Please remove get-iplayer from all future Ubuntu releases

[dinkypumpkin]

I am the maintainer of get_iplayer and I would really, really like you to permanently remove it from all future Ubuntu releases. With new releases required whenever there are changes in related BBC services, get_iplayer is too volatile even for the Ubuntu standard release cycle, much less the LTS cycle. As a result, get_iplayer from Ubuntu repositories is virtually guaranteed to be obsolete, partially broken, and unsupported. This has been an ongoing support headache for years since users quite reasonably expect to install working software and I have to continually disabuse them of that notion. It is a poor onboarding experience for new users, and I would like to end it for future releases. And of course, the headaches are multiplied because this problem flows downstream to Mint and other distros. get_iplayer has a well-maintained PPA and is easy to install manually. Those are the methods I want to stick with. It would help me and it would help Ubuntu users of get_iplayer if it were removed from future releases.

[Hans Joachim Desserud (hjd)]

Thanks for reporting.

I've taken the liberty of subscribing the Ubuntu package archive team to look into this.

[dinkypumpkin (dinkypumpkin)]

And if the get-iplayer package can be removed from repositories for current releases without breaking anything (e.g., updating over dependency packages from the PPA), that would be a tremendous bonus. It would save 4 more years of explaining to Xenial users why their installation of get_iplayer doesn't work.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Thanks for the report. It appears that the get-iplayer package in Ubuntu is inherited directly from Debian. Have you spoken to the Debian maintainer about this?

Shipping in a PPA only suffers from the problem that users must discover the PPA, establish that it's trustable, and manually enable it. On Ubuntu 14.04 and later, we now also support the 'snap' store, which allows upstreams to deliver application packages directly to users on their own schedule, independently of Ubuntu releases. If this is of interest to you, you can read about it at <https://snapcraft.io/>. We could also work with you to provide an automatic upgrade path from the out-of-date .debs in stable releases to your supported upstream snap (something which we could not automate for a PPA).

[dinkypumpkin (dinkypumpkin)]

The Debian maintainer is well aware. get-iplayer was not released in Debian jessie and will not be released in Debian stretch (https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=857871). It will remain in Debian testing where it belongs. The problem comes because apparently Ubuntu grabs whatever is in Debian testing and freezes it into LTS releases. Given that the Debian testing package is usually not current either, this guarantees 5 years of broken software being distributed to users and 5 years of support headaches for me. There is no reason for that, and I want it to stop. It isn't possible for Ubuntu to provide a working get-iplayer package in its repositories, so it should not provide any get-iplayer package.

Your arguments against PPAs don't concern me for get-iplayer. If users can't be bothered, or don't trust PPAs, that is fine. It's the only way they will get a working package installation, but as long as the choice is clear I don't see any problem. It's easy enough to install manually, anyway. As for using a snap, that is not germane here. I don't package get_iplayer for any distro in any form, and never will. That is done by third parties. My only concern is to stop supplying Ubuntu/Mint users with broken software.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

There is work in progress on providing get-iplayer as a snap. This should factor into the discussion of how to remove the stale versions from existing releases.

https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/snapping-get-iplayer/1120/4

[dinkypumpkin (dinkypumpkin)]

If someone is willing to create and maintain a working snap, that would be fine as an alternative for users of existing releases who don't like PPAs. Only time will tell if whoever it is can finish the job and is able to support it as well as the PPA has been supported. At this point, actually removing stale versions would be a bonus, but my main goal is that get-iplayer should not appear in repos for any future Ubuntu releases. The upstream package (now very broken) appears to have been abandoned in sid, but the maintainer was considerate enough to remove it from Debian testing. Surely that is enough to have get-iplayer removed from Ubuntu before 17.10 is released.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Removing packages:
 get-iplayer 2.97-1 in artful
  get-iplayer 2.97-1 in artful amd64
  get-iplayer 2.97-1 in artful arm64
  get-iplayer 2.97-1 in artful armhf
  get-iplayer 2.97-1 in artful i386
  get-iplayer 2.97-1 in artful ppc64el
  get-iplayer 2.97-1 in artful s390x
Comment: (From Debian) ROM; unsuitable for stable releases; Debian bug #865290
Remove [y|N]? y