Re: DEP1: Clarifying policies and workflows for Non Maintainer Uploads (NMUs)
On Sun, 25 May 2008, Bas Wijnen wrote:
> 3. NMUs are often received with angry comments from maintainers.
[...]
> This Debian Enhancement Proposal has two goals:
> 3. We try to encourage a responsible approach for NMUs,
> instead of an approach based on strict rules
[...]
I miss one thing in these guidelines: they sort of give you the idea you
can NMU someone's packages off as long as you go by the book, and that
you have the RIGHT to do it no matter what.
This is not strictly true, AFAIK only the release and security teams
have the right to NMU over and above everything else but the tech
comitee.
Suppose I NMU package A from maintainer B. Suppose I do a subpar job
from B's point of view (not that I will ever acknowledge it, I don't
even know it is supbar, it is as good as my own packages, it is not
subpar to ME. But I didn't do it as well as B would want it to be
done).
Now, B reverts the entire NMU, and tell me to NEVER NMU ANY OF HIS
PACKAGES AGAIN. Or he acks it, cleans up whatever mess I made on the
side, and still tells me the same (to never touch his packages again).
Well, I *do* think in this situation, I am NOT to EVER NMU any of that
maintainer's packages again, unless I go through one of the formal
processes to override him. Instead, I will have to be happy with just
sending patches to the BTS. If he just ignores them and doesn't fix the
bugs on his own, THEN I will have grounds to make a fuss, and get some
peer pressure to stop with any fief-lord delusions.
If you need an example, we've had NMUs breaking essential packages. And
I *think* we have had far more than an acceptable number of "fire and
forget" NMUs happening too (but I don't have the hard data to back it
up). Once you NMU, you are that package's daddy for *ALL* bugs that
could even remotely be related to your NMU, until its maintainer shows
up again... People who can't deal with that, must not NMU. Send the
patch to the BTS instead.
--
"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
Henrique Holschuh
Reply to: