Merges - Pinging Previous Uploaders

[Andy Price]

Hi folks,

At the MOTU meeting today it was mentioned that we look into the merges
process. I'm specifically looking into how best to streamline the part
of the process where mergers "ping" the previous uploaders to check it's
OK to merge the package. The clear problem case here is when the
previous uploader is incommunicado for a while which makes the merger
block until they are present, or maybe the merge is uploaded by a
different MOTU and the previous uploader returns and is too late to say
"No! Don't upload that!".

One solution would be for those who prefer to take care of specific
packages themselves to flag those packages as "Do Not Touch" in a
comment on DaD or in a bug report. This would help others to choose
merges to work on without worrying about stepping on toes.

The previous uploader would then be subscribed to the merger's merge bug
when it is opened. The previous uploader would then have until a good
merge debdiff is attached to the report and u-u-s subscribed (plus an
agreed period of time, perhaps?) to veto or control the merge before a
u-u-s member could ACK it.

Does this sound sane? Or maybe it'd just convolute the process? I look
forward to reading your views.

Regards,

--
Andy Price