Bug#1032875: ITP: dool -- Dool as further maintained fork of Dstat

[Christian Ehrhardt]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: Christian Ehrhardt <christian...@canonical.com>

* Package name : dool
Version : 1.1.0
Upstream Author : Scott Baker <sc...@perturb.org>
* URL : https://github.com/scottchiefbaker/dool
* License : GPL-2
Programming Lang: Python
Description : Dool is a python3 compatible fork of Dstat and
thereby is a versatile replacement for vmstat, iostat and ifstat. Dool
overcomes some of the limitations of these programs and adds some
extra features.

As discussed and somewhat pre-coordinated on [1] this is about replacing
(over time) dstat with dool.

dstat was always great and well developed. I wondered why it recently
had more issues, so I had a look at [2]. Reading there didn't make me too
happy as it is essentially dead since almost 4 years now due to [3].

But it made me spot that there is a continued fork in the form of [4]

I did check, but there is no ITP yet listed in [5] which this report
is creating now to have the upload refer to it once it is ready.

As discussed in [1] the intent is to package dool separately first
and maybe take over dstat fully once it is considered ready.
Development wise this will be based on the dstat packaging
(retaining history) and all former dstat maintainers/uploaders
should start as co-uploader/maintainer.

A (very!) preliminary packaging branch has been started on salsa
in the namespace of my user [6].

[1]: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1032615
[2]: https://github.com/dstat-real/dstat
[3]: https://github.com/dstat-real/dstat/issues/170
[4]: https://github.com/scottchiefbaker/dool
[5]: https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/requested
[6]: https://salsa.debian.org/paelzer-guest/dool/-/commits/create-dool-based-on-dstat

[Christian Ehrhardt]

Hi,
I'm not entirely convinced on how up to date and frequently maintained
the new repository is.
I've found that it breaks on just checkout + make.

This wasn't unknown, but PRs to fix it were open for quite some time
without action
- https://github.com/scottchiefbaker/dool/pull/28
- https://github.com/scottchiefbaker/dool/pull/30
It IMHO also need:
- https://github.com/scottchiefbaker/dool/pull/37
on top.

But the point is, if PRs and issues are not handled we will only get a
singular update and not an active replacement for dstat.

I'll be waiting to see if there is a response to the open PRs.

--
Christian Ehrhardt
Senior Staff Engineer, Ubuntu Server
Canonical Ltd

[Christian Ehrhardt]

I was tracking a TODO file for the remaining tasks.
And after the recent setback of expectations reported above I have
entered testing and found quite a list of things that should be
tackled before going to the NEW queue with this.

If you are curious, feel free to have a look and tackle any of [1].
But since at least some seem to reflect the package upstream repo
getting outdated (again) I'm not yet too confident in continuing on
this.

Either way, documenting this in the repo and the ITP is an important step.

[1]: https://salsa.debian.org/paelzer-guest/dool/-/blob/create-dool-based-on-dstat/debian/TODO