From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jul 30 20:18:03 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: ports@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8ABDD16A420 for ; Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:18:03 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from linimon@lonesome.com) Received: from mail.soaustin.net (mail.soaustin.net [207.200.4.66]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24BEA43D45 for ; Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:18:02 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from linimon@lonesome.com) Received: by mail.soaustin.net (Postfix, from userid 502) id 14CDC27B4; Sat, 30 Jul 2005 15:18:02 -0500 (CDT) Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 15:18:02 -0500 To: Babak Farrokhi Message-ID: <20050730201802.GA29320@soaustin.net> References: <20050728154248.GA943@zi025.glhnet.mhn.de> <20050728164111.GA66015@isis.sigpipe.cz> <20050728170401.GA9534@soaustin.net> <20050728172249.GD66015@isis.sigpipe.cz> <20050728175142.GA11503@soaustin.net> <20050728225650.GE66015@isis.sigpipe.cz> <20050729020225.GA28471@soaustin.net> <20050729102158.GA73490@isis.sigpipe.cz> <20050729203324.GA19476@soaustin.net> <9f7e126b050730124130c9bf87@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <9f7e126b050730124130c9bf87@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i From: linimon@lonesome.com (Mark Linimon) Cc: ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New port with maintainer ports@FreeBSD.org [was: Question about maintainers] X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:18:03 -0000 On Sun, Jul 31, 2005 at 12:11:40AM +0430, Babak Farrokhi wrote: > Let me give you an example: I am the maintainer for www/eventum. The > current version in ports tree was 1.5.4 so I submitted the patch for > 1.5.5 (ports/84297) and now version 1.6.0 is out but the patch is not > submitted despite I was the maintainer myself. Although I share your frustration at getting bugs fixed and upgrades committed, it is fair to note that 84297 came in only yesterday. The correct thing to do here is to do a followup with the patches to 1.6.0. Whoever picks up the PR will then be able to skip the earlier patch. > Another example: I submitted patch to update editors/vim to patchlevel > 79, now this version is vulnerable to arbitrary command execution > according to CAN-2005-2368. So I submitted the patchlevel 85 > (ports/84145) and also notified security-team@. But the port is still > awaiting approval. Well, 84145 isn't labeled as a security update in the Synopsis, which might have helped. I'll note that the maintainer did commit your previous update patch within a day, although it has been several days on this one. I can't speak to what secteam has done, you would have to ask them. > There is really something wrong with the port management process. > People's work is not being respected. So how do I get encouraged to > submit my patches? We have 173 people with port commit bits (some of whom are more active than others) and an average of around 30 ports PRs arriving per day. Since all the ports committers are volunteers, it's not possible to compel them to commit anything -- all we can do is to encourage, and to offer recognition. I think we do pretty well keeping up with the incoming PR flood (the rate of which, by the way, continues to increase.) It's not a perfect process, but I really don't know of what else that we can do in a volunteer project. Slightly different topic: There's another "management" principle about individuals at work here, that bears reiteration: "praise in public, criticize in private". It's completely fair for you, or anyone else, to criticize our processes in public. But when it comes down to people that feel that another FreeBSD contributor isn't pulling their weight, I'd much rather see those complaints first go to the groups that have accepted the responsibility to look after such things -- for ports, portmgr; for security, secteam; and if both of them fall down on the job, core. Remember that everyone here is doing this work because it's fun or it gives them some kind of satisfaction (as are you, yourself, when you help us out by submitting patches), and thank-yous are always a much more effective motivator than criticism. Please don't take this as particularly directed at you. A common theme in this thread -- which hasn't yet been commented on -- is that certain individual contributors are not pulling their weight, as it were. In the meantime, I'll put my portmgr hat on and note that it has been many months since anyone has directly submitted a complaint to portmgr about an individual. I would much rather these things be worked out via email in that venue. I hope people can take this advice as constructive criticism. But to summarize, we welcome your contributions, but you have to be prepared to be realistic about what a team of volunteers is going to be able to accomplish. mcl