in reply to Re^2: perlfaq candidate: "How do I adopt an abandoned module ? "
in thread perlfaq candidate: "How do I adopt an abandoned module ? "

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).

  • Comment on Re^3: perlfaq candidate: "How do I adopt an abandoned module ? "

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Re^4: perlfaq candidate: "How do I adopt an abandoned module ? "
by grinder (Bishop) on Jul 30, 2007 at 06:24 UTC
    "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

      I'm not sure where you got your information, but it's not how we do things at PAUSE. If we transfer a module because the original author is absent, we usually transfer primary maintainship. It's easy to re-arrange if the author shows up later. We're also very careful about this, so "promptly" means about a month between when we try to contact the author ourselves and we actually make the transfer.

      Each case is different, however, but that's generally how we do things.

      --
      brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com>
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        I'm not sure where you got your information, but it's not how we do things at PAUSE. If we transfer a module because the original author is absent, we usually transfer primary maintainship.

        Merely by looking at the modules I've seen taken over by me or others in the past year or so have always been co-maint, even for authors AWOL. I guess I've drawn an inference from statistically flawed information :)

        And yes, "promptly" did mean "about a month" (rather than "a year", as stated in the faq). Again, going by experience.

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