Request for removal: libppd and gpr (unmaintained for decades)

[Till Kamppeter]

libppd and gpr (both in Universe) have been unmaintained since 2002 (20 years ago) and are auxiliary packages for the LPD/LPR/LPRng print spoolers. libppd is for supporting PostScript printers with PPD files from their manufacturers under LPD/LPR/LPRng, gpr is a GUI/printer setup tool for LPD/LPR/LPRng.

They should be removed because:

- Ubuntu uses CUPS as printing system since its birth in 2004
- libppd and gpr (and also LPD/LPR/LPRng) are only in Universe because they get synced from Debian, probably nobody of the Ubuntu developers ever touched these packages.
- Both libppd and gpr are unmaintained for many years
- gpr has a severe bug not being taken care of (according to Christoph Biedl, Debian maintainer of libppd)
- Every printer which works under Linux can be used with Ubuntu's CUPS printing stack
- The CUPS printing stack has much better integration with applications than LPD/LPR/LPRng

In addition and that is the most important, I have split cups-filters into various components to separate its PPD file support:

https://openprinting.github.io/cups-filters-Second-Generation-First-Beta-Release/

One of the components is a new libppd. This libppd I created completely independently of the old legacy libppd. I was not aware that there was already a libppd 20 years ago. Due to CUPS having gotten the standard printing environment (https://openprinting.github.io/history/) this library got completely forgotten ...

So I need the name "libppd" be freed for my current libppd.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Packages which are planned to be uploaded and have the name clash with libppd0 are here:

https://launchpad.net/~till-kamppeter/+archive/ubuntu/new-arch-dev/+packages

Adding an epoch of 3 to the libppd in this PPA makes all the 4 packages of the PPA buildable and installable.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

The old libppd got renamed to libppd-legacy in Debian Experimental. This could be also a solution to make room for the new libppd.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Removing packages from lunar:
 gpr 0.15deb-2build1 in lunar
  gpr 0.15deb-2build1 in lunar amd64
  gpr 0.15deb-2build1 in lunar arm64
  gpr 0.15deb-2build1 in lunar armhf
  gpr 0.15deb-2build1 in lunar ppc64el
  gpr 0.15deb-2build1 in lunar riscv64
  gpr 0.15deb-2build1 in lunar s390x
Comment: unmaintained and conflicting with newer components, lp #2000411
Remove [y|N]? y
1 package successfully removed.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Removing packages from lunar:
 libppd 2:0.10-9 in lunar
  libppd-dev 2:0.10-9 in lunar amd64
  libppd-dev 2:0.10-9 in lunar arm64
  libppd-dev 2:0.10-9 in lunar armhf
  libppd-dev 2:0.10-9 in lunar ppc64el
  libppd-dev 2:0.10-9 in lunar riscv64
  libppd-dev 2:0.10-9 in lunar s390x
  libppd0 2:0.10-9 in lunar amd64
  libppd0 2:0.10-9 in lunar arm64
  libppd0 2:0.10-9 in lunar armhf
  libppd0 2:0.10-9 in lunar ppc64el
  libppd0 2:0.10-9 in lunar riscv64
  libppd0 2:0.10-9 in lunar s390x
  ppdfilt 2:0.10-9 in lunar amd64
  ppdfilt 2:0.10-9 in lunar arm64
  ppdfilt 2:0.10-9 in lunar armhf
  ppdfilt 2:0.10-9 in lunar ppc64el
  ppdfilt 2:0.10-9 in lunar riscv64
  ppdfilt 2:0.10-9 in lunar s390x
Comment: unmaintained and conflicting with newer components, lp #2000411
Remove [y|N]? y
1 package successfully removed.