[Vrms-devel] Bug#850334: vrms outdated, incorrect - should it be released with stretch?

[Stuart Prescott]

Package: vrms
Version: 1.16
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

The vrms package is intended to offer explanations as to why packages are
not free to help our users make informed choices about the software that
they install. Its list of reasons is outdated; packages no longer exist
and, in some cases, it incorrectly lists packages as being non-free that
were successfully relicenced many years ago and now are free. Currently,
only 7 of the 42 packages vrms knows about still exist and of those 7
reasons, 2 are incorrect (angband and povray).

In #debian, we repeatedly get users who believe that vrms is going to tell
them useful things and are then annoyed that it does not. This package is
making promises it does not deliver and that's not good for our users.

Its current functionality can be replaced entirely with:

    aptitude search '~i?or(~scontrib,~snon-free)' -F'%p %20s %d'

Given that this package doesn't fulfil its goals, should it be included in
the upcoming stretch release?

(Raising the severity of this bug will be enough to cause vrms to not
be included in stretch.)

regards
Stuart