r244 - in /web: deps/dep2.mdwn index.mdwn

hertzog at users.alioth.debian.org hertzog at users.alioth.debian.org
Fri Jan 13 15:09:51 UTC 2012 

Author: hertzog
Date: Fri Jan 13 15:09:50 2012
New Revision: 244

URL: http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/dep/?sc=1&rev=244
Log:
Initial (incomplete) draft for DEP-2: “Debian Package Maintenance Hub”

Added:
    web/deps/dep2.mdwn
Modified:
    web/index.mdwn

Added: web/deps/dep2.mdwn
URL: http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/dep/web/deps/dep2.mdwn?rev=244&op=file
==============================================================================
--- web/deps/dep2.mdwn (added)
+++ web/deps/dep2.mdwn Fri Jan 13 15:09:50 2012
@@ -1,0 +1,130 @@
+[[!meta title="DEP-2: Debian Package Maintenance Hub"]]
+
+    Title: Debian Package Maintenance Hub
+    DEP: 2
+    State: DRAFT
+    Date: 2011-01-13
+    Drivers: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog at debian.org>
+    URL: http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep2
+    Abstract:
+     Debian maintainers rely on a multitude of services (DDPO, PTS,
+     DDPO-by-mail, BTS, etc), and information sources, in order to do
+     their job. The flow of information varies greatly from case to case.
+     .
+     This proposal is about creating a central infrastructure
+     that would consolidate several of those services and that would
+     standardize the information flow.
+
+
+Rationale
+---------
+This new package maintenance infrastructure is needed:
+
+ * to fix long standing problems;
+ * to implement new features that will help us to ensure that all Debian
+   packages are well maintained;
+ * to be more pro-active and to detect problems sooner.
+
+### Problems to solve
+
+#### Maintainer vs Uploader
+
+The flow of information is not the same depending on whether you're
+listed in the Maintainer field (in which case most services mail you
+directly) or not (in which case you're supposed to subscribe via the PTS
+or via a dedicated mailing list). But the opposite is true as well, some
+information is only available via the PTS and many maintainers have to
+subscribe to the PTS while excluding almost everything just to get
+the information they want.
+
+See also [#507288](http://bugs.debian.org/507288) for some more
+discussions on this topic.
+
+This makes it very painful to change/switch the Maintainer field because
+people have to update their PTS subscriptions accordingly. 
+
+#### Duplication of work / inconsistency between the DDPO and the PTS
+
+The DDPO and the PTS are completely separate services. This leads to
+duplication of work when a new information needs to be made available in
+their respective interface. It can also lead to inconsistencies between
+both services when bug occurs or when different choices are made.
+
+#### Mailing lists as Maintainer
+
+We often have mailing lists listed in the Maintainer field and it's not
+clear who are the real package maintainers and how many of them there are.
+The Uploaders field is often outdated, and/or is just a representation of
+who worked last on the package instead of who feels responsible for the
+package.
+
+### Goals
+
+#### Tracking commitments 
+
+A package can only be well maintained if it has at least one or more
+committed maintainers. This new infrastructure should let us monitor
+actions that prove or disprove the commitment of the persons who have
+a relationship with the package. Contributors should also be able to
+state explicitly the nature of their relationship with the package (lead
+maintainer, co-maintainer, backup maintainer, follower/lurker, etc.).
+
+Packages without (enough) committed maintainers can then be advertised as
+needing help before it's too late and before the package suffered too
+much. Maintainers who are failing to keep up with the commitments they set
+for themselves can be automatically prodded.
+
+#### Support alternate notification systems
+
+Email is the only official media used to communicate information to
+Debian package maintainers. If all the relevant mails are going through
+a central service, it's possible to store those emails and to forward
+the relevant information by other means (RSS, XMPP, IRC, etc.). Also
+new maintainers can then have access to some historic information
+that used to be private for no good reasons.
+
+
+Design of the new infrastructure
+--------------------------------
+
+### Fixing the flow of information
+
+In order to cleanly solve the problem of the information flow, and to get
+rid of the hacks made everywhere to send a copy of the mails to the PTS,
+packages would be (progressively) modified to indicate
+“Maintainer: <source>@pkgmaint.debian.org” in their control file.
+
+Until all packages have been converted, the PTS would forward copies of
+the mails to ensure that the new infrastucture can still be used for all
+packages (even those who have not been updated yet).
+
+Using this intermediary address also solves the problem of maintainers who
+orphan their packages and are still listed as maintainers in many released
+packages.
+
+### Replacing maintenance mailing lists
+
+Packaging teams often separate the mailing list that gets the bug traffic and
+other notifications from their main discussion mailing list. This new
+infrastructure should entirely replace the former kind of mailing lists.
+Anybody receiving notifications and information directed to the package
+maintainer should get them via this new infrastructure.
+
+It allows us to know how many people are notified for a given problem.
+If nobody is notified, the package is effectively orphaned. A more
+interesting case to detect is when several persons are being notified but
+all of them are MIA or marked as being busy/on vacation.
+
+
+Acronyms
+--------
+
+ * DDPO: [Debian Developer's Packages Overview](http://qa.debian.org/developer.php)
+ * PTS: [Package Tracking System](http://packages.qa.debian.org)
+ * PTS: [Bug Tracking System](http://bugs.debian.org)
+
+Changes
+-------
+
+* 2011-01-13: Initial draft by Raphaël Hertzog.
+

Modified: web/index.mdwn
URL: http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/dep/web/index.mdwn?rev=244&op=diff
==============================================================================
--- web/index.mdwn (original)
+++ web/index.mdwn Fri Jan 13 15:09:50 2012
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 DEP|Status|Title|VCS
 [DEP 0](deps/dep0)|**CANDIDATE**|[*Introducing Debian Enhancement Proposals*](deps/dep0)|[svn](svn://svn.debian.org/svn/dep/web/deps/dep0.mdwn) [web](http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/dep/web/deps/dep0.mdwn)
 [DEP 1](deps/dep1.html)|**ACCEPTED**|[*Clarifying policies and workflows for Non Maintainer Uploads (NMUs)*](deps/dep1.html)|[wiki](http://wiki.debian.org/NmuDep)
-DEP 2|_No draft yet_|*Classification and self-assessment of maintenance level*|
+[DEP 2](deps/dep2)|**DRAFT**|[*Debian Package Maintenance Hub*](deps/dep2)|[svn](svn://svn.debian.org/svn/dep/web/deps/dep2.mdwn) [web](http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/dep/web/deps/dep2.mdwn)
 [DEP 3](deps/dep3)|**CANDIDATE**|[*Patch Tagging Guidelines*](deps/dep3)|[svn](svn://svn.debian.org/svn/dep/web/deps/dep3.mdwn) [web](http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/dep/web/deps/dep3.mdwn)
 [DEP 4](deps/dep4)|**DRAFT**|[*Translation packages in Debian (TDebs)*](deps/dep4)|[svn](svn://svn.debian.org/svn/dep/web/deps/dep4.mdwn) [web](http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/dep/web/deps/dep4.mdwn)
 [DEP 5](deps/dep5)|**CANDIDATE**|[*Machine-readable debian/copyright*](deps/dep5)|[git](git://anonscm.debian.org/dbnpolicy/policy.git) [web](http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=dbnpolicy/policy.git;a=blob;f=copyright-format/copyright-format.xml)

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