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Date:      Wed, 20 Sep 2000 03:10:25 +0100 (BST)
From:      Andrew Boothman <andrew@cream.org>
To:        Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        olgeni@uli.it, ruslan@shevchenko.kiev.ua, seb@bluetail.com, Ade Lovett <ade@FreeBSD.org>, ports@FreeBSD.org, mi@aldan.algebra.com, Neil Blakey-Milner <nbm@mithrandr.moria.org>, doc@FreeBSD.org, stable@FreeBSD.org, jkh@winston.osd.bsdi.com
Subject:   Re: erlang port -- a poster child (Re: I'll be rolling a 4.1.1 r
Message-ID:  <XFMail.000920031025.andrew@cream.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0009181453460.47170-100000@freefall.freebsd.org>

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[Now CC'ed to -doc as this is a Docs issue now]

On 18-Sep-00 Kris Kennaway wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Sep 2000, Neil Blakey-Milner wrote:
> 
>> I agree with the "if it's not in a PR, it doesn't exist" sentiment quite
>> a bit - PRs contain information specific to a certain problem, and that
>> allows me to look at your PR in tkgnats and discover it's being
>> neglected, instead of just wondering what's up, and considering setting
>> it to feedback to see what's up.
> 
> What this really boils down to is the same as in another thread recently -
> committers are a scarce resource, and so the submitter needs to do what he
> can to make the most efficient use of the resource (if he or she wants to
> get his change committed in a timely fashion). We've had some good
> suggestions here - the best thing would be to write up something for the
> handbook on "How to make the best use of FreeBSD committers to get changes
> applied", as Jordan has already suggested.

Agreed.

Here's my synopsis of what should go into such a document (probably changes to
the existing "How To Contribute" page -
http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/contrib-how.html )

* File all changes to either source, docs or a port as a PR under the
appropriate catagory. And a message, or a CC of the PR, should be sent to the
maintainer.

* If the PR is for a port make sure that "port update" is in the synopsis
field, if only so that it catches Neil Blakey-Milner's regular check for such
PR's, but also to act as a good description.

* If you are the MAINTAINER of a piece of code (or more likely a port) and
don't have commit privs, put "MAINTAINER update" in the synopsis, for the
same reasons as before.

* If no reply is recieved within 1-2 weeks, then a reply to the PR should be
sent to gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org detailing the attempts made to contact the
maintainer.

* Do we then recommend a general e-mail to -doc, -ports, -hackers or whatever
the appropriate "development" list is, to find a more interested committer who
may want to look at the PR?

I don't think we should talk down the PR system in the Handbook, after all we
do want to encourage people to take the time to write PRs. However, a carefully
worded phrase to ensure that nobody has any "unrealistic expectations of the
process" as Jordan democratically put it, should probably be included.

I don't really have much experience of all this, I'm just trying to surmise what
others have been saying.

How have I done?

---
Andrew Boothman <andrew@cream.org>
http://sour.cream.org


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