Re: New team member
Hi Caitlin,
On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 01:17:35AM -0400, Caitlin Matos wrote:
> Hi Cedric,
> On 23/07/14 05:26 AM, Cédric Boutillier wrote:
> >
> >My point of view is the following: if you just prepare a one-time upload
> >to fix a bug or to upgrade to a newer version without much change, then
> >you can make a "Team upload". If you add these words to the changelog
> >entry, then there is no need to add yourself to the Uploaders field in
> >debian/control.
> >
> >If instead, you found a package on which you spent some time, and you
> >particularly like to maintain, then add your name to the Uploaders
> >field.
> Okay, great to know.
> The main problem I foresee is if I start working on a package locally, and
> it ends up being quite a bit of work, and after some time, I discover
> someone else has now uploaded it. Or, potentially worse, I work on and
> upload something that someone's already been working at for several
> days/weeks. I'm trying to figure out what kind of co-ordination there is in
> that respect. I know PET will tell you about repos with a new version ready
> or where there appears to be some work in progress, but if someone keeps it
> all local until the end, you can't tell!
> As a general rule, if there's an available update or fairly new bug for a
> package with the uploader listed as someone who seems to be quite active on
> these boards (e.g., Jonas Gennant, Hleb Valoshka), I'm guessing I should
> steer clear of those. And for ones where there's not been a new Debian
> version for years, those sound safe. But, of course, the only way to find
> those is to browse through them all manually (even after filtering for just
> those with new versions upstream, there's a lot of them). And then there's
> some more complicated situations....
> Here's a real example I just ran into. Sticking with those rules, I found a
> package (ruby-http) that met all of the above, AND has an RC bug, AND whose
> uploader seems to have disappeared from Debian. I've already done quite a
> bit of work now on this and it looks ready to upload. I then noticed that
> Antonio Terceiro and Christian Hofstaedtler have done some updates on the
> package on several occasions in the past couple of years. Should I therefore
> have left it up to them? Is someone going to feel insulted if I upload it?
> Or relieved? (I know that depends on the person, I'm just musing aloud a bit
> here).
> I know my questions are probably a bit annoying and long-winded and whiny.
> Believe me, this is actually the shortened and revised version of my e-mail.
> I'm sorry! I'm just new to this, and don't want to get someone upset with
> me!
I understand your concerns, as I had the same a few years ago.
If you have doubts, you can either ping the maintainers on IRC and ask
if they are ok if you do the update, or send a message to the
debian-ruby@l.d.o to tell that you started working on some package, or
some particular issue. Once you finished one step, push to the team
repository, so that if someone wants/needs to take over, (s)he can reuse
your work. Given the number of ruby packages when compared to the
available workforce, nobody will see an objection if you help
maintaining/updating some packages. I for one would welcome any update
on packages where I am listed as an uploader.
Cheers,
Cédric
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