Re: [Savannah-hackers] submission of Softainator, a tool to ease software maintenance - savannah.nongnu.org

[Sylvain Beucler]

Hi,

Abeilt we receive a first private reply, we did not get a response
from you for two weeks, so we deleted your project from the pending
queue.

If you would still like to have your project hosted at Savannah,
please register it again.

The re-registration URL found in our acknowledgment of your earlier
registration will direct you to the proper location where you can
re-register your project.

Regards,

-- 
Sylvain


On Sat, Oct 02, 2004 at 02:28:29PM +0200, Sylvain Beucler wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm evaluating the project you submitted for approval in Savannah.
> 
> > Stéphane Gourichon <address@hidden> described the package as follows:
> > License: gpl
> > Other License: 
> > Package: Softainator, a tool to ease software maintenance
> > System name: softainator
> > Type: non-GNU
> > 
> > Description:
> > Softainator is a small tool that makes life easier for GNU/Linux (and maybe 
> > other) systems user and administrator.
> > 
> > The main idea is that users declare the software they need once and for all 
> > in their homedir (they can update the list whenever they want, of course) 
> > and the system will ensure that all needed software will be available to 
> > users, filtered by some security checks (e.g. kernel packages are 
> > disallowed, the admin may disallow packages that install some servers like 
> > apache, etc...).
> > 
> > The primary targets are Linux distributions that rely on apt-get or urpmi, 
> > that is Debian Linux, Mandrakelinux, Red Hat Linux.
> > 
> > This is useful:
> > -for sites with numerous machines, as an alternative to network-mounted 
> > /usr to ensure that all software is available.
> > -for quick recovery : install a vanilla system and Maintanator, mount user 
> > dirs, and all the necessary software will come back quickly.
> > -for users that work on many sites : they only have to declare in 
> > electronic form that they like, say, emacs and icewm and a dozen other, 
> > then propagate this description to any other place they work (even if the 
> > local admin doesn't use maintainator he can still read the description and 
> > install by hand, until he's convinced :-).
> > 
> > You can think of Softainator as a
> > "SOFTware mAINtenance administrATOR" (or terminATOR if you like the idea of 
> > never have to care about software maintenance again :-).
> > 
> > The code, written in Python by Vincent Cuzin, from an idea by Stéphane 
> > Gourichon, has been in production at the AnimatLab, Computer Science Lab of 
> > the University of Paris 6 for about two years, serving a dozen of machines 
> > that have had hard disk problem and system re-install without a pain. 
> > Thanks to Softainator, all users have become confident to find the software 
> > they need on any workstation of the pool at any time.
> > 
> > The code currently handles advanced cases, like propagating the declared 
> > needs between desktop computers always connected and roaming laptops.
> > 
> > It is now in the process of cleaning up and packaging to be distributable 
> > to other teams in the lab and to the outside world.
> > The first versions will be soon posted on savannah.
> > 
> > 
> > Other Software Required:
> > python, urpmi, rpm, bash (okay, bash is always available :-).
> 
> Please reply and include an (perhaps temporary) URL pointing to the
> source code.  The description you gave when registering will not be
> read by the general public.  If you are still concerned with privacy,
> however, you can forward the code to me by email.
> 
> We wish to review your source code, even if it is not functional, to
> catch potential legal issues early.
> 
> For example, to release your program properly under the GPL you must
> include a copyright notice and permission-to-copy statements at the
> beginning of every file of source code.  This is explained in
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html.  Our review would help
> catch potential omissions such as these.
> 
> Regards,