Package removal requests

Do you need to request removal?

As part of their archive maintenance role, the ftp-master team periodically (usually every few days) run a tool which searches for packages that should be removed. This tool used to be known as "rene" (and is still often referred to as such) but has now become the "auto-cruft" sub-command of dak. In the cases handled by this tool, there is no need to request that your package be removed.

You can view a recent copy of the tool's output at [http://ftp-master.debian.org/~jeroen/rene-full.txt]. The most common cases that are handled by the tool are:

Removals from testing, stable and oldstable

The ftp-master team only process removals from the unstable and experimental distributions.

The table below summarises the relevant contact points for requesting removals from other distributions.

Distribution

Contact

[http://www.debian.org/releases/testing testing]

Release Managers [mailto:debian-release@lists.debian.org debian-release@lists.debian.org]

[http://www.debian.org/releases/stable stable]

Stable Release Managers [mailto:debian-release@lists.debian.org debian-release@lists.debian.org]

oldstable

Not possible

Before requesting removal

Reverse Dependencies

If your package has reverse dependencies in unstable, you need to ensure that they are aware of your intention to remove the package. Where possible, this will include suggesting (either via bugs or direct contact with the maintainer) a means of the dependent package handling the removal.

For instance, if you are removing an obsolete version of a library that the dependent package is still using, you should suggest that they transition to the current version.

If you are a DD, you can execute the folllowing command on merkel to check your package's reverse dependencies:

dak rm -Rn $PACKAGE (or melanie -Rn $PACKAGE if the former doesn't work)

How to request removal

File a bug against the [http://bugs.debian.org/ftp.debian.org ftp.debian.org pseudo-package]. The ftp-masters do not take account of the severity of the bug reported when processing removals, so if you believe the request to be "important" then simply provide appropriate reasoning in the report.

The subject line of the bug report should be in the format

where