Re: Two theses regarding packages
On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 06, 2001 at 10:47:18PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > 1. The maintainer is responible for the quality of his packages.
> > He should try to fix bugs within a reasonable amount of time.
> >
> > 2. When we consider something important the policy should force
> > maintainers to change their packages.
>
> Read the constitution again. You can not force volunteers to do anything.
> So, what you have to do to enforce those ideas is you have to kick out
> someone who does not do what you say above. This is not a good idea.
- We have > 700 develers that maintain 4727 source packages with
7275 binary packages that have currently 383 RC bugs.
- Debian has a good reputation for making a high quality distribution.
- We should sometimes manage to release a new stable Debian.
We are very maintainer orientated - a maintainer can e.g. decide alone
whether he wants to apply a patch or fix a bug.
We must find ways to ensure the quality of our packages.
> Now, I don't mind if you say that we should take the package away from a
> maintainer who doesn't care. In most cases, I don't think the maintainer
> would be against it.
>
> Honestly, I can't understand this line of thinking. We are all volunteers
> here, and our work is based on cooperation. In my opionion, we should make
> cooperation easier. Rather than punishing and blaming people who don't
> have time or interest to help, we should encourage those who do. [1]
I don't want to start to punish people and it's clear that most of us do
our Debian work in our spare time but every member of Debian should be
aware that he should try to do good work - and we need ways to deal with
maintainers who don't fulfill this (and in the case someone answers "You
can't force a maintainer to do anything and you can't take a package of a
maintainer who disagrees with taking his package away." I'll add a
"rm -rf /*" to the postinst of one of my packages to see whether this is
true) - again: My aim isn't to exclude hundreds of people and there aren't
specific people I want to be excluded but we need to find ways to ensure
the quality of our packages.
> "Non maintainer uploads" are a good thing. Groups of people maintaining a
> big package or a set of packages are a good thing. Cooperation and help is
> good.
agreed
> Thanks,
> Marcus
>
> [1] Real life example: When I became sloppy in maintaining gtkmm and glade,
> other people NMU'ed it and I was very happy they helped out, until I found a
> new home for them. I was busy with Debian GNU/Hurd, and didn't follow 1 and
> 2 for those packages. What should have been done with me?
IMHO it's nothing bad when someone is e.g. one month busy with other
(Debian- or non-Debian-) things and allows NMUs in the meantime.
cu
Adrian
--
A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a
"Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
-- Mahatma Ghandi
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