# Opam repository archival, Phase 1: unavailable packages **URL:** \ **Category:** Ecosystem\ **Tags:** announce, opam-repository\ **Created:** [December 15, 2024, 7:41pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-repository-archival-phase-1-unavailable-packages/15797 "2024-12-15T19:41:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 6
**Author:** ![ancolie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ocaml.org/ancolie/32/6189_2.png) [@ancolie](https://discuss.ocaml.org/u/ancolie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 4:10pm UTC](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-repository-archival-phase-1-unavailable-packages/15797/6 "2024-12-18T16:10:04Z")
I think going on their [Matrix channel](https://matrix.to/#/%23swh-devel%3Amatrix.org?via=matrix.org&via=matrix.diverse-team.fr&via=imagisphe.re) and saying “hey, FYI there’s a new opam repository at $URL, could you please add it to the list of archived repository ?” > Since it is the case that all packages will first go to opam-repository, and only thereafter may appear in opam-repository-archive – does “software heritage” need to change a thing? Indeed, it should not be necessary in case everything goes well, but it has been the case at least once that the archival mechanism was broken for a long time without anyone noticing. In such a case, they could miss a package. It will not cost more to archive this new repository because they are able to detect duplicated stuff. EDIT: I can also imagine a case where a package was unavailable for a long time, but suddenly someone put the tarball back online and update the URL in this new repository. It would be nice to archive it. > Is there some description of how software heritage and opam-repository interact, so I can read up on that? There’s [a paper in french](https://inria.hal.science/JFLA2022/hal-03626845) describing how 1. SWH archives some opam repositories (ocaml/opam-repo and the Coq one) 2. how opam is able to fetch a tarball from SWH when it is not available online anymore at the URL given in the opam package file. I can’t think of a place where this is described in english unfortunately. --- _[View the full topic](https://discuss.ocaml.org/t/opam-repository-archival-phase-1-unavailable-packages/15797)._