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)

Who are you?

The ftp-masters will need to know your relationship to the package (if any) in order to process your request. In most cases, they will expect the request to be made by the maintainer (including co-maintainers) although there are a number of other parties who might be expected to submit removal requests for various reasons:

If you do not fall in to any of the categories listed, you should indicate in your report why you are requesting that the package be removed.

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

Examples

The m68k porters request that bigpackage's m68k binaries be removed as they do not build

The binary package foobar is no longer built on hppa, but packages from an earlier version are still present in unstable. If a version of the package built on hppa is present in testing, this will stop the new version of foobar entering testing due to the "missing" hppa binaries.

ANAIS may also be used in situations where a binary package has been uploaded for an architecture which is not listed in the package's control file. This should only occur if, for example, the package was built and uploaded by neither the maintainer nor an official auto-builder.

Package wibble is orphaned, has release critical bugs and appears to have been abandoned upstream. In this case the package has never been part of a Debian release and the QA team request its removal.