F39 Change Proposal: Aspell Depreciation (Self-Contained Change)

Tuesday, 30 May 2023

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/AspellDeprecation

This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes
process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive
community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved
by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

== Summary ==

Deprecating aspell package because there are better-supported spell
checkers like hunspell/enchant2 which could be used instead. It also
has an upstream with almost 4 years of no action.

== Owner ==

* Name: [[User:ljavorsk| Lukas Javorsky]]
* Email: ljavorsk(a)redhat.com

== Detailed Description ==
Upstream of the aspell package has been inactive for almost 4 years
now. Most of the packages that have been using aspell in the past did
migrate to the supported [https://github.com/hunspell/hunspell
hunspell package] or any other spell checker.

The plan is simple:

1) Deprecate aspell package.

2) Create Bugzilla tracker to request all packages to be migrated to
the hunspell or any other spell checker (let maintainers choose their
preferred one).

3) After all of the packages have been migrated, create a Change to
retire aspell from Fedora

== Feedback ==
Early feedback from the community is located in this
([https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.o...
Devel list announce])

== Benefit to Fedora ==

Fedora shouldn't maintain a dead package. This change will ensure
Fedora has relevant and upstreamed packages in it's repositories.

== Scope ==
* Proposal owners: Package aspell will be deprecated and the migration
request will be filled as a Bugzilla to all dependent packages

* Other developers: Migrate to hunspell package or any other supported
spellchecker present in Fedora repositories.

* Release engineering: No action required

* Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)

* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

* Alignment with Objectives:

== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
As this is only deprecation change, nothing will need to be handled
manually. The dependent packages will migrate to hunspell or any other
supported spellchecker present in Fedora repositories.

== How To Test ==

== User Experience ==

== Dependencies ==
List of the packages from Fedora 39

=== Requires ===
repoquery -q --repo=rawhide{,-source} --whatrequires 'aspell*' | grep
-v '^aspell' | grep -v 'src$' | pkgname

eiskaltdcpp-qt

enchant-aspell

enchant2-aspell

kf5-sonnet-core

kf5-sonnet-core

moodle

perl-Code-TidyAll

perl-Text-Aspell

php-pspell

qa-tools

recoll

recoll

xedit

xmlcopyeditor

yagf

=== BuildRequires ===
repoquery -q --repo=rawhide{,-source} --whatrequires 'aspell*' | grep
-v '^aspell' | grep 'src$' | pkgname

eiskaltdcpp

enchant

enchant2

hunspell-az

hunspell-csb

hunspell-de

hunspell-en

hunspell-fa

hunspell-gv

hunspell-ky

ibus-typing-booster

inkscape

kf5-sonnet

logjam

perl-MouseX-ConfigFromFile

perl-MouseX-Types-Path-Class

perl-Text-Aspell

perl-Text-SpellChecker

PHP

recoll

tin

xmlcopyeditor

yagf

== Contingency Plan ==

* Contingency mechanism: No contingency mechanism is required for deprecation.
* Contingency deadline: Beta freeze
* Blocks release? No

''NOTE: If we don't finish this change by the deadline, it is possible
to just complete this change with the next release.''

== Documentation ==

== Release Notes ==

-- 
Aoife Moloney

Product Owner

Community Platform Engineering Team

Red Hat EMEA

Communications House

Cork Road

Waterford

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