Subject: [bug#32482] [PATCH] gnu: obnam: Add deprecation warning.

From: [email-masked] (Ludovic Courtès)
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2018 16:55:23 +0200

Hi!

(+Cc: Leo.)

Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <[email-masked]> skribis:

> * gnu/packages/backup.scm (obnam)[synopsis, description]: Note its
> retirement.
> ---
>
> Guix!
>
> A bit silly since the package fails to build anyway[0]. I'm not capable nor willing to fix it. Debian's (actually, upstream's) ‘solution’ was simply to remove the package[0].
>
> I'd rather follow their example if nobody steps up to fix it, but Leo[1] made a good point about removing backup tools that may be someone's only link to the past.

The patch LGTM!

> An alternative is to add a prominent deprecation warning to our obnam package. Something like this. There's no clear successor or alternative to use with DEPRECATED-PACKAGE.

If this sort of problem occurs frequently enough, we could add a special
“obsolete” or “insecure” package property and have the UI print a
warning when attempting to install such a package.

Thanks,
Ludo’.