in reply to perlfaq candidate: "How do I adopt an abandoned module ? "

CPAN has its own FAQ, separate from that for the Perl language, which has an answer for "How do I go about maintaining a module when the author is unresponsive?" You'll find a link to the FAQ right on the http://cpan.org page.
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Re^2: perlfaq candidate: "How do I adopt an abandoned module ? "
by syphilis (Archbishop) on Jul 30, 2007 at 01:00 UTC
    CPAN has its own FAQ ...

    Aaah ... excellent !! Thanks for the link.
    (Hmmm .... yummm ... egg ... :-)

    Cheers,
    Rob
    Update: Actually, that FAQ doesn't go quite as far as I anticipated. Isn't there some way of taking over maintainership of an existing module when the current owner cannot be contacted ?
[reply]
      Isn't there some way of taking over maintainership of an existing module when the current owner cannot be contacted ?
      "if the author doesn't respond in a year, you may get maintenance by having interest"

      Presumably that also applies if the current owner has died. What did you mean by "cannot be contacted"?

      "Do not upload the new version under the same namespace to CPAN until the matter has been resolved with the author or CPAN."

      CPAN in this case I believe would mean modules@perl.org, or, failing that, a CPAN administrator (an address can be found at the bottom of http://www.cpan.org/modules/04pause.html).

[reply]
        "if the author doesn't respond in a year, you may get maintenance by having interest"

        Just a note to the OP that when people take over modules, they are usually given a "co-maintenance" status, which means that if ever the original author resurfaces, they may resume working on the module.

        Also, if one shows that considerable effort has been undertaken to find out how to get in touch with the current author (email addresses, web searches, friends of friends, etc), co-maintenance is usually handed over fairly promptly.

        • another intruder with the mooring in the heart of the Perl

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