RE: Becoming a package maintainer
>>
>> answer and work on bug reports for his packages
> So it _is_ the direct responsibility of the package maintainer to fix
> reported bugs? Just curious but what tends to happen in cases
> where the maintainer cannot fix the bug? Is it acceptable for him to
> say "This bug falls outside of my skill to fix"? This sort of bug is
> bound to come up every so-often, given the total number of
> packages which make up Debian's main distribution.
>
if you are unable to handle a bug, you may always ask for help. If nothing
else, the upstream should be able to assist. Other debian developers may also
be able to help. It is a developers responsibility to answer bug reports, even
if it is to say "this will take time", or "I have to seek help". You should
strive to get the bugs fixed, either by your own work or the counsel of others.
> Is requesting to adopt an orphaned package the correct way to
> become a new maintainer? Anything else you can tell me? :-)
>
it is a reasonable start. Beyond the request though, it is better if you would
take over the packaging, fix as many bugs as possible and thus show that you
know how to package things and are capable of dealing with the users.
> I appreciate that my questions may be seen as perhaps daft, but I
> want to know as much as possible about the process from those
> people who are involved in it, ie you, the developers and package
> maintainers, before I even think about making my application.
>
it is always wise to know what you are getting into. My experience has been
that many developers gain coding skills by helping to sort out bugs.
I would not recommend that a complete novice take over a package like glibc or
X.
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