[U-Boot] [STATUS] Custodians - please lend a hand

[Wolfgang Denk]

Hm...

it seems a subject as "Help needed - urgently" ends in too many spam
filters, so I'm reposting.  This is actually serious.


In message <20111115150119.1F8E41689FB3 at gemini.denx.de> I wrote:
>
> Hello all,
> 
> I guess most of you will already have noticed that my activity on the
> mailing list has significantly declined recently. I'm sorry for that,
> but I find myself in a situation where I have even less time
> available for U-Boot than usually. In the result, the number of
> unapplied (and sometimes unreviewed) patches is growing and growing.
> 
> I need your help. we need to find a way to distribute the workload
> for "general" patches (i. e. those that don't fall obviously into the
> responsibility of a specific custodian) across more shoulders than
> just mine. Pressure on me has been building up already for some time,
> and now we've reached the point where we need to find a solution.
> 
> 
> One possible approach has been suggested before:
> 
> > >> Maybe the load can be spread here - maintainers can put these in
> > >> designated
> > >> branches in their repositories. I know this will cause the odd
> > >> conflict,
> > > 
> > > If you script this (based on pwapply) you can bail out early if the
> > > patch is no longer in state "New".
> > > 
> > >> but we (the maintainers) could also periodically sync between each
> > >> other.
> > >> Another alternative is to create a new repo that all the
> > >> custodians have
> > >> access to...
> > > 
> > > That would be easy to do...
> > 
> > Maybe that's what we do - Once a patch reaches maturity (a revision
> > with an Ack and maybe a Tested-by) any maintainer can just put it in
> > the 'next' repo - You can always veto it and not pull it into
> > mainline anyway, but at least it gives everyone a semi-stable
> > platform to base patches for the next merge window
> 
> I would like to try this out now, taking effect immediately.
> 
> I have created a new repository "u-boot-staging", where all current
> custodians (should) have write access to.
> 
> My proposal is as follows (please feel free to comment):
> 
> - Any custodian is able (and encouraged) to pick up unapplied patches
>   that have "reached maturity" (ideally an Ack and maybe a
>   Tested-by), but at least no negative feedback on the mailing list,
>   and re-review these. If they are considered OK and do not cause any
>   new build issues, they can be applied.  Please don't forget to
>   update the entries in Patchwork.
> 
> - To ensure quality, no custodian should apply his own patches.
> 
> - After reviewing and build testing (MAKEALL for at least two
>   different architectures) the stuff can be pushed into a _branch_ of
>   the "u-boot-staging" repository.  I suggest to use the custodian's
>   e-mail address as branch name.
> 
> - After that, the custodian can send a pull request to me.
> 
> 
> Please let's try if this works.  If you have any suggestions how to
> help better, please don't hesitate to tell us.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Wolfgang Denk
> 
> -- 
> DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
> HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
> Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
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> but being *certain*.                    - Terry Pratchett, _Truckers_