Bug#984736: RFH: cron -- new maintainer need

[Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña]

Package: wnpp
Version: N/A; reported 2021-07-03
Severity: wishlist

A new an active maintainer is required for the cron package. Cron is a basic
system utility that runs programs periodically in the system, it is used by
multitude of packages and is part of the core OS debian tools.

The package is maintained in Salsa (https://salsa.debian.org/debian/cron).

I picked up the package in 2005 and have been trying to maintain it and fix
bugs in it and keep it more or less current. In 2014, Christian Kastner
joined as co-maintainer and has been done the bulk of the job in mantaining /
improving it. He recently did a fantastic job in converting the package to
3.0 (quilt).

He also provided its replacement, cronie, in experimental (package available
at https://salsa.debian.org/debian/cronie, upstream available at
https://github.com/cronie-crond/cronie)

Cron has been dead for years upstream, Debian still uses it instead of Cronie
as over the years the package has received many changes that are
Debian-specific.

Ideally a maintainer willing to help cron move forward would support the next
major task to be done: moving the Debian-specific patches into cronie and
providing an updated package for cronie replacement that can eventually
replace cron.

Please contact the current maintainer if you can help in maintaining and
improving cron.

Best regards,

Javier Fernández-Sanguino

[Christian Kastner]

Hi Brian,

On 24.04.21 00:51, Brian Thompson wrote:
>> Ideally a maintainer willing to help cron move forward would support the next
>> major task to be done: moving the Debian-specific patches into cronie and
>> providing an updated package for cronie replacement that can eventually
>> replace cron.>

> I’d like to help out here if no one else has responded.  I can read
> repositories on Salsa but don’t have an account there yet since I’m not
> officially a part of the Debian org.

Anyone can create an account on Salsa -- in fact, contributing there is
usually the first step towards becoming an official member.

Once you have an account, there are multiple ways one can contribute,
eg: using a fork and filing merge requests, or eventually directly
commit to the repository.

The Debian Mentors page is usually a good starting point for the
available documentation:

https://mentors.debian.net/

>>Please contact the current maintainer if you can help in maintaining and
>>improving cron.
>

> @Javier, I cc’ed you and I think what is Christian’s email which I
> pulled from the cron git history.

I am no longer a maintainer of cron. I am, however, still the maintainer
of closely related cronie, which should probably succeed cron at some
point (given much better upstream support).

I'm not actively maintaining that one either, hence I have requested an
adopter (#974038). I would be willing to assist (withing reason) anyone
interested in taking over that one.

Best,
Christian

[Martin Quinson]

Hello,

Could someone please point me on the current status here? There is many patches
in cron's package, and probably even more knowledge in the existing cron
codebase. How/when will we able to say that it's now OK to switch to cronie?

I have the feeling that switching from cron to cronie could be easier if we had
tests for these softwares. I've found some tests in debian/tests of cron, but
they don't seem numerous enough to help here. Maybe something around cwrap.org
could help?

Thanks for any advice,
Mt

[Kevin Madrid]

Hi all,

I am interested in collaborating in this project.
Are Maintainers still needed?

Regards,
Kevin Madrid