Re: Removing the attic package

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Hi!

Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> skribis:

> I don't want to steer new users towards this broken software, and I
> think removing the package is a safe choice. Current Attic users could
> continue to use it, because it won't be removed from their profile
> unless they do `guix package --remove attic`.

Since, AIUI, Borg is a compatible “continuation” of Attic, it makes
sense to remove Attic.

I had an idea to use a ‘superseded’ entry in ‘properties’ that would
tell ‘guix package’ et al. to upgrade to the new package:

  (package
    (name "attic")
    ;; …
    (properties `((superseded . ,borg))))

ENOSYS, though.

> And Borg can convert Attic repos for users who are interested in
> moving on, so these users will not lose access to their data even if
> they do uninstall Attic on their machines.
>
> Do we have any guidelines about "retiring" packages?

Not yet!

Of course there’s a fine line here: we cannot systematically retire
packages “just” because they have bugs (all of them do ;-)).  So we have
to be cautious.  In this case, it can be considered a serious bug in the
package’s core functionality, *and* there’s a fix provided by a fork, so
I see no obstacle in removing it.

What do people think?

Thanks,
Ludo’.