rfc: permissions on package branches

[Scott Kitterman]

On Thursday, February 17, 2011 05:20:07 pm John Arbash Meinel wrote:
> On 2/14/2011 11:34 PM, Martin Pool wrote:
> > We have a question in <https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/516709> about
> > what the permissions on official package branches ought to be, and how
> > they should be explained to the user.
> 
> Obviously people feel very passionate about this subject, given the
> intense discussion. </sarcasm>

So far I asked what a "celebrity" is in this context and no one answered.

> > The basic thing is that Launchpad knows who is allowed to write to a
> > package, and it already has special code that gives those people
> > read/write access to the package branch.  In the common case where the
> > package branch is owned by a bot/celebrity that will never do anything
> > itself, this is fine.  However, it is perhaps a problem if an existing
> > branch owned by a human is marked as official for a particular
> > package.
> 
> So that means that if I have upload rights to 'bzr', then I can push to
> lp:ubuntu/natty/bzr regardless of who the actual owner is?
> 
> > At the moment the permissions are unioned: the nominal owner of the
> > branch keeps write access, and the package uploaders get right access
> > too.
> > 
> > There are a few options here and we'd appreciate hearing from Ubuntu
> > people how they think it should work:
> > 
> > 0- No change: the nominal owner keeps write access.
> > 
> > 1- Don't allow branches owned by non-celebrities to become the
> > official branch for a package.  Instead, you need to push from that
> > branch into the real official branch.
> 
> I'm in favor of this one myself. ~ubuntu-foo can own all of the official
> packaging branches, and the users have rights to upload to the
> appropriate branches.
> 
> > 2- When the branch becomes an official package branch, the owner loses
> > write access (unless they're also an uploader.)  That's what
> > <https://code.launchpad.net/~jml/launchpad/owner-cannot-write-to-official
> > -branch-516709/+merge/29446> would do.  It seems potentially confusing.
> > 
> > 3- Something else?
> > 
> > Let us know what you think either here or on that bug.  Also if you
> > think we ought to ask eg the TB, please tell me.
> > 
> > Martin
> 
> John
> =:->