Hi,

I've drafted a proposal for request for comment (RFC) at
https://gitlab.com/libtiff/libtiff/-/merge_requests/581.  

Please provide feedback either within the merge request or via e-mail reply.


Guidelines for the response to RFCs can be found at:
https://libtiff.gitlab.io/libtiff/rfcs/rfc1_psc.html 


Summary:
------------
The purpose of this RFC is to clarify if and which tools that were moved to
the archive in libtiff 4.6.0 should be reactivated.

Prehistory:
-------------
The very old and unmaintained tools in libtiff caused many vulnerabilities
and CVEs that were attributed to the libtiff library itself. 
Trying to fix the security holes in the tools turned out to be a Sisyphean
task (can never be done). 
Therefore, most of the tools in libtiff 4.6.0 were moved to the archive and
the existing problems were closed with "wontfix-unmaintained".

It was later understood that some users depend on some of these archived
tools.

Some problems with the tools have now been fixed (see e.g.
https://gitlab.com/libtiff/libtiff/-/merge_requests/569).


Proposed Procedure:
-------------------------
-       Only the required tools should be activated. These are: fax2ps,
tiff2bw, tiff2pdf, tiff2ps 
        as well as the already active tools tiffcp, tiffdither, tiffdump,
tiffinfo, tiffset, tiffsplit.

-       Thus following tools will not be restored and will remain in the
archive: fax2tiff, pal2rgb, ppm2tiff, 
        raw2tiff, rgb2ycbcr, thumbnail, tiff2rgba, tiffcmp, tiffcrop,
tiffgt, tiffmedian.

-       Bugfixes in MR !569 are applied in single merge requests for
traceability and selectively
        as some changes might not be applicable.

-       Remove "wontfix-unmaintained" from closed issues, when fixed.

-       All issues related to utilities / tools shall get label "utility".

-       The documentation and other references shall point to
https://libtiff.gitlab.io/libtiff/.

-       After an initial merge has been applied for restoring the tools, the
www.libtiff.org page
        shall be reset as a mirror of https://libtiff.gitlab.io/libtiff/.

-       Finally release as 4.7.0 when all known issues of the tools are
closed.

References to previous contributions to the discussion:
------------------------------------------------------------------
      https://gitlab.com/libtiff/libtiff/-/issues/580 and related merge
request
      https://www.asmail.be/msg0054917226.html 
      https://www.asmail.be/msg0055015786.html 
      https://gitlab.com/libtiff/libtiff/-/merge_requests/569 

Regards
Su

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