Debian: Project leader warns of developers' silent withdrawal

The Debian project has a communication problem. Developers who no longer have time or interest withdraw quietly – without officially transferring their responsibilities. Such behavior endangers the maintenance of packages, the security of accounts, and the continuity of important teams. Debian Project Leader Andreas Tille has described the issue in detail in his February announcement to the developer community.

According to Tille, the core issue is not that volunteers stop working – that is completely normal. Rather, it is problematic that they do not communicate this. “Debian exists because people voluntarily choose to dedicate their time to it,” writes Tille. However, most joined with enthusiasm, without an explicit agreement for later notification if their available time, energy, or interests change.

The consequences of this silent exodus are considerable: bugs remain unaddressed, security-relevant accounts are left without active monitoring, and delegated roles exist only on paper. The problem became particularly evident during the reorganization of the FTPmaster team, which was responsible for the Debian archives for over two decades. In October 2025, it had to be dissolved and split into two new teams because essential work was being carried by too few people, with negative impacts on transparency and communication.

MIA team to automatically search for inactive developers

As a solution, Tille proposes a six-stage automated process: the MIA team (Missing in Action) is to identify inactive developers using heuristics and send automated emails after six months of inactivity. These offer simple options: confirmation of active presence, transition to emeritus status (honorary retired developer without active duties), or contact with the MIA team.

If no response is received, monthly reminders will be sent for six months. After that, the MIA team will attempt to reach the person manually and warn them about their packages becoming orphaned. If there is still no reaction, the packages will be orphaned after another month, and the account will eventually be reported to the Debian Account Managers for possible removal.

The advantage of this automated system is that it avoids direct questions, which can be socially difficult for some people. Many developers find it uncomfortable to be directly approached by friends or colleagues about their inactivity. “Out of mutual consideration, we often avoid asking. For the same reason, we also avoid proactively saying that we have resigned,” Tille describes the dilemma.

Delegation with expiration date as another approach

For delegated roles, Tille additionally proposes a light renewal mechanism. Delegates should submit a short report with a renewal request six months before their delegation expires. If this is not submitted, the delegation automatically expires. This approach normalizes rotation and makes it a regular process rather than a conflict-ridden exceptional situation.

An example of the consequences of a lack of communication is the Data Protection Team: all previous delegates have resigned, and the delegation has been revoked. Debian currently has no active data protection team, even though the task is important in the context of GDPR. The workload was low – only four requests in 2025.

Tille emphasizes that better visibility of inactivity also creates opportunities for new volunteers. For over a year and a half, he has migrated a long-term inactive package to the collaboration platform Salsa daily. This significantly lowers the barrier to contributions and sends a clear signal that help is welcome. With active maintainers, the responses were usually constructive, but with packages that had been inactive for years, there was usually no reaction.

It is currently unclear how much of the proposed MIA process has already been implemented. Tille calls on the community to make the current status visible and explicitly invites interested parties to get involved. The problem does not only affect Debian: “This is an important initiative for the health of the Debian project – and indeed for any open-source project,” writes the project leader.

(fo)