End of an Era: The Closure of Raiagent (And What Comes Next, If Anything)

[leycec]

Here, here! The dishonorable @leycec presiding. I call upon all good Gentooers to attend the first and final meeting of Raiagent, the Gentoo overlay you are currently looking at. That's right. You've already guessed the horrifying truth. Haven't you?

I'm archiving this Gentoo overlay by mid-summer. It's already dead in all but name. I still love and adore Gentoo and everything Gentoo stands upright for: configurability! pain! and more configurability! Tragically, the Python Type-checker Known As @beartype has consumed all of my free time. After eating my time, @beartype now has indigestion and I have no time. Indeed, I have so little time I don't even have time to adjourn this meeting. Yet, we are here.

Let's talk about... the future.

The Future: We Thought It'd Be Awesome When We Were Kids (But It Kinda Sucked)

This overlay still has two useful ebuilds of widespread interest to the larger community. They are...

pyright: Microsoft. What You Gonna Do, You Know?

mypy and pyright are the two most popular pure static type-checkers for Python. mypy has an official Portage ebuild. pyright doesn't. Yet, pyright is arguably more popular than mypy due to its inclusion in VSCode via Pylance.

Fortunately, the pyright ebuild is trivial. Unfortunately, the pyright ebuild requires a new Node.js eclass. Fortunately, this eclass is also trivial. It would be wonderful if someone who is not me were to officially submit a Portage pull request (PR) adding both pyright and this Node.js eclass to Portage itself.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead: Because You Didn't Think 2025 Was Dark Enough

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (CDDA) is widely considered the greatest turn-based rogueli(ke|ght) of all time. I would strongly agree with that consensus. CDDA is the most intense, most immersive, most stressful, most horrifying, most isolating, most fascinating, and most compelling turn-based rogueli(ke|ght) I've ever played – and I've played more than a few.

CDDA absolutely deserves an official Portage ebuild. There's even an open issue on Gentoo's Bugzilla requesting that CDDA be supported by Portage. Yet again, it would be wonderful if someone who is not me were to officially submit a Portage pull request (PR) adding CDDA to Portage itself.

I note that the ::guru overlay appears to offer CDDA now. So, maybe that's good enough for everybody? Still, let us hope for an official Portage appearance at some point. CDDA deserves it.

All I can do is beg. If even begging fails, however...

Wishful Thinking: It's the Best We Can Do

Archiving this overlay is only one of a few possible ways that this can play out. It's also the worst. Better alternatives that I would really prefer include:

• Transferring this entire overlay to somebody else. Would anybody like to assume ownership over Raiagent? Again, it comes with two first-class ebuilds that everybody wants! That's good. It also comes with a metric ton of lesser ebuilds that mostly nobody wants, which will rapidly begin to feel like a rotting albatross around your neck. That's bad. Still, I'd be delighted for Raiagent to live on under somebody else's care. Just say the word and I'll immediately transfer Raiagent your way.
• Merging a subset of this overlay into somebody else's. Would anybody like to assume ownership over one or more of the ebuilds in Raiagent? Again, pyright and CDDA would be the obvious choices. Please do copy-paste whatever you like into your own overlay. Let me know when you do. If they're popular ebuilds like pyright or CDDA, I'll add a note to the front README.md redirecting users to your overlay.
• Merging a subset of this overlay into the standard ::guru overlay. This is probably the easiest option, because it doesn't require anybody to actually maintain their own overlay. Instead, just submit a PR adding one or more of these ebuilds to ::guru. Then, away you go! 🦩

Options abound. But will anyone do anything except play video games? Only you get to decide.

Calling All Gentoo Homies: You Know Who You Are

Let's ping everybody who's ever submitted an issue or PR to Raiagent. You have been summoned. The future rests in your delicate hands:

@mgorny, @vitaly-zdanevich, @quintuple-lained, @patrickdepinguin, @l29ah, @lima-limon-inc, @scottfurry, @Anrock, @jrrom, @2xsaiko, @rllola, @theodis, @baybal, @baergj, @tsr, @asakovets, @Dr-Terrible, @ZeroChaos-, @kittkott, @clytle374, @hedmo, @kcgthb, @nethershaw, @impiusnex, @soltysek, @efferre79, @cmopper, @liketechnik, @linevych, @radjah, @ValleyBell, @mothringer, @gbmaster, @opncow, @atlaua, @lucianposton, @aaferrari, @au-phiware, @ghost, @Eregus, @ZyX-I, @obfuscated, @msva, @nethershaw, @Ferroin, @ScribeOne, @winny-, @lucasmr, @chessman, @N8Fear, @JelteF, @rubybrowncoat

^{raiagent and @leycec will catch you all on the flipside}

[scottfurry]

Sadly...all good things must come to end. Thank you for your efforts and persistence.

[vitaly-zdanevich]

@stkw0 can we merge this overlay into Guru?

[stkw0]

I think the answer is obvious: no, we can not just merge this whole overlay. Interested users can register to GURU and merge specific packages (and maintain them). It won't be acceptable to move packages to GURU if they will be unmaintained because a lack of maintenance, so it will depend on how much users are interested in it.

[vitaly-zdanevich]

I will check the packages, if not for Guru - I will merge to another big and popular overlay (with caching of distfiles): https://github.com/microcai/gentoo-zh

[lima-limon-inc]

Hi there @leycec. Thank you so much for all your years as an overlay maintainer. You are always a pleasure to interact with, always witty and kind. I'm glad you prioritize your health and well-being; code comes and goes, time only goes.

Wish you the best and the best of luck with @beartype.

Stay strong <3, and keep it real 🤘

[leycec]

@vitaly-zdanevich: I will merge to another big and popular overlay

Superb! That would be wondrous. I fully support everything you do. Just lemme know if there's anything I can do to facilitate that process on my end. Of course, there's probably nothing I can do. I am lazy. That's the whole problem here. 🥳

@stkw0: we can not just merge this whole overlay

Strawman much? That would be absurd. Nobody was suggesting that. I'd just like to find a better home for some of this overlay's better ebuilds. But... yeah. Definitely not here to argue. Humans already argue far too much.

What I'd like to see from humanity in 2025: more code, less anger. It's all I ask from Planet Earth now. My bar is pretty low. 😑

@lima-limon-inc: code comes and goes, time only goes.

I feel this poetic statement of loss and change deep in my bones.

[stkw0]

Strawman much? That would be absurd. Nobody was suggesting that. I'd just like to find a better home for some of this overlay's better ebuilds. But... yeah. Definitely not here to argue. Humans already argue far too much.

Yeah, seems a cool idea to merge (some) ebuilds from this overlay to ::guru or any other overlay. Maybe I misunderstood what it means to "merge this overlay" since we already had a case of a person pushing an excessive amount of ebuilds that were never maintained.

Edit:

What I'd like to see from humanity in 2025: more code, less anger. It's all I ask from Planet Earth now. My bar is pretty low. 😑

Given I'm not native speaker and sometimes I try to be as direct and clear as possible, my messages may appear unintentionally as anger. I'm sorry if that was the case.