GnuCOBOL no longer exists in Fedora repos

Hello.

I worked as COBOL programmer in the past, but after reading the following article:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/04/ibm-scrambles-to-find-or-train-more-cobol-programmers-to-help-states

I decided to install gnu-cobol package to refresh my knowledge on COBOL but, to my surprise, gnu-cobol package has been retired from Fedora 32 repositories. Does anybody know why?

I had to fall back to

https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/

Regards.

2 Likes

It was retired long ago:

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/open-cobol/c/2152d147f5e32aa793dd2c2a1f2caa1281724866?branch=master

It was orphaned and no one picked it up for six weeks, so it was retired:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Orphaned_package_that_need_new_maintainers

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Oh, what a pity! It’s good time to resume it’s maintenance! :smiley:

Regards!

1 Like

Someone is working on it :slight_smile:
1823419 – Review Request: gnucobol - COBOL compiler

4 Likes

Well, it needs someone to do the work of maintaining it. In this case we’re lucky that someone else stepped up, but if not it would have remained orphaned + retired. (The Fedora package maintainers are volunteers so they won’t take up packages they don’t need themselves.)

Since you do use it and have the necessary technical skills to build it, would you please volunteer as a co-maintainer and ensure that it isn’t retired again?

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join_the_package_collection_maintainers

You can get sponsored as a co-maintainer:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_get_sponsored_into_the_packager_group

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Well… I’ll first have to learn how to make a rpm package :sweat_smile: Thanks for your links!

Regards.

3 Likes

It isn’t much harder than building software from source. So you’ll be fine. Feel free to start a new topic in the #community:contributing-to-fedora category if you have queries.

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someone is writing a post in :fedora: magazine about your interest:

Regards.,

2 Likes

Here is the Magazine Post:

References from KOJI fedora build system

https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=31565

Available for :fedora: → 32,33,34

Regards.,

1 Like

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