summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorMichał Górny <mgorny@gentoo.org>2020-01-11 23:35:25 +0100
committerMichał Górny <mgorny@gentoo.org>2020-01-19 11:51:28 +0100
commit9b0775038bb995e0ef831ea5d9c35563991f8cb4 (patch)
tree51daa8ef7e1a4cfd86ecc5fad9f8423ee2931e22
parentUse a Sphinx theme based on Tyrian (diff)
downloadpolicy-guide-9b0775038bb995e0ef831ea5d9c35563991f8cb4.tar.gz
policy-guide-9b0775038bb995e0ef831ea5d9c35563991f8cb4.tar.bz2
policy-guide-9b0775038bb995e0ef831ea5d9c35563991f8cb4.zip
Add a chapter on maintainers
Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/705472 Closes: https://github.com/gentoo/policy-guide/pull/1 Signed-off-by: Michał Górny <mgorny@gentoo.org>
-rw-r--r--maintainer.rst73
1 files changed, 73 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/maintainer.rst b/maintainer.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..07dd3b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maintainer.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+Package Maintainers
+===================
+
+.. index:: maintainer; adding
+
+Adding new maintainers
+----------------------
+:Source: QA
+:Reported: no
+
+Developers must not add other developers as package maintainers, unless
+the developers in question consent to that. Developers must not add
+projects that they are not members of as package maintainers, unless
+one of the project members explicitly agrees to that or the project
+policy explicitly permits it.
+
+*Rationale*: this policy aims to prevent package maintainers being added
+as backup maintainers without their consent or knowledge. What's worse,
+once the original maintainer resigns the packages frequently drop
+to backup maintainers who are neither interested in maintaining them,
+nor often aware why they are listed as maintainers.
+
+For example, developers used to frequently add Python team as a backup
+maintainer to various packages not fitting the project's profile. This
+includes various end-user programs written in Python. Many of those
+packages ended up being maintained solely by Python, and distinguishing
+them from packages actually within project's profile was hard.
+
+
+.. index:: maintainer; new packages without
+
+New packages without a maintainer
+---------------------------------
+:Source: QA
+:Reported: no
+
+It is explicitly forbidden to add new packages without a dedicated
+maintainer. This does not apply if the package in question is not
+technically a new one but merely split out of unmaintained package.
+
+*Rationale*: Gentoo is currently suffering from a very large number
+of packages without a maintainer. There is a small group of developers
+trying to fix them as necessary. It is unfair and inappropriate
+to increase their maintenance burden by adding new packages and refusing
+to take care of them.
+
+
+.. index:: maintainer; removing
+.. index:: up for grabs
+
+Removing package maintainers
+----------------------------
+:Source: QA
+:Reported: no
+
+When removing maintainers from a package, the developer must reassign
+all bugs filed for it. Furthermore, when removing the last maintainer
+for a package, the developer must add the following comment
+to ``metadata.xml``::
+
+ <!-- maintainer-needed -->
+
+Furthermore, the developer must send an 'up for grabs' mail
+to gentoo-dev mailing list, containing the list of packages with
+no maintainer. If possible, please include any information that could
+be helpful to future maintainers.
+
+*Rationale*: reassigning bugs is necessary to make sure that old bugs
+are not lost assigned to developers who are no longer interested
+in them. The maintainer-needed comment is meant to make it possible
+to easily grep for unmaintained packages. The 'up for grabs' mails aim
+to increase the chances of packages finding a new maintainers (compared
+to them silently becoming maintainer-needed).