Re: Getting patches into packages, thought and ideas [Was: Re: About NM and Next Release]
Andrew Suffield <asuffield@debian.org> writes:
> On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 08:50:36PM +0200, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
> > Mark Brown <broonie@sirena.org.uk> writes:
> >
> > > On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 05:42:36PM +0200, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
> > >
> > > > Maybe an interface/filter for the bts that gives one a more easy
> > > > access to packages with patches pending would be a start. Or a system
> > >
> > > Try http://bugs.debian.org/tag:patch .
> >
> > Still not easy enough it seems:
> >
> > # #19648: Please document (and handle) callback option better
> > Package: ppp; Severity: minor; Reported by: Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>; Tags: patch; 5 years and 146 days old.
> > # #12411: example directory lister ignores errors
> > Package: glibc-doc; Reported by: Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>; Tags: patch; 5 years and 342 days old.
> >
> > Do you think any DD reads those? Do DDs care about Bugs with patches?
> > And don't tell me glibc is unmaintained or ppp.
>
> ppp *was* unmaintained, for a long period of time. This is almost
> certainly the reason for its inordinately long bug list, and it is
> quite likely that the current maintainer does not have time to study
> all the old bugs and process them - especially minor ones.
>
> glibc is even worse. It has multiple maintainers, and they still don't
> have enough time to chase down all the important bugs, let alone
> insignificant ones like this.
>
> > Do you still claim that non-DDs can do work for debian simply by
> > sending in patches?
>
> It's not like a developer could do anything more, in these two
That being true still doesn't help non DDs to contribute.
> cases. Any developer who NMUs a package with an active maintainer, to
> fix minor/wishlist bugs, should be repeatedly kicked in the head. So
> your argument kinda falls flat. If you are suggesting that you would
> NMU either of these packages to fix these bugs, then it suddenly
> becomes very clear to me why you do not have an account.
No I wouldn't. Those two are bad examples for NMU'able debs. But the
list of debs with patches is very long. And a new DD might have more
time than the current ones that already have several packages they
maintain.
> Unless they wanted to co-maintain the package - and a non-developer
> could do all the important stuff for that anyway (bug triage).
Can one get the same list of packages with patches but sorted by the
time since the last activity? Or date of the patch? Or a list of
packages with patches for an older version?
Non-DDs could pick up an old patch and see to it that it works with a
newer version. Might be something they could get get credits for on
their application.
Is there a space on the application where sponsors or maintainer who
see good work being done by the NM can give comments. Surely the DAM
can't follow all sponsored uploads or patches send to the bts so he
might easily overlook an productive NM.
MfG
Goswin
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