Role of the Sponsorship Queue

[Bryce Harrington]

On Thu, Mar 04, 2010 at 07:40:11PM +0000, Dmitrijs Ledkovs wrote:
> I've read the whole thread =) Loads of stuff
> 
> We are mixing patch qualification & patch review & patch sponsoring

True
 
> I think pre-patch review should be done by bugsquad
> 
> Patch author uploads patch and subscribes bugsquad (or someone else
> for pre-patch review)

Actually, subscribing bugsquad is unnecessary.  I believe the bugsquad
already has scripts to identify new patches and subscribe the team
automatically.  And that's a better process since while the process of
uploading a patch is (relatively) obvious, knowing who to subscribe is
non-obvious and requires special process knowledge.

> Steps for pre-patch review
> a) check that problem still exists
> b) check that patch or debdiff apply cleanly to latest package
> c) check that package builds
> d) check that it fixes problem
> e) check that patch is sane and is the right-thing-to-do (optional)
> 
> If fails on any of these steps -> canned responses & unsubscribe sponsor team
> If passes all of these steps -> subscribe sponsor team
>
> Sponsor team - Steps for patch review:
> e) check that patch is sane and is the right-thing-to-do
> f) any other stuff sponsors do
> 
> If fails -> comment & unsubscribe sponsor team & canned response (eg
> subscribe sponsors after all issues address or something like that)
> 
> If pass -> upload

I think there's also a step that should be in there for packaging
patches into debdiffs (or to set up a branch and merge proposal).
See my similar post from earlier in this thread, I think I inserted it
at a point prior to your step (e).

It might also be good to have the procedure differentiate between
packages that have an active Ubuntu team to review patches and those
which don't.  In the latter case it might be appropriate to just
redirect the submitter to send the patch upstream or to Debian.
Otherwise even if they make it through steps a-d, they'll get hung up at
step e.

> ps.
> Now to make this really awesome it would be amazing to use advance
> free form build recipes & build latest ubuntu package with this patch
> downloaded and applied into my ppa so I can test it ;-)

Yep, there is a lot of room for automation in this new process.  See my
post early in this thread for ideas.  I hope someone gets inspired to do
some of this automation because I think it could make the Ubuntu
development process extremely powerful and convenient.

Bryce