Future of REVU and Debian Mentors

[Andy Price]

On 03/08/07 01:02, Emmet Hikory wrote:
>     My view of REVU is that it currently provides the following services:
> 
> 1) dget'able respository for packages
> 2) Automated keyring check for uploaders
> 3) Automated execution of lintian and linda
> 4) Provision of URLs for easy package review
> 5) Comments engine for packages
> 
>     With the exception of #3, I believe these requirements are soon to
> be met by LP itself, and would suggest the following workflow as a
> LP-specific alternative to REVU:
> 
> 1) Someone opens a bug with a upstream link and adds the "needs-packaging" tag.
> 2) A packager marks the bug "In-Progress", and self-assigns
> 3) The packager prepares an initial revision, optionally commits to a
> BZR branch, and uploads to the PPA.  The bug is closed in the
> changelog.
> 3) The packger adds a comment to the bug with a link to the PPA
> location, and submits for sponsorship in the usual manner
> 4) Sponsors review, and leave comments in the bug
> 5) The second positive sponsor review results in an upload, and sets
> the status to "Fix Committed".

I do like this idea of launchpad providing package reviewing features
but, even with the addition of PPAs later this month, I'm not quite sure
it's more attractive than REVU at the moment. The ability for non-MOTUs
to leave comments is the one advantage that launchpad has over REVU to me.

I think it would be good to throw some more ideas at the launchpad devs
and help them to understand REVU feature requirements such as:

- Automatic lintian and linda runs
- Linking bugs to PPAs and/or packages in them
- Ability to browse files in source packages uploaded to PPAs
- Debdiffs between uploads of a package to a PPA

(Note that some of these might exist already or may not be needed, but
they're example features that popped into my head.)

Jordan, do you think it would be good to discuss this with the launchpad
devs? Are there any other supporting features on the way alongside PPAs?

Regards,

--
Andy Price