In INCUBATOR-198 Infra asked us to clean up Release artifacts from archive.apache.org <http://archive.apache.org/> for retired podlings. I created INCUBATOR-233 so that we can make sure we are clear about the policy before we undertake proper cleanup.
When a Podling retires from the Incubator there are two exit states that might happen: (1) Development simply stops. (2) Development moves elsewhere. Either back to the donating entity or simply elsewhere. Artifacts that are left that relate to code that may or may not be compliant with Apache Policy are: (A) Code Repositories. (B) Release Archives. (C) Release Distributions. (D) Dev Distributions. (These should always be deleted.) A simple answer would be to keep everything where it is, and that would be easy except when the code has not been cleared for licensing issues. Fortunately, assuming that the podling PPMC or its Mentors have maintained the Podling Status Page we do have dates for licensing clearance that can be used. These are the dates in the “Copyright” and “Verify Distribution Rights” sections. Are there other dates to check? Are we over to the dates in content/podlings/<podling>.yml. Once we agree on the correct “date" to use. I propose that we adopt the following policy for retiring podlings: (1) If the “date” is empty then we remove every Release and Repository. (We can allow a delay for people to grab “historical” copies.) (2) If the "date" is filled in then the Repositories are marked Read Only and all Releases prior to that “date" are removed. The effect is that we only preserve artifacts and code that can be considered to be conforming with Apache Release Policy and Code that is likely to be in good shape with respect to licensing. I’d like to go for LAZY CONSENSUS after discussion for the next week or so. Regards, Dave
