Packaging guidelines for the scenario where an upstream repository no longer exists #1548

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opened 2026-06-23 13:17:36 +00:00 by farchord · 2 comments
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I saw a comment in the Fedora Python Matrix group asking if a project without an upstream source could be packaged (I assume he got the source somewhere). I was looking into the main packaging guidelines and https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/SourceURL/ and couldn't find any mention about it.

Should something be added in that case? To me, adding a package in Fedora without an upstream source seems extremely sketchy.

I saw a comment in the Fedora Python Matrix group asking if a project without an upstream source could be packaged (I assume he got the source _somewhere_). I was looking into the main packaging guidelines and https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/SourceURL/ and couldn't find any mention about it. Should something be added in that case? To me, adding a package in Fedora without an upstream source seems extremely sketchy.
Owner

I've seen this happen for two "common" cases:

  • project is old and has never had a public git and only published tarballs to sourceforge
  • project only publishes to a package registry (pypi, crates.io, rubygems, etc.) and doesn't have a public git

Both cases are usually OK, if not ideal, since it's hard to contribute back to such projects.

Of course, there's the third case, of the project actually being dead - in which case I'd rather not package it. :)

I've seen this happen for two "common" cases: - project is old and has *never* had a public git and only published tarballs to sourceforge - project only publishes to a package registry (pypi, crates.io, rubygems, etc.) and doesn't have a public git Both cases are *usually* OK, if not ideal, since it's hard to contribute back to such projects. Of course, there's the third case, of the project actually being dead - in which case I'd rather *not* package it. :)
Owner

Yeh, even for old packages they tend to either slowly die or people packaging them in distros. tend to create an new upstream. So I'd suggest they see what the other big distros. have for the package, and/or ping the packagers.

Yeh, even for old packages they tend to either slowly die or people packaging them in distros. tend to create an new upstream. So I'd suggest they see what the other big distros. have for the package, and/or ping the packagers.
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packaging/guidelines#1548
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