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What is the Ubuntu process to deprecate and remove packages from repository?

I quite often need a user mode FTP server to transfer files to my machine and constantly run over http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/pyftpd, which doesn't have command line interface, no man page. I'd replace it with http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/python-pyftpdlib. Right now I have to invoke it with python -m pyftpdlib, which is non-intuitive and cumbersome.

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This document is the most useful one for you in this case. However, I don't believe that the reasoning you provide is usable. As well, you want to put a Trusty package into Precise - that won't happen, you would need a backport in this case, not a package removal/replace. They also don't truly 'remove' the package from the older releases. This is all at the discretion of the release team. – Thomas Ward♦ Jan 20 '15 at 13:53
    
@ThomasW. distribution doesn't matter, I just used links to reference to package description. – anatoly techtonik Jan 20 '15 at 13:55
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You seem to have your packages mixed up. pyftpd does have a command line interface and a manpage, and python-pyftpdlib is a python module. Being a module, it needs neither. – muru Jan 20 '15 at 13:57
    
@muru, python-pyftpdlib exposes command line interface and has a sane help, but the package doesn't expose that, because, well, what should be the name of /usrbin/ utility when there is pyftpd already? And as pyftpd I hope you don't really mean that having and empty man page and no command line options at all makes it a manpage and command line interface in Ubuntu. I thought that Ubuntu should have higher usability standards than Debian. – anatoly techtonik Jan 20 '15 at 14:06
    
@techtonik these are packages in universe and therefore pretty much imported as-is from Debian - that's what universe is for. I think you should approach Debian to get it removed, whereby it will be automatically removed from Ubuntu in upcoming releases. – muru Jan 20 '15 at 14:10
up vote 2 down vote accepted

Both of the packages you mentioned, are simply synchronized from the upstream Debian repository.

If one of the packages supersedes the other, from upstream of Debian, then it might be worthwhile to contact the maintainers of the Debian packages, and handle the deprecation and replacement of the superseded package appropriately. Then, once fixed in Debian, those changes can be synced back to the development build of Ubuntu, and then backported to stable releases if necessary.

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Is it possible to make python-ftpdlib package to provide the same binary?

What you are suggesting is undesirable in many ways:

  • Two packages providing the same file (the binary) means you can't install both at once (or you need a tedious dpkg-alternatives script in place).
  • pyftpd is not pyftpdlib so calling them the same thing will confuse people. Why not have a binary with a different name like /usr/bin/pyftpdlib-server?
  • Renaming something to squat on the existing name of another project, confuses users who want to use that other project.

I'd propose one of several solutions:

  • Remove whichever package it is you don't want and create your own launcher in /usr/local/bin to load the library is is you do want.
  • Petition the upstream or Debian maintainer to include a launcher in their package (though this will be under their project's name, not the name of the other project)... Or submit a patch to do this for them.
  • Submit a fix for the project you want remove to bring its accessibility standards up to your standards. If it makes it better for you, it might make it better for everybody.
  • Create a companion package (called pyftpdlib-server or python-pyftpdlib-server) that depends on python-pyftpdlib and just provides a launcher. Submit that to Debian directly.
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I think ftpd would be a better name. It is already provided by two packages, and it is shorter. I don't really care which FTP server to run as long as I can configure it quickly. pyftpd is in all aspects worse than pyftpdlib anyway. – anatoly techtonik Jan 20 '15 at 17:21
    
..bring its accessibility standards up to your standards.. It is a tremendous waste of time - everything is implemented in pyftpdlib and it is supported and widely used. – anatoly techtonik Jan 20 '15 at 17:23
    
I still don't understand why you're complaining about a name. There are dozens of different FTP servers. For the sake of everybody's sanity, they need different names. Your logic would see Firefox, Chrome and Opera all called Internet Explorer. That isn't useful. – Oli♦ Jan 20 '15 at 17:28
    
FTP server is one of the hundred programs I use monthly on Windows, Linux and other OS. I usually have to install them before use and memorizing every and each is tiresome. I use Ubuntu once in a while and having a choice of ftpd servers is a good user experience. My logic is to see Firefox, Chrome and Opera as browser, not iexplore. – anatoly techtonik Jan 20 '15 at 21:17

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