vm-builder

[Serge Hallyn]

Quoting Peter Matulis (peter.matulis at canonical.com):
> On 12/10/2013 12:13 PM, Serge Hallyn wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Years ago it was decided that vm-builder would be deprecated in favor
> > of alternatives (cloud images, live-build, and some others).  This was
> > dicussed at at least two separate physical UDSes.  However, it was
> > never actually dropped from the archive.  As a result people kept
> > using it despite it being considered deprecated and no longer
> > maintained.  This is resulting in people losing data and time, i.e.
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vm-builder/+bug/1090223
> > 
> > I intend to open a bug to ask that it be removed from the archive
> > for trusty.  If anyone objects, please reply here.
> 
> What is the state of documentation for 'live-build and some others'?  We
> shouldn't assume everyone has been cloudified.

The only thing we are assuming is that vmbuilder is not being
maintained, and therefore it should not be in the archive for
the next LTS.  If someone is willing and able to step in and
maintain it, then absolutely we can keep it in the archive.  The
last few times we discussed this (at UDSes) noone stepped up to
maintain.

The choice isn't "force everyone to use something different" vs
"keep a stable vmbuilder in the archive."  It's "keep an
unmaintained vmbuilder in the archive" versus "pull it out."

Finally, vmbuilder would not be removed in precise..saucy, so
people do still have time to find their alternative (or decide
that vmbuilder is important enough to them that they should
maintain it themselves).

-serge