Help:FAQ

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This FAQ tries to answer the most frequently asked questions about Unmaintained Free Software.

If you have any further questions then post them here, I'll try to answer them as good as I can. -- Uwe Hermann.

Contents

What license is used for the contents of Unmaintained Free Software?

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
  • All images and other data files you upload must either be in the public domain, or they must be licensed under any of the following licenses, or combinations thereof:1
  • Note: By adding or modifying text, images or other data in this wiki, you agree to license your additions or changes under these terms.
  • Note: Any files uploaded which are not verifyably covered by any of the above licenses has to be removed.

1 This list is probably not complete. If you feel that some license is missing, please leave a comment on the talk page.

Which projects may be listed here?

Generally speaking: All unmaintained or orphaned Free Software related contents of any type. This includes:

  • Software projects: source code, patches, binary packages such as RPMs or Debian packages, etc.
  • Documentation: HOWTOs, manpages, infopages, FAQs, translations, tutorials, etc.
  • Metadata: lists, indexes or databases of all sorts, e.g. buglists, wishlists, TODO-lists, etc.
  • Infrastructure: websites, wikis, forums, mailinglists, etc.

Note, however, that the projects should have a somewhat free license, so that a new maintainer can adopt and maintain them. It's no use putting up closed-source projects, nobody will be able to adopt them anyways.

How do I decide whether to add a project or not?

There are no strict rules for this, but here are some suggestions:

  • If there is a statement from the original author of the project that he cannot or doesn't want to further maintain the project, then just add it to Unmaintained Free Software. Such statements can be listed on the project's homepage, in mailinglist archives, forums, READMEs etc.
  • If the project hasn't been updated for a long time, email the author and ask if he still maintains the project or if he would like to have it added to Unmaintained Free Software.
    • If he agrees to have it added, add the project.
    • If he doesn't respond within 2 weeks, add the project (if he needs longer than two weeks to respond, we'll simply remove the project again).
    • If the email bounces, try to find another email address of the author (use Google and your intuition) and try again. If that also fails, add the project.

Note: We do not want to cause trouble for the author of any project by declaring his project unmaintained although it isn't! If you believe a project is erroneously listed here, please simply update the respective project page (but mention why you think this is the case) and/or contact Uwe Hermann.

How do I adopt an unmaintained project?

There are no strict rules for this, but here are some suggestions:

  • Email the original author and inform him/her of your plan.
  • Update the Unmaintained Free Software entry of the project:
    • Set the status to "maintained" by using this template code: {{Maintained|Maintainer=[mailto:john@example.com John Doe]}}.
    • Update the website URL, download URL, and other fields, if necessary.
  • Put up a website, CVS/Subversion, mailinglists etc. for the project.
    • If possible, reuse the already existing infrastructure. This will not always work, but at least on SouceForge, Savannah and similar sites it might be possible to assign the project to a new maintainer. On SourceForge for example, you can easily submit a Takeover Request for a project.
    • If you cannot reuse the existing infrastructure, create a new website for the project, e.g. using SouceForge or Savannah.
  • Code, test, and release new versions of the project.
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