What's the "right" way to abandon an open source package?

[Ben Finney]

Skip Montanaro <skip at python.org> writes:

> I've tried to find people to take it over, but so far unsuccessfully.

The principle (laid out by ESR in “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”) is:

    When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand
    it off to a competent successor.

    <URL:http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ar01s02.html>

Whether successful or not, I can testify that Skip has been
conscientious in following this principle: he has been asking parties
who have demonstrated interest and/or competence for some time now to
take over maintenance of the ‘lockfile’ library.

> I continue to get bug reports, some from OS package maintainers or
> maintainers of applications which use lockfile. Lots of these people
> seem demanding of my time (which makes me even less interested in
> lockfile maintenance).

I don't know of any good way to make those decrease, without some other
contact point for the project becoming more prominent than yours.

> Is there a "correct" way to abandon the damn thing?

You have, IMO, already put in sufficient public effort to give
opportunity to potential maintainers.

I would say that, in the case of the ‘lockfile’ library, you have
already discharged your responsibilities under the above principle; and
can politely let each person know they are on their own for maintenance.

-- 
 \     “I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now that I should |
  `\           have been more specific.” —Jane Wagner, via Lily Tomlin |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney