Re: Idea for maintaining packages up for adoption
Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> > > The problem is then : we have knowledgeable people willing to help but
> > > we don't have a Debian maintainer for them. Benjamin sent several patchs
> > > in the BTS and they are still there... waiting to be applied.
> >
> > Any Debian developer could work on them.
> >
> > Debian QA has often shown itself as being the maintainer for orphaned
> > packages. I guess you want to start a task force that will actively
> > maintain such packages. When done properly, it's probably a big win
> > for Debian.
>
> That's the idea ... except that the task force would involve actively
> external contributors and DD would only manage the packaging side + the
> upload of the package.
Sure.
So the next step would be to define the scope of such a task force and
motivate Debian developers to work on it.
> > > The suggestion I made is the following : let's co-maintain all those
> > > packages on alioth (with Subversion) ! We'd give access to any outsider
> > > who has a patch ready to be applied... all the packages could be built
> > > automatically and sometimes the outsider could ask for a "sponsor
> > > upload" to update it in the main archive.
> > >
> > > This is mostly how the maintenance of perl module works now, so I see no
> > > reason why it couldn't work in this case.
> >
> > Don't they have a real maintainer, HE?
>
> It's a team... they have a maintainer field pointing to a mailing list:
> Maintainer: Debian Perl Group <pkg-perl-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Ok, but there are still severall DDs willing to maintain them as a
group effort. That may be a difference.
> > I may be missing the point but why can't he find a more or less
> > permanent sponsor who checks the packages as well? That's how
> > it works for other packages. Am I totally off the road?
>
> No you're not ... but a permanent sponsor is "permanent" only if he has
> a real interest in the package. And as explained, we're discussing a
> case where nobody inside Debian is interested in the package (but we
> have users interested in it).
Or if she shows some interest in helping those few users of these packages.
Which also bails down that you need people willing to work in areas
about nobody else is williing to work and where the packages are not
of interest but the general work is. Something like meta-maintainance
which the QA and the security teams usually do. In other words, the
QA team needs to be extended.
Regards,
Joey
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