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From 5e4d5d4f529516b9c753b82438851635ff806fbd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 13 May 2020 04:37:45 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Mark metamail.el as obsolete

The metamail package was last released in 1994, and has been removed
from most GNU/Linux distributions due to being buggy and unmaintained.
Ref: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=274451

* lisp/mail/metamail.el: Move from here...
* lisp/obsolete/metamail.el: ...to here.
* etc/NEWS: Mention its obsoletion.
---
 etc/NEWS                            | 2 ++
 lisp/{mail => obsolete}/metamail.el | 1 +
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+)
 rename lisp/{mail => obsolete}/metamail.el (99%)

diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 2cbb7adb0b..0d72e6ce0e 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -357,6 +357,8 @@ either an internal or external browser.
 
 *** New user option 'project-vc-merge-submodules'.
 
+** The metamail.el library is now marked obsolete.
+
 \f
 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 28.1
 
diff --git a/lisp/mail/metamail.el b/lisp/obsolete/metamail.el
similarity index 99%
rename from lisp/mail/metamail.el
rename to lisp/obsolete/metamail.el
index 0e407ea060..d6ab4a3d0c 100644
--- a/lisp/mail/metamail.el
+++ b/lisp/obsolete/metamail.el
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 ;; Author: Masanobu UMEDA <umerin@mse.kyutech.ac.jp>
 ;; Keywords: mail, news, mime, multimedia
+;; Obsolete-since: 28.1
 
 ;; This file is part of GNU Emacs.
 
-- 
2.26.2

bug#41388: [PATCH] Mark metamail.el as obsolete

[Stefan Kangas]

close 41388 28.1
thanks

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> I suggest we mark our support for metamail as obsolete.  Users could use
> it for a time until we remove it, but we should not encourage anyone to
> do so.
>
> Any objections?

No objections within a week, pushed to master as commit 8b940dac32.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas