Re: Questions for all candidates: decentralization of power
* Wouter Verhelst (wouter@debian.org) [100319 22:57]:
> On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 10:36:53PM +0100, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 06:44:23PM +0000, Clint Adams wrote:
> > > Is there any legitimate reason that wanna-build access should be
> > > restricted to any group smaller than the entirety of gid 800
> > > membership?
> >
> > There was.
> [...snip history...]
> > Of course, this bug has now been fixed: rather than using a libdb-based
> > database, wanna-build is now running off a postgresql database. As such,
> > it might be prudent to investigate whether giving regular developers
> > read-access to that database could be doable (it might be difficult,
> > given that wanna-build runs on a restricted host currently, or it might
> > be simple; this is something for the wanna-build team to look into). But
> > I don't think it's unfair to wait a while until all the issues have been
> > dealt with before thinking about giving the developer body access to the
> > database.
>
> It was pointed out to me on IRC by a member of the Debian sysadmin team
> that this has in fact already happened: buildd.debian.org, aka
> cimarosa.debian.org, is not a restricted host, and the wanna-build
> database is not restricted; every DD is able to access the database.
Write-access is limited for the reasons Wouter pointed out above.
Also, read-access to the security suites (which list not yet published
packages) is limited for obvious reasons.
Sometimes we need to change priorities of packages to e.g. get a
transition done, or to avoid a starving situation (like now, we just
lost one mips buildd due to a failing harddisk). If we prioritize
certain packages this means other packages obviously get less
priority. One needs to follow the relevant IRC channels plus lists to
know how the situation currently is - sometimes we have enough spare
ressources and packages can be easily tried a second and third time,
and sometimes not.
On the other hand, I don't believe that there are requests which are
not dealt with in short time frame. (And if someone shows good
judgement on requests it could easily mean that he'll probably get
sufficient access rights soon.)
> Also note that while the above is true, the DSA team tells me that
> cimarosa is currently rather starved for IO; so while you can access the
> database, that does not mean necessarily mean you should, unless you've
> got a good reason to, since overusing it might interfere with the smooth
> functioning of the buildd network (and we don't want that, right?)
If someone is seriously interessted in helping us with buildd /
wanna-build, please just tell so. :)
Andi
Reply to: