Taking over a package

There can be situations where a certain package on Hackage is in the need of an update (a typical example: a package cannot be compiled with some of the versions of the dependencies; or, on the contrary, dependencies list needs a version bump), but the maintainer of the package is unavailable. Luckily, there is a general policy that allows users to submit patched versions of the packages or even completely take over unmaintained packages.

1. Try to contact the maintainer. Give him/her reasonable time to respond.
2. State your intention to take over the package in a public forum (e.g., the haskell-cafe/libraries list). CC the maintainer.
3. Wait a while.
4. Send an email to the Hackage admin list, with a link to the public email thread.
5. The admins or trustees will grant you maintenance rights or upload a patched version for you.

There is a faster way of gaining maintainership of a package, but it requires the current maintainer to be reachable:

• The original maintainer can just give you access at http://hackage.haskell.org/package/<package>/maintainers/

OR

• The maintainer emails the Hackage admin list, saying s/he wants you to take over the package.