Re: DEP1: Clarifying policies and workflows for Non Maintainer Uploads (NMUs)

["Bernhard R. Link" <brlink@debian.org>]

* Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> [080530 15:46]:
> Please try to put yourself also in the situation of someone that does
> NMUs. Having to mail the maintainer to ask if the NMU is welcome is
> pointless when you have gone to the trouble of creating a full patch.

I think there is an important difference between those two: the amount
of testing needed.

> Consider the two scenario where you start with a patch for a bugfix:
> Your scenario:
> - you send the patch to the BTS to let other people know that you wrote a
>   patch (if there's no pre-existing patch)

For this step you only have to test the patch. Testing totally unrelated
parts is neighter needed nor very useful.

> - you mail the maintainer proposing an NMU
> - you write something in your calendar so that in X days you can upload if
>   you didn't get an answer
> - the delay is here
> - you prepare the NMU

Here you have to test the full package. Some libraries needed might have
changed in subtile ways or the scripts and commands you call at build
time.

> - if you get a positive response (or no response), you upload
> - if you get a negative response, you do nothing

Also this results in the package you uploaded and the packages the
autobuilder create have just the normal differences between packages
build by maintainers and auto-build packages in terms of library
versions and so on.

> The DELAYED scenario:
> - you prepare the NMU
> - you send the NMU patch to the BTS with nmudiff
> - you upload to DELAYED

For this you have to already checked the package fully. If you can an
NACK from the Maintainer, having done so much work for nothing is quite
frustrating.

> - the delay is here
> - if you get a positive response (or no response), you do nothing
> - if you get a negative response, you cancel

This also means everything you use has about a full week to change
between the time you build the package and the autobuilder.
I also hope you do not do "nothing", but check the buildd logs if you
broke anything. It sometimes need a bit between an FTBS and the bugs
being sent.

Hochachtungsvoll,
	Bernhard R. Link