Package: python3-nvchecker
Version: 2.12-2
Severity: important
Control: affects -1 + nvchecker
X-Debbugs-C: afif@debian.org, tchet@debian.org

Hi,

I spent a deeper look at these two packages after reporting the
undeclared file conflicts earlier and observe more problems here.

It seems to me that src:nvchecker originally packaged this and later src:python-nvchecker duplicated it. In theory, we should have removed
the duplicate and rescued the existing package. Instead, both got
maintained concurrently. Eventually I reported the file conflict and
that resulted in python3-nvchecker to declare Breaks+Replaces+Provides nvchecker. This effectively is a package takeover. Is it coordinated in
any way? Is it authorized by the present src:nvchecker maintainers?

Now given that src:nvchecker has received its last maintainer upload in
2021 and lacked behind upstream by several versions, we can certainly
say it wasn't in its best shape. From a wider perspective, handing over maintenance to a more active maintainer can be beneficial. At this
point, it would most probably make sense to simply remove src:nvchecker
from unstable after figuring out what good aspects (e.g. an example
file) can be rescued into src:python-nvchecker.

Last but not least, Provides is not a proper package transition. apt
will not move an existing installation of nvchecker over to
python3-nvchecker by itself. src:nvchecker should temporarily include a
real, transitional nvchecker binary package to finish the transition. Introducing a new binary package requires a freeze exception, but this
seems like one of those cases where I expect it to be granted.

Helmut

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