Re: Patch policy

[Gary Thomas <gary at mlbassoc dot com>]

On Tue, 2003-05-06 at 09:00, Jonathan Larmour wrote:
> Gary Thomas wrote:
> > ** Disclaimer: I'm sure that I'm as guilty as anyone
> > 
> > There seems to be a gap [i.e. failing] in the response to
> > patches from outsiders.  Sometimes they are handled quite
> > quickly, sometimes never.  I think we need to establish
> > some policies on how to handle these efficiently.
> 
> The problem is setting time aside for the large ones. It can take a few 
> hours to thoroughly review a large contrib like, say, the new openRISC 
> port, even when there are few problems.
> 
> If it's any consolation, after 2.0 it's one of my priorities to deal with 
> the patch backlog... it's _somewhat_ been put on hold as "net time" for 
> now would be better put into 2.0, and FYI we're playing with some release 
> candidates here on various hosts so we're getting pretty close on that.
> 
> I know it's eCosCentric's view that a proportion of my time will become 
> dedicated to net stuff primarily for things like patches.
> 
> > At the very least, we should try and assign a patch to
> > a maintainer within some short period of time and then it's
> > that person's responsibility to take care of it - whatever
> > the outcome.  As is, I see things come in that I'm comfortable
> > with that sometimes I take up, sometimes I leave by.  In the
> > latter case, I simply assume that someone else will handle
> > it.  I think this is the failing.
> 
> FWIW I've been assuming the final buck passes to me, so unless anyone else 
> volunteers it's my problem. I do have every unapplied patch sitting here 
> (just in a big pile, but still), but I do have the ability to go back and 
> do it. And I still intend to, despite the age of some of the patches now!

Fair enough - I just wanted to see what we can do to formalize this.
I'm more than glad to work on some of these patches, but what I see
right now is that sometimes things get stalled - or at least seem to.

I would not want for everything to fall on your shoulders, certainly
if it makes sense to share the load :-)  Whatever we can do to improve
this, especially in the punter's eyes, will be a good thing.

I'm looking at Savannah now, just for my own edification.

-- 
Gary Thomas <gary@mlbassoc.com>
MLB Associates