Reintroducing deleted courier-* etc packages to ubuntu 24.04

[Robie Basak]

On Wed, Dec 04, 2024 at 07:24:12PM -0800, Andrew Athan wrote:
> I am volunteering to fix whatever problem may exist in the courier mail
> server packages which caused someone to delete the packages from 24.04

Thank you!

> The claimed reason appears to be related to PCRE2, yet courier has been
> built using libpcre2 for a long time now, so the whole reason appears to be
> invalid.

I would guess that the binary build dependencies of the relevant binary
deb still contained the problem dependency at the time, but this will
need to be checked.

> I suspect all I have to do is prove that the packages can easily be built
> from deb's that depend only on libpcre2.
> 
> Since the packages were deleted from 24.04, I imagine I cannot fetch the
> source and simply do an apt build-dep and dpkg-buildpackage etc.

All previously published sources and binaries are still available from
download, though not through apt directly. If you go to:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/<source_package_name>

...then go to "Full publishing history" (top right), then you can see
all previous published versions, with links to download their sources,
binaries as previously built, etc.

If you find a link to a .dsc file (the source package metadata file),
then you can use the "dget" command against that URL to quickly grab all
relevant source package files.

You might also find the Ubuntu snapshot service helpful:
https://snapshot.ubuntu.com/

I suggest you start by checking the build dependencies in the metadata
of the binary packages that were removed.

> I am also a noob in terms of the bureaucratic steps involved in getting my
> work "readmitted." Fundamentally, this issue may also just come down to
> getting a message to whoever was the effective maintainer and decider
> relative to their removal so the packages can simply be reinstated (e.g.,
> if the removal was purely administrative based on some bug not being closed
> appropriately).

That may not be trivial for technical reasons. I suggest you start by
preparing a PPA with the fixed packages as you want them included into
Ubuntu. This way you can demonstrate this working to others, skipping
Ubuntu's QA processes, so that they can be reviewed and considered.

See: https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA

> Perhaps I start by guessing the name of the source packages in 24.04 based
> on the names in 22.04, then do the above steps after downloading them from
> guessed launchpadlibrarian links?

Indeed you need to start by pinning down the source and binary package
names involved. They are most likely the same, but you should check they
haven't changed.

Robie
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