Re: Bug#548867: developers-reference: Improve section about developer duties
On Tue, Sep 29 2009, Raphaël Hertzog wrote:
> Following a discussion on debian-newmaint, I think it's important to
> improve the section about the duties to clearly communicate to all
> package maintainers (and not DD only) that the bare minimum is what I
> described in the pledge below (it probably needs to reformulated in
> the third person for integration in the devel-ref):
Also, as mentioned in the discussion, the language should be
made less patronizing and confrontational, and be a better fit for a
standards document.
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Responsibilities of a Debian developer
================ == = ====== =========
A Debian developer is responsible for properly maintaining their
packages, and help maintain the quality of implementation for the OS as
a whole, and to ensure that their packages integrate nicely with others
and follow the Debian technical policy. Amongst other things, a Debian
Developer has the responsibility to help in releasing a stable version
the OS, which includes:
- Work with the release team towards making the release happen
- Keep the packages under their control free of release critical
bugs, and work on RC bugs in a timely fashion
- Release critical bugs should be considered to be amongst the
highest priority tasks that the developer has in Debian
- If timely response is not possible (due to time constraints, for
example), this status should be mentioned clearly in the
associated bug reports, and these reports should be tagged help.
- RC bugs that are difficult to correct should be tagged help
The developer also has the responsibility to work with the security and
stable release teams and help provide updated packages for the stable
and/or testing releases as needed.
If the developer has time, and ability, they should also help their
fellow developers deal with release critical bugs, by providing patches,
and if necessary by doing NMU's (see NMU procedures elsewhere in this
document)
Release critical bugs need to ber fixed ASAP, and they are automatic
invitations for bug fixing NMU's, and long standing RC bugs make the
package unsuited for release, and lack of attention to RC bugs is
grounds for the QA team to orphan the package.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
The other bits about recognizing their lack of ability and
rubbing their faces in their own failure sound kind of pompous, and are
unsuited for a high quality standards document, in my opinion.
manoj
--
Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people and that most of
them seemed to come from Texas. -- Ian Fleming, "Casino Royale"
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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