[csw-maintainers] new mailing list?

[Sebastian Kayser]

Ben Walton wrote on 14.01.2010 01:36:
> I'd like to propose a new, internal-only mailing list.  The purpose of
> the list would be to record all package release requests.  This would
> replace the current practice of private mails to Phil.  This list
> would be open to posting from any @opencsw.org address, but would be
> subscribed on request by maintainers as desired, not automatically.
> 
> There are a few reasons I'd like to see this happen:

Sounds good.

> 1. Packages that are rejected are typically rejected for common
>    reasons.  The more people the see these, the better we'll get over
>    time as we stop making the same mistakes.

And Maciej can keep updating checkpkg to implement checks for those
common reasons (at least those that can be determined via a script). ;)
Sweet!

> 2. History preservation.
> 3. Team maintainership memory.  Presently, if mails are private
>    between $release_manager and $maintainer, a $maintainer2 may not
>    know why a package is not being released.  A list archive could
>    resolve this.  This follows from #2.

That's a good one. I remember Benny and Mike tag teaming sendmail (lot
of impetus behind it). Benny started the build recipe, Mike wanted to do
the final touchings and then release the package. In fact, Mike
committed quite some changes to the build recipe, but when he vanished
into sabbatical shortly after, the package wasn't released and Benny
didn't know a thing about the current state (had it been submitted for
release? were there any remaining problems with it?). The impetus was
pretty much lost from what I could tell from his face.

If it was for a release mailing list, he could have at least quickly
seen whether the package was already considered for release (and learn
about potential release critical issues that he would have needed to
take care of).

Even if he would have seen that the package hadn't even been submitted
he would have known right away that he could just pick up from the
existing build recipe. IMHO makes things easier compared to pinging phil
(or any release manager for that matter) via email and waiting for the
timezones to shift in the right place for a reply. Easier for both parties.

> 5. Openness.  It pulls back the curtains a bit more on some of the
>    backend happenings.

Openness/transparency is always good (unless you are in the secret
service business of course ;) ). That's btw. one reason why I will be
trying hard to publish on-time news during winter camp this time (plus
some sort of "video conferencing" test-setup), so that all those who
can't make it, can get a better feeling of what is happening behind
those "winter camp curtains" :)

Sebastian