On Fri, Mar 04, 2011 at 11:33:27AM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote: > AIUI at the moment the blocking problem is that we don't have a > suitable new team. The selection of the new team is not something the > ctte is any good at, and selecting maintainers by private email > exchanges is bad anyway because it's not transparent, and also makes > it difficult to chase up. Furthermore I guess no-one wants to stick > their neck out. > I propose the following solution: > To: debian-devel, debian-python, existing python maintainer > Subject: python-* orphaned, help wanted > The Technical Committee have been petitioned to decide on the > maintainership of the python packes. We agree with the substance of > the complaint, but do not feel able to directly select the > replacement maintainers. Therefore: > We declare that the python packages (full list below) are now > orphaned, exercising our power in s2 of the Constitution. > Please would those interested in taking over Python maintenance form > an appropriate team and take over the package. If competing teams > should come forward, the package should be taken over by the largest. I would vote against this. It is not the function of the TC to kick over anthills upon request (or at our whim). So far I have seen no proposed intervention on the part of the TC that is demonstrably better than the status quo, in either the short or long term, for the health of Python in Debian; and as there continues to be (slow but steady) forward progress on the technical obstacles and policy issues that have made python packages so contentious over the past years, I think the TC can do a lot of damage here. What I see lacking here above all is a good-faith committment from the would-be package adopters that they will work to address the divergences from upstream expectations in the dominant python extension packaging paradigm. Matthias has raised specific concerns in the past about python-support behavior, which were discounted by the maintainer; work has since been done to supersede python-support with a new policy and a new helper in the form of dh_python2, with no constructive engagement by the python-support maintainer (AFAIK) despite calls for input. Until dh_python2 became a reality, the petitioners in this bug were (as I recall) all strong proponents of python-support. So I am very concerned that a forcible maintainer change here could have the effect of derailing the progress of sorting out the python policy and helper behavior, as it would give the new maintainers the freedom to ignore certain technical points of view. (And it would be an easy thing to ignore, as well; I don't think any of us will argue that communication on mailing lists is Matthias's strong point.) Considering also that: - if everyone had been constructively engaging on this problem to begin with, the occasion for the current python maintainer to engage in brinksmanship with the python modules team would never have arisen; - solving the python helper Problem (which appears to be happening) removes the primary technical point of friction between Matthias and the modules team; - failing to solve the policy for python helpers would mean there are outstanding *technical* disagreements that need to be addressed, not just social ones; I do not believe that forcibly changing the maintainer of the python packages is the right thing for the TC to do. So my vote today would be: 1. reaffirm Matthias as the python maintainer, but encourage him to take on comaintainers 2. FD 3. delegate to the DPL 4. orphan the package and put it up for grabs I don't think it's appropriate for the TC to delegate this to the DPL either, but if Stefano were to act as a mediator for /non-binding/ arbitration on debian-python, I have no objection to this. And if the python package policy gets fixed and Matthias continues to be uncooperative towards the python module team regarding transitions, then there would be reason to consider him an unsuitable maintainer. But in the current situation I don't see any innocents and I don't see that hijacking the package will make things better. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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