[Bug 1753169] [NEW] Please don't include xchat (abandoned upstream) in 18.04

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

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The xchat package was removed from debian on 2016-01-30[1]. The
mentioned reason is "dead upstream; active fork available". It hasn't
had a stable release in 8 years, and it's been replaced by hexchat,
which is still actively developed.

All other distros have removed the xchat package and replaced it with
hexchat.

On 2017-08-08, LocutusOfBorg reuploaded xchat to debian with all the
patches it had previous to its removal and a few new patches backporting
fixes with CVEs from hexchat, resulting in 44 patches on top of the last
xchat release from 2010, making it effectively another fork maintained
by debian.

TingPing, the main developer of hexchat, contacted the debian
maintainer, and the reason for this reintroduction seems to be
"nostalgia" and "new libraries not available [in older distros]". See
the full blog post[2] for the complete exchange.

As a member of the IRCv3 working group[3] it saddens me to see debian
picking up an old version of a client and shipping it as if it were new.

I realize the right place to complain about this would be debian, but
the more immediate risk here is ubuntu including it in a LTS release.
Having LTS users using xchat is going to hold back the progress of the
IRC ecosystem as a whole until 2023. Please don't do this to us.

Not to mention the lack of ipv6, python3 support (with the python2 EOL
in two years), SSL SNI, and all the bugs that were not considered worth
a CVE. Without looking too far, launchpad bug 349754 (crash when
pressing ctrl-i several times) is still unfixed in this xchat package
and doesn't affect hexchat. There are other 114 bugs in this tracker
alone. And no real upstream.

[1]: https://tracker.debian.org/news/744446
[2]: https://tingping.github.io/2018/03/02/when-distros-get-it-wrong.html
[3]: https://ircv3.net/

** Affects: xchat (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

-- 
Please don't include xchat (abandoned upstream) in 18.04
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1753169
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