Re: [Debian-NYC] looking for a mentor
This is all excellent advice. Thanks so much. I have more than enough
to work with now.
-lee
On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 1:19 PM, Daniel Kahn Gillmor
<dkg@fifthhorseman.net> wrote:
> On 01/23/2010 12:39 PM, Lee Azzarello wrote:
>> Peter was responsible for orphaning the package. Rodolphe picked it up
>> but hasn't returned my email. His version in experimental is far
>> behind upstream.
>
> Is this documented in the BTS someplace? For example, if there's a bug
> that covers the orphaning/adoption (sorry, i haven't checked myself),
> i'd post comments on that bug so that there's a record of the situation,
> and propose a reasonable timeline for what you plan to do in those comments.
>
>>> Also, if you could get the two packages to clarify the difference
>>> between them (when would i need pgpool2 instead of pgpool?) in their
>>> descriptions, that would probably be helpful.
>>
>> Indeed, good advice. They are different, non-compatible versions of
>> the same application. The descriptions do little to illustrate that
>> fact.
>>
>>> If the pgpool (not pgpool2) is deprecated by upstream (as it appears
>>> from http://pgpool.projects.postgresql.org/), perhaps it should be
>>> phased out of the debian archive as well, in favor of pgpool2. that
>>> might be worth filing a bug about (assuming you understand the situation
>>> with upstream -- i don't at all, and am just guessing!)
>>
>> Also good advice. I'll try and get plugged in with the individuals
>> responsible for maintaining the package. What is the process if I
>> don't hear from them in a reasonable amount of time?
>
> Again, i'd make sure to do these contacts explicitly through the BTS (as
> well as CC'ing the individuals involved) so that there's a record for
> the MIA team to review if there is no response, ultimately. I assume
> you've read the relevant bits in the developer's reference about
> adopting a package:
>
> http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/pkgs.html#adopting
>
> If the package has already been handed over to Rodolphe by some
> agreement (again, i haven't looked into the history in detail), then you
> might want to consider contacting the MIA team about the situation, and
> asking them what they think:
>
> http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/beyond-pkging.html#mia-qa
>
> So the way i'd likely proceed for now would be to comment on the
> relevant bugs, alert the MIA team if necessary, and go ahead with
> building the package for 2.3.1 (or whatever the latest upstream is by
> that point). If possible, do your work in a public revision control
> system, and start from the source package that Rodolphe left in
> experimental back in October, so that your changes are easy to see.
>
> Do what you can to address all open bugs the package has in debian
> (looks like just one, a missing explicit library during linkage that
> might have been fixed by upstream) and look at the lintian output to see
> if you can clean that stuff up too. Feel free to ask questions if you
> get stuck along the way.
>
> Once you feel comfortable with it (or even while you're developing, if
> you want to make it easier for folks to help out), publish your
> packaging and follow up again on the bugs, pointing to it.
>
> At that point there are a few possible outcomes:
>
> * Rodolphe sees your changes, decides he likes them, and goes ahead and
> picks it back up again, using your changes. You don't become the
> maintainer for the package, but the package goes into debian, and you
> get to use it anyway
>
> * You and Rodolphe (and peter?) decide to maintain the package as a
> team (having an alioth account is a good idea to prepare for this
> scenario -- have you created one yet? https://alioth.debian.org/)
>
> * Rodolphe is either unresponsive or agrees to let you adopt the
> package; you get it sponsored by a DD to be uploaded.
>
> Those all look like positive outcomes to me (and positive outcomes for
> everyone else who might need access to pgpool!)
>
> --dkg
>
> PS the MIA team can be helpful even when they don't resort to their
> official bring-the-hammer-down powers. I've gotten responses from
> otherwise unresponsive folks simply because the MIA team was CC'ed (or
> so it seemed to me, anyway). Keeping it polite is crucial, though,
> because there are lots of reasons why people do go MIA, unfortunately,
> some of them well out of a person's control.
>
>
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