Proposal for collaborative maintenance of packages

[Reinhard Tartler]

On Mo, 2005-12-19 at 11:17 +0100, Raphael Hertzog wrote: 
> I don't want to change how Ubuntu works. I just want to find a decent
> way for Debian to let external contributors integrate their work within
> Debian and in particular for Ubuntu developers. Because it's in the
> interest of Ubuntu developers to merge their work within Debian.

We are still improving our workflows. So every suggestion is welcome.
Your scope matches the work we MOTUs do very well, so I think we can and
should work together for the profit of both debian and ubuntu.

> Actually, the Ubuntu people doing REVU didn't event think of using a VCS
> because they are handling uploads of source packages in their system.
> Adding a VCS layer has some advantages however : traceability of
> contributions from an applicant is one for example. 

To be honest, I really considered using a VCS under the hoods for REVU
as well, but I'd decided against it, because I think it would be worth
it given the scope of REVU. For a larger scope like you suggest, we
should definitively use the opportunities it offers.

> I'd like to have wrappers for doing things locally :
> - download source package from the good repository (without having to
> type a huge URL)
> - run most checks on it (pbuilder, piuparts, lintian, ...)
> - display analysis
> - etc.

Yes, this is effectively what REVU is supposed to do. I think REVU2 can
contribute some code this as well as the presentation of the results.

> But applicants should directly learn how to work in teams since that
> what they will have to do later anyway ... so the use of a VCS in the
> process is a good thing (in the Debian point of view at least). 

Even more in ubuntu, where we have much fewer explicit maintainers, and
most uploads are effective NMUs anyway. I could image that some day,
MOTUs will rather think about a set of 'diverged' packages, which needs
active maintenance. Changes to diverged packages could be tracked in
tools from this project.

> However that use could be hidden behind the scenes for those who prefer
> to not use such a system. I'm thinking here of REVU which handles upload
> of source package directly. A script could be written to integrate the
> source in the repository... 

This is exactly what I mean with "providing several interfaces", not
just svn. Svn is great, sure, but I wouldn't want to force everyone to
use svn and/or svn-buildpackage. svn-buildpackage can be useful as
backend, though.

-- 
Reinhard Tartler <siretart at tauware.de>
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