[Openstack-devel] OVS 2.0.1 packages in Debian

[Ben Pfaff]

[CCing Simon, who might be interested in continuing to co-maintain
the Debian packaging for OVS]

On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 11:28:49AM +0800, Thomas Goirand wrote:
> On 12/18/2013 03:34 AM, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> > Thomas, are you interested in being a Debian comaintainer for Open
> > vSwitch?  Simon
> > Horman used to help out but I don't think he's done an upload in years.
> 
> GREAT! Thanks a lot for giving me this opportunity. I'm exited by this
> idea. Indeed, I'll be very happy to be a co-maintainer.

Welcome!

> I can't see any git repository on Alioth for the maintenance of OVS. I
> usually prefer to use Git for maintaining my packages. Are you used to
> do that?

I've been a Debian maintainer for a long time, and I'm not used to
these new-fangled ways ;-) But I'm eager to start maintaining the
Debian packaging for OVS according to what is now considered best
practices.  I think that you know those best practices much better
than me, so I'll follow your lead.  Sure, let's create an Git repo on
Alioth for OVS and

> Now, if we want to maintain it, best IMO is to use a team.

Let's do that, then.

> How about maintaining OVS within the OpenStack team repository on
> Alioth? Since OpenStack is the first consumer of OVS, this IMO makes
> sense. You could this way, help with the packaging of Neutron as well if
> you have time and energy for that. It'd be super cool if the team was
> receiving some help from someone like you, even if that's only on
> Neutron. I'll be also honored to have one of the OVS upstream maintainer
> in the team.

This sounds good.

> As you may know, I'm the most active contributor in the OpenStack
> packaging team in Debian. If you need any help with git-buildpackage or
> anything of that sort, I'm available on the team IRC channel
> (#debian-openstack on the OFTC network).

OK.  I'll make a note of that.

When I'm at work, I'm usually available in #openvswitch on freenode.

> If you want to be familiar with the packaging workflow within the Alioth
> group, it's here:
> http://openstack.alioth.debian.org/

I've started reading through that now.

> As well, register to the list (openstack-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org).

Subscribed.

> If there's anything which needs to be clarified form that page, let me
> know. This page is a constant work in progress, trying to make OpenStack
> as welcoming as possible for new contributors.
> 
> If you wish to go ahead with this way of doing things (I don't want to
> force anything on you), then please register here:
> https://alioth.debian.org/projects/openstack/

I clicked on the "Join" button and submitted a request.

> Since you are a Debian developer, I can make you directly admin of the
> Alioth group: that's the policy within this Alioth group: only (and all)
> Debian developers get to be admin.

OK.

> If you prefer to keep OVS separated from the Alioth group, then I think
> best way forward would be to create a specific Alioth group for OVS.
> 
> Now, about packaging OVS 2.x, since you said it's not a LTS version,
> what we can do is package it still, and upload it to Debian Experimental
> until we have an LTS for OVS. What do you think?

That's a good place to start.  Probably we should start a separate
discussion on whether only packaging LTS releases (to
unstable/testing) make sense, too.

> Looking forward working with you more,
> 
> Thomas Goirand (zigo)
> 
> P.S: For the rest of the team who missed some of the discussion we had
> privately (not that we're hiding anything): I was asking Ben about
> packaging OVS 2.0, because it has support for VXLAN, which would be best
> for Neutron as GRE is CPU intensive, and VLANs are limited in numbers.
> He replied that what's been done right now is only uploading the "LTS"
> versions of OVS. Then came the topic of co-maintaining OVS.
>