HexChat missing after update

zero-vector

Hi, after updating Solus, hexchat is missing from my system.
I understand that it was decided to be removed from the packages, but you actually managed to nuke it from my system, and that is a different story!
I got used to having some things break from time to time, but never experienced a complete removal of an user -facing app, let me tell you, it does not feel great.

Best regards

note:
I run eopkg up irregularity, so I am not sure what weekly update causes it.

Harvey

That is how deprecating packages work. It removes it from the repository and from the users system on update. It is not simply that it will no longer be maintained upstream, it will not be maintained by us either so it won't get rebuilds / patches as necessary so one way or another it will break.

It would also be impossible to avoid new packages conflicting with old deprecated ones no longer in the repository.

So this is not new, nor will it change. If a package in the repository is deprecated it will be removed.

zero-vector

I see "You get what you paid for" .
I will plan accordingly.

Have a nice day.

Staudey

Yeah, it's one of the more annoying aspects of the Solus packaging system, but it is how it is.

I don't know/remember if excluding the specific package from the upgrade via sudo eopkg up -x package-name works to avoid immediate removal, but one would have to remember to do that for EVERY update action. Forget once and it's gone; and of course there is no guarantee any of it will keep working for any length of time after deprecation (plus security issues, conflicts as mentioned above, etc., etc.)

zero-vector

Yeah, it is what it is.
I reviewed the app stack I use, and this was most likely my last update.
I can not just wait until someone decides that a finished project has not enough commits per month and nukes it.
I am on thin ice here, I still use Fluxbox a WM that Ikey added just to test the initial distro image (a VM that had no updates for like a decade).

Solus was my desktop Linux distribution for 8 years ( based on an WIP package for Sylpheed in my projects folder).
Very stable the whole time (even Ikey's "F%$# It" moment, or the infamous "no one can get to servers" downtime was just blip from my POV)

So thank you all.

good bye

note: There is still a package hexchat-theme=manager, that survived the purge, I suggest to put it down.

Harvey

As I already tried to explain, packages do not magically continue to work when being left alone. They will at times need to be rebuilt against newer versions of their dependencies in the repository or they will stop working. Software that is not maintained upstream will eventually not be compatible with newer versions of its dependencies.

Hexchat( specifically announced it released its final version in February 2024 which we informed our users about in our weekly sync notes.

The only change I would like to see is alerting users to package deprecations via eopkg itself.

Anyway, thank you for alerting us to hexchat-theme-manager not being deprecated.

Solarmass

Harvey The only change I would like to see is alerting users to package deprecations via eopkg itself.

agree, before confirmation to continue update there should be some notification that some packages gonna be removed

Original-Syn

Just as an alternative, it is still available as a Flatpak. But since it is a dead project, who knows for how long.

Hard to maintain dependencies on a dead project, not to mention security.

Axios

Original-Syn I was thinking how does that work for flatpacks
run them till they break without updates.
If thats the case one should be aware of outdated flatpaks.

Original-Syn

Axios Outdated anything for that matter. Things like this are a good test of how Flatpak handles, not only dead projects, but also their outdated dependencies that may have security vulnerabilities.

trinajstica

Original-Syn

As far I know flatpak bundles apps with everything they need, so even old apps keep working.

Original-Syn

trinajstica That is part of the concern around security. If the dependencies are unable to be updated due to potentially breaking the app, they may become vulnerable. Some of this can be taken care of by sandboxing, but it's just something to think about when you have these older unsupported packages. Obviously it is not an immediate concern for an app that has only recently become unmaintained.