BitlBee *Severly* Out-of-Date/How to Notify?

kludge · 2008-11-13 19:53:26

greets, all,

i visited bitlbee's irc channel to ask for help with the jabber protocol. no one there would offer any help until i'd upgraded to a non-prehistoric version of bitlbee. i hadn't even realized it, but the package in [extra] is version 1.0.4. the current release version is 1.2.3.

of course i can rebuild it. barring that, i:

- went to flag the package out of date. it's already flagged. has been for a while.
- tried to contact the maintainer. there was none.
- *didn't* want to file a bug; i've seen too many "OUT-OF-DATE IS NOT A BUG zOMFG!!1!" posts around.
- finally, realized i didn't know what the procedure is or where to find it for poking at the maintainers of severly out-of-date packages.

so:

1) what is the proper procedure to follow when a package is out-of-date? where is this documented?

2) if the package has been flagged "out-of-date" but no update is forthcoming, where does one find the maintainer's contact info? (there is now a maintainer listed for bitlbee.)

3) would it make sense if the name following "Maintainer:" in a package's listing on archlinux.org were a contact link?

thanks!

-kludge

edited to conform to the syntax of my native tongue.

Last edited by kludge (2008-11-13 19:57:59)

dolby · 2008-11-13 20:55:58

Post in the arch-general mailing list. neotuli was the maintainer but i dont think its picked up by another developer since he stopped maintaining it.

catwell · 2008-11-13 22:19:13

I had made this package some time ago, when Jabber support was not in the main branch. I disowned it because I knew it had been integrated in it but I wasn't aware that BitlBee was out of date in Arch (woops)...

I don't use it anymore but this package used to work so maybe you could give it a try, or just try to bump the existing official package using ABS for now, after having done what dolby said.

dolby · 2008-11-13 23:08:41

Well someone should pick bitlbee up as long as it stays in extra. I havent checked pkgstats but i assume not many people use it.

kludge · 2008-11-14 03:57:35

okay, taken care of. contacted the maintainer, even updated the package and handed it to him.

but i've still got a couple of questions that arise out of this whole experience.

going back to the first post:

1) what is the proper procedure to follow when a package is out-of-date? where is this documented?

Flag --> Notify maintainer --> Fix it yourself --> Helpfully send your fix to the maintainer

sound right? now, where should this go in the wiki? seems a little too short for its own page, but if that simple flow could pop up when you search, that'd be nice.

3) would it make sense if the name following "Maintainer:" in a package's listing on archlinux.org were a contact link?

okay, leading question. i think it would. so, where do i submit a feature request? according to the wiki bug guidelines, it's not with the bug tracker...

dolby · 2008-11-14 10:15:03

1) If a maintainer is listed on the webpage he will be notified by email when you flag it so the 1st two are idealy 1 action.
Thats usually as far as you're supposed to go. Unless there isnt a maintainer. In that case i usually look at the PKGBUILD in cvs and mail the developer who is listed there.
Usually i dont hand over the script, cause people have different ways of scripting, but i guess its better if you do it.

3) The developers name is usually part of the PKGBUILD.
archlinux.de is a site i use often, even though i dont know any german, probably even more than archlinux.org. it has a handy feature where you can click on the maintainers name and list all the packages he has built, including the community ones. eg. Heres Allan's : http://www.archlinux.de/?page=Packages;packager=2
Thats based on information on the Packager array on /etc/makepkg.conf

edit: archlinux.de says bitlbee was last built by Jan de Groot http://www.archlinux.de/?page=PackageDe … ckage=2147 but i guess it was part of a rebuild process. I dont think bitlbee has a maintainer, at least last i checked and neotuli doesnt do packages anymore.

