Hello, On Fri 29 Mar 2019 at 04:43PM +02, Adrian Bunk wrote: > 1. Non-DDs getting single changes into Debian > If you are not a DD, there is no process to get a change into > Debian if the maintainer is MIA or is one of those maintainers > who ignores the BTS and only uploads new upstream versions. > Note that I am not talking about contoversial changes NAKed by the > maintainer, I am talking about 10 year old clearly correct patches > or "New upstream version" bugs that are rotting in the BTS. > Whether a patch is rotting in the BTS or is rotting in a MR on salsa > doesn't really make a difference on the underlying problem. I'm not sure about this -- there is the same NMU process everyone else uses, except that you need a sponsor. Which brings me to... > 2. Package sponsorship > Any mentoring outreach aimed at finding new contributors should start > with no longer frustrating the people who have already started to > contribute. They might stop their contributions. > There are too few people reviewing packages at sponsorship-requests, > but proper and timely reviews would be very important both for not > frustrating new contributors and ensuring that new contributors > are learning to do high-quality packaging. > Spending any resources on finding new contributors who are starting > at zero doesn't really make sense as long as people who are already > contributing have to wait months for getting their ITPs reviewed > and uploaded (and then have to wait additional months while the > package is in NEW). This is a huge problem, indeed. The two current processes that you identify as getting in newcomers' way -- RFS bugs and the NEW queue -- are slow simply because of the fact that both of them are understaffed. It's the usual problem with Debian not having the manpower we would like to have. The question is whether those processes could be changed such that the manpower problem would be less keenly felt. I cannot myself see any way to achieve that -- there are tooling issues but improving the relevant tools would not significantly speed either queue. -- Sean Whitton
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