Created attachment 331090 [details, diff] ebuild-committing-guide.patch This should be a top-section including stuff from http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=1 and probably also CVS related things http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/cvs-tutorial.xml#doc_chap2 From a recent discussion in #gentoo-dev a proposal emerged: Make a soft policy of 2 weeks or so before you fix bugs on your own. This should exclude toolchain/base-system/core stuff or eclass related things.
what #gentoo-dev discussion? We can't just document stuff based on some random discussion on IRC. Especially this kind of policy needs a global consensus or at lease give the entire dev community a chance to discuss about this. And I am not sure if commit policy is meant to be on devmanual anyway. The devmanual is about technical stuff.
s/lease/least
uhm, this is not some random thing Actually my recruiter told me this too (however the suggested timeframe was more like 1-2 months), but it's just not officially documented anywhere. But well, I'll send an email to gentoo-dev.
There is no documented policy. The unofficial policy is not a *policy* so before we write something down, we first need to discuss it
+<p>Usually you don't just change another developers ebuild without a word unless you know he does not mind or if you are part of the herd involved in maintenance. Start with filing a bug or try to catch him on IRC or via email. Sometimes you cannot reach him or there is no response to your bug. Then a soft limit of 2 to 4 weeks depending on the severity of the bug is an acceptable timeframe before you go ahead and fix it yourself.</p> I realize that this is left intentionally vague, but this policy essentially says "Don't touch anything without 2-4 weeks notice and no response, unless you know something somehow". I says specifically "unless you know he does not mind" but it doesn't really provide a way to say "I don't mind". I would like the policy to officially state how people can say "I don't mind". Suggestion would be adding the following after "herd involved in maintenance. " "Information about policies specific to a maintainer or package can often be found in the metadata.xml, such as <description>Please feel free to fix my bugs</description>" I don't necessarily require this exact verbiage, however, I feel this is important enough to be specifically stated in the policy.
Additional suggestion: after "go ahead and fix it yourself. " Something to the effect of "For a sufficiently important issue (something that would harm the users waiting 2-4 weeks on) it would be advisable to bring the issue to the attention of one of the mailing lists or irc channels for advice on how to handle the issue. Many times people can step in to fix critical breakage when the maintainer isn't around if it really is necessary to maintain a good user experience."
Created attachment 331420 [details, diff] ebuild-committing-guide.patch incorporated the suggestions from Zero_Chaos, thanks
Created attachment 331426 [details, diff] ebuild-committing-guide.patch some spell checking and stuff by Zero_Chaos
I didn't see a single other voice of dissent on the ML so I'll add my ACK here so it is known that I approve of this in its current form.
give us sometime to review the patch :)
I don't like this patch. First of all, it is incomplete and the section about "Changing others ebuilds" could easily go here http://devmanual.gentoo.org/ebuild-writing/ebuild-maintenance/index.html
ofc it's incomplete however, would be fine for me as well if the "Changing/Fixing other developers ebuilds" section goes into "Ebuild Maintenance"
Created attachment 336126 [details, diff] touch-me-softly.patch
The patch looks good to me. Please commit
committed