Last edited by dolby (2008-11-14 10:20:34)

buddabrod · 2008-11-14 14:37:58

I made a feature request because there is no init script packaged, even with the goal in mind that bitlbee becomes updated. The old version has serveral security issues and it's so much outdated that I dont use it anymore. I built a new version myself, but I was too lazy to make an own initscript (it should be easy, though). If it was more up to date, I'd use it and you'd see it in pkgstats

Maybe community is a better place for it if noone really wants to maintain it

Snowman · 2008-11-14 20:54:24

dolby wrote:

1) If a maintainer is listed on the webpage he will be notified by email when you flag it so the 1st two are idealy 1 action.
Thats usually as far as you're supposed to go. Unless there isnt a maintainer. In that case i usually look at the PKGBUILD in cvs and mail the developer who is listed there.
Usually i dont hand over the script, cause people have different ways of scripting, but i guess its better if you do it.

If the package is orphaned, an email notification is sent to the private dev ML. So the devs are well aware that it's out-of-date and orphaned.

dolby wrote:

3) The developers name is usually part of the PKGBUILD.
archlinux.de is a site i use often, even though i dont know any german, probably even more than archlinux.org. it has a handy feature where you can click on the maintainers name and list all the packages he has built, including the community ones. eg. Heres Allan's : http://www.archlinux.de/?page=Packages;packager=2
Thats based on information on the Packager array on /etc/makepkg.conf
edit: archlinux.de says bitlbee was last built by Jan de Groot http://www.archlinux.de/?page=PackageDe … ckage=2147 but i guess it was part of a rebuild process. I dont think bitlbee has a maintainer, at least last i checked and neotuli doesnt do packages anymore.

Note that the packager is not necessarily the same person as the maintainer. It is usually the case but sometime the package can be built by another dev like when doing rebuilds or building a x86_64 package for a i686-only dev.

Snowman · 2008-11-14 20:56:56

buddabrod wrote:

Maybe community is a better place for it if noone really wants to maintain it

it is maintained and will be updated. see this thread : http://archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-gen … 18916.html

moljac024 · 2008-11-14 22:08:05

So what's going on with this ?
Because I also use bitlbee, I just never noticed that it was this outdated.

kludge · 2008-11-22 03:50:50

not sure what's up, but i'd be happy to share the the PKGBUILD and files i've put together for it. they work great. i don't want to step on jeff's toes, though, since he has responded. any suggestion on protocol?

buddabrod · 2008-11-22 09:52:42

kludge wrote:

not sure what's up, but i'd be happy to share the the PKGBUILD and files i've put together for it. they work great. i don't want to step on jeff's toes, though, since he has responded. any suggestion on protocol?

Would be nice^^

patroclo7 · 2008-11-22 10:28:29

Perhaps someone can find in his cache a bitlbee-devel package which used to live in testing (or unstable?), belkonging to the 1.1.* series, which included an init script for the ForkDaemon mode of bitlbee (which is nowadays considered stable).

moljac024 · 2008-11-22 13:44:15

kludge wrote:

not sure what's up, but i'd be happy to share the the PKGBUILD and files i've put together for it. they work great. i don't want to step on jeff's toes, though, since he has responded. any suggestion on protocol?

Well, I'd be interested in the PKGBUILD

kludge · 2008-11-22 17:15:29

alright, here goes...

PKGBUILD:

# $Id: PKGBUILD 7623 2008-08-03 15:49:24Z jgc $
# Contributor: FUBAR <mrfubar@gmail.com>
# Maintainer: simo <simo@archlinux.org>
pkgname=bitlbee
pkgver=1.2.3
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="An IRC to IM gateway. Supports MSN, ICQ, Jabber, Yahoo!, and AIM"
arch=(i686 x86_64)
url="http://www.bitlbee.org/" 
license="GPL"
depends=('gnutls>=2.4.1' 'glib2>=2.12.4')
optdepends=('xinetd: to run bitlbee *not* in daemon or forkdaemon mode')
install=bitlbee.install
backup=(etc/bitlbee/bitlbee.conf etc/bitlbee/motd.txt etc/xinetd.d/bitlbee)
source=(http://get.bitlbee.org/src/$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.gz bitlbee.xinetd bitlbee.rc)
md5sums=('2b1674d98804970809de3da3edf0bed2'
         '81e576369e31377f5217e636b00874b1'
         '7ac179fec52048753c3452cb8f091757')

