Packaging branches which are not owned by ubuntu-dev

[Emmet Hikory]

Mario Limonciello wrote:
> So the use case here was going to be that someone from
> ubuntu-universe-sponsors would be able to uploads in the absence of a MOTU
> on the team to do the uploads in a timely fashion.  I now believe that the
> only solution here is that the uploads be prepared in the bzr tree by the
> team and then either attach a debdiff to the bug or request that the tree
> get pulled and uploaded.

    That makes much more sense to me.  The sponsor oughtn't need to
change the package when sponsoring it (else it becomes collaborative
development rather than sponsoring: not that this is discouraged, but
it is different).  As long as members of the team maintaining the
package have an accurate tree ready for upload (or follow the more
typical (and more widely documented) practice of attaching the debdiff
to a bug), there ought be no issues sponsoring the update in the
regular manner.  Further, as long as the launchpad teams are not
diluted, it becomes simple for the sponsor to verify that the packager
belongs to the relevant non-MOTU team, and should thereby be trusted
to have prepared the upload (although this practice isn't documented,
I tend to follow it when reviewing packages where sponsorship is
requested but the maintainer is not MOTU).

-- 
Emmet HIKORY