Hi everybody,
You’re probably aware that the Stewardship SIG has been picking up some (±230) Java packages to keep them from getting removed from fedora, and to try to keep them maintained. Since the fraction of out-of-date packages has fallen from 70% to 30% for the packages we maintain (with 0 FTBFS issues left on f31+), I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far.
But, you might ask, wouldn’t the Java SIG be well suited to that task? I’m asking myself the same thing, but I feel like I’ve been shouting into the void for months - according to the Wiki page for the SIG, the Java SIG has 26 listed members, of which I only recognise 4-5 as packagers who are still actively contributing to fedora. For a few others, I’ve already gone through the Non-responsive Maintainer process.
Both wiki pages for the Java SIG and Java in fedora look like they haven’t been updated in years - they even list some things as “wishlisted” or “in progress” which were packaged for fedora a while ago, but have since been retired again, either due to getting orphaned, or due to FTBFS issues — most of which were being caused by a lack of maintenance since circa 2017, which is when most Java packagers seem to have fallen into a black hole, as far as I can tell (getting information by deciphering Hawking Radiation is hard, you know).
So, I’m wondering - what’s actually the state of the Java SIG? The IRC channel is silent, the Mailing list is dead except 0-2 posts PER MONTH (mostly from non-SIG members), and the Wiki pages are wildly out of date.
Can we at least get the two Wiki pages get updated to the current state?
Does the Java ecosystem on fedora need more involvement from the community?
Or is it time for a “tabula rasa” and restart the SIG?
I really hope we can get something off the ground, soon - because I and other members of the Stewardship SIG have been spending a lot of hours each week on keeping this stuff working, but my patience and energy are reaching their limits. I’d really like to slowly start handing over Java packages to someone who’s actually using them, and is interested in keeping them maintained.
So, if you’re an active member of the Java SIG, or a (proven)packager interested in Java packaging on fedora, please speak up - maybe we can get this ball rolling 
PS, side note about Modularity: If I understand the current state of things correctly, the plan is to make the “maven:3.5” and “ant:1.10” modular packages be installable alongside non-modular Java packages. They’re currently shadowing non-modular packages (since they have default streams), but I understand this is getting fixed. This means that the non-modular Java packages (especially maven, ant, xmvn, their dependencies, and other packages which are used for building Java RPM packages in fedora) will need to be maintained as non-modular packages indefinitely.
(also posted on the devel list)
Thanks,
Fabio (decathorpe)