[arch-haskell] How to deal with broken AUR packages? (was: AUR Comment for haskell-haskore)

[Peter Simons]

Hi guys,

the AUR package haskell-haskore [1] was marked out-of-date by palmfron.
Now, technically that package is not "out-of-date", because the version
we distribute on AUR -- 0.1.0.4 -- is the latest one. Still, there is
something wrong with that package: it doesn't compile [2]. As far as I
can tell, that PKGBUILD is broken because its dependencies cannot be
satisfied. That is a bug, and this problem actually feels *worse* than
the package just being outdated. AUR does not offer a way to mark
packages as "broken", so in my humble opinion it's quite alright to use
the out-of-date flag for that purpose instead, because the PKGBUILD
clearly needs updating.

Personally, I would like to keep the out-of-date marker on that package
set, and be it for no other purpose than as a warning to AUR users who
try to install it. I am interested in other people's opinion on this
matter. Does anyone feel compelled to agree or disagree with this
approach? And if so, for what reasons?

Furthermore, I wonder whether anyone would like to volunteer to fix the
haskell-haskore package? I haven't looked closely at the problem, but it
seems to me that the build failure can be remedied by any of the
following means:

 (1) Contact haskore's author and convince him to release an update that
     lifts the haskell-event-list<0.1 and haskell-non-negative<0.1
     restrictions.

 (2) Patch the Cabal file and the PKGBUILD to lift those restrictions.

 (3) Upload older version of those packages to AUR using different
     names, and change the haskore package to depend on the older
     versions instead.

Would anyone of the Arch-Haskell team like to take care of that?
Otherwise, I feel that we should offer palmfron to orphan the package
so that he can take over maintenance.

Take care,
Peter


[1]  http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=20383
[2]  http://aur.pastebin.com/GCMGq6nm