Re: DEP1: Clarifying policies and workflows for Non Maintainer Uploads (NMUs)
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 11:49:14AM +0200, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
> Now, what we don't agree on:
> - I think that giving some time should only be very strongly
> recommended, but not mandatory.
> - You think that giving some time should be mandatory.
> I think that our opinions are basically the same. The difference is that
> you want to write something in stone, while I prefer not to impose rules
> where it's not necessary, because:
This is begging the question. Experience tells me that the sort of rules
under discussion *are* necessary.
> - Debian developers are generally smart people.
> - Debian developers usually do sensible things.
"generally" and "usually" aren't very persuasive. What percentage of the
developer population should be not-smart people who do insensible things,
before we should start spelling out rules?
Unless we're going to do away with the concept of package maintainers
altogether, eliminating rules on NMU practices will only serve to breed
conflict when developers disagree about where the line should be. The NMU
rules exist to provide *social* guidelines on how we should behave in order
to function effectively as a community.
> - Debian developers don't try to circumvent recommendations unless
> there's a very good reason to.
Oh, well, that's just patently false, of course.
> - If you make it mandatory, then you have to provide a workaround for
> cases where it's just not possible to wait. And you also have to list
> those cases.
And, so? That's what we have today. What's the problem with this that
you're trying to fix?
If you *don't* make it mandatory, then you have developers doing half-assed
NMUs.
Actually, even though it *is* mandatory, you still have developers doing
half-assed NMUs. Such as the developer who NMUed a package I comaintain,
applying a patch for a bug he himself filed, on two days notice, without
receiving confirmation of any sort from the maintainers wrt this bug. I
don't think a "be groovy to each other" NMU policy is at all acceptable.
when that kind of thing happens with the /current/ NMU guidelines.
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/
slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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