build() { 
  cd $startdir/src/$pkgname-$pkgver
  ./configure --prefix=/usr --ssl=gnutls --etcdir=/etc/bitlbee || return 1
  make || return 1
  install -m755 -d $startdir/pkg/var/lib || return 1
  install -o65 -g65 -d -m0770 $startdir/pkg/var/lib/bitlbee
  install -D -m644 $startdir/src/bitlbee.xinetd \
                   $startdir/pkg/etc/xinetd.d/bitlbee || return 1
  install -D -m755 -o root -g root $startdir/src/bitlbee.rc \
                                   $startdir/pkg/etc/rc.d/bitlbee || return 1
  make DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg install || return 1
  make DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg install-etc || return 1
}

bitlbee.rc (it's really just tor.rc with a global replace):

#!/bin/bash

. /etc/rc.conf
. /etc/rc.d/functions

PID=`pidof -o %PPID /usr/sbin/bitlbee`
case "$1" in
        start)
                stat_busy "Starting BitlBee Daemon"
                [ -z "$PID" ] && /usr/sbin/bitlbee &>/dev/null
                if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
                        stat_fail
                else
                        add_daemon bitlbee
                        stat_done
                fi
                ;;
        stop)
                stat_busy "Stopping BitlBee Daemon"
                [ ! -z "$PID" ] && kill $PID &> /dev/null
                if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
                        stat_fail
                else
                        rm_daemon bitlbee
                        stat_done
                fi
                ;;
        restart)
                $0 stop
                sleep 3
                $0 start
                ;;
        *)
                echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
esac
exit 0
# vim: ft=sh ts=2 sw=2

bitlbee.xinetd (unchanged):

service bitlbee
{
        type = UNLISTED
        socket_type = stream
        protocol = tcp
        wait = no
        user = bitlbee
        group = bitlbee
        server = /usr/sbin/bitlbee
        port = 6667
        disable = yes
}

bitlbee.install:

post_install() {
  echo "-> Bitlbee runs fine in dameon mode now, but defaults to"
  echo "-> using xinetd.  See /etc/bitlbee/bitlbee.conf for more."
  echo "-> An rc script is provided to run bitlbee in daemon mode."
  if [ ! `grep bitlbee /etc/group` ]; then
    groupadd -g 65 bitlbee &>/dev/null;
  fi

  id bitlbee &>/dev/null || \
    useradd -u 65 -g bitlbee -d /var/lib/bitlbee -s /bin/false bitlbee
}

post_upgrade() {
  post_install $1
}

pre_remove() {
  userdel bitlbee &> /dev/null
  groupdel bitlbee &> /dev/null
}

post_remove() {
  /bin/true
}

op=$1
shift

$op $*
# vim: ts=2 sw=2 et ft=sh

it works great for me so far, but i haven't tested it beyond my own use case (oscar & jabber & irc, weechat, hiding behind tor).

patroclo7 · 2008-11-29 15:50:41

Thanks. However I think that the initscript should run it as bitlbee user not as root, because running it as root defeats the purpose of creating a bitlbee user. I think you can find an example of this in the initscripts of ntpd or openntpd.

Last edited by patroclo7 (2008-11-29 15:52:03)

kludge · 2008-11-30 07:04:58

patroclo7 wrote:

Thanks. However I think that the initscript should run it as bitlbee user not as root, because running it as root defeats the purpose of creating a bitlbee user. I think you can find an example of this in the initscripts of ntpd or openntpd.

maybe, but bitlbee takes care of that itself:

/etc/bitlbee/bitlbee.conf wrote:

## If BitlBee is started by root as a daemon, it can drop root privileges,
## and change to the specified user.
##
User = bitlbee

iirc, that wasn't available in 1.0.4, since daemon mode wasn't considered stable. i think i had weechat aliased to something like:

sudo -u bitlbee /usr/bin/bitlbee -D && weechat-curses

but now i don't need to!

Last edited by kludge (2008-11-30 07:20:40)

patroclo7 · 2008-12-05 17:16:30

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this new feature

patroclo7 · 2008-12-05 17:30:35

Yes, I can confirm that it works as daemon as bitlbee user. Nice, I hope that the arch package is going to incorporate your work

Arch Linux

#1 2008-11-13 19:53:26