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#use wml::templ::template title="How to go about QA removals" author="Jeroen van Wolffelaar"
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<H2>Judging orphaned packages for possible removal</H2>
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<P>A lot of packages are orphaned, sometimes for a long time. If nobody has
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any interest in them, they might be better off being removed from Debian.
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<p> This document aims to list criteria to judge whether a package should
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be removed. Below you will find how to actually file a removal request.
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<p><a href="developer.php?login=packages@qa.debian.org">Here</a> and <a
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href="orphaned.html">here</a> you can find lists of orphaned packages.
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<UL>
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<LI>How long has the package been orphaned? If it was only recently
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orphaned, maybe someone is interested and will want to pick it up. You
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should mostly give potential adopters some time to find the package, unless
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it's very obvious the package is of no great use.
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<LI>Does the package have release-critical bugs? Or any important bug at
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all?
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<li>Is the package (still) useful? Does it still work?
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<li>Does anything depend on it?
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<li>Was it ever part of a stable release?
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<li>Did the release team already remove the package from testing?
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<li>Does the package have an added value to the archive, does it perform
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some function that no other package can do?
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<li>Is upstream still active?
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<li>If the package is outdated with respect to upstream, did anyone care
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about it and file a wishlist bug? Related: is the package in use by anyone?
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See <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/">popcon</a> statistics for that, or
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the amount of bugreports.
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</UL>
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Please see <a
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href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/2004/09/msg00049.html">this mailing
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list post</a> for a suggested way to title removal requests. Usually, you
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should retitle the wnpp bug and reassign it to the <tt>ftp.debian.org</tt> <a
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href="http://www.debian.org/Bugs/pseudo-packages">pseudo-package</a>.
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<p>Sometimes, for example if a package is very buggy, it makes sense to
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clone the removal bug as a RC bug for the package, and ask the
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release team to remove it from testing. This isn't often needed, because
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packages get removed from testing automatically after being dropped from
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unstable, though it would be applicable when Debian is close to a release.
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<p>If you have any questions or doubts, please mail the <a
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href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-qa/">debian-qa mailinglist</a>. If
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you're just unsure about whether to remove a package, you can always just mail
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the wnpp bug with your thoughts, someone else will (eventually) process it
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then.
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