[csw-maintainers] Mutt and general release policy

[Dagobert Michelsen]

Hi Phil,

Am 27.09.2010 um 19:48 schrieb Philip Brown:
> "the release manager" is the only real point of quality control we  
> have.
> Since packaging is a "volunteer effort", we cannot "force" a
> maintainer to rebuild a package.

Exactly.

> If we go with the "release now, argue about it later" methodology,
> then a maintainer may(and has in the past), simply say, 'well, in that
> case I dont care to update the package'.

If it really is an issue two other maintainers will come and say
"you update the package or we do it."

> We then have a case where we have a package that has been agreed upon
> as "wrong", but does not get fixed.

If the maintainer refuses to make more changes and the release
doesn't release it it won't get fixed either.

> Maintainers put effort into packages, when they have the time and
> energy to do so. They have the time, when they are releasing a
> package. They may NOT have time later on.
> So in that sense also, I think that package release time in most cases
> works better for maintainers, since that when they have time and
> energy on-hand.

This is often true, but not always.

> I recognize that this may be true for some, but not all, maintainers.
> I welcome suggestions for alternative courses of action, that will
> result in the packages actually getting updated with agreed upon fixes
> in a timely manner.
>
> I HAVE also been quite flexible with people, who have told me up
> front, "okay, you might be right; I dont have time to rework the
> package right now,but I'll commit to rework it at (specific later
> date)". In those cases, I have gone ahead and released the "better
> than current, but not perfect" package.
>
> Did you want to make that commitment, to follow through on the
> research, AND rebuild mutt if research justifies it (by a specific
> date)? In which case, I'll release your current mutt package,and
> remind you down the road.

Of course, already done:
   http://marc.info/?l=mutt-users&m=128559587014190&w=2


Best regards

   -- Dago