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On Mon, 2007-09-24 at 13:54 +0200, Ramon van Alteren wrote: |
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> > Currently, Release Engineering is quite understaffed. We have lost a |
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> > few release coordinators between the last release and now. The arch |
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> > teams are picking up the slack and getting people to fill the roles, but |
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> > they have to be trained, which means more time spent training and less |
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> > time spent working, which delays a release fairly significantly. |
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> |
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> Are you still looking for staff ? What roles/positions/work needs doing |
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> most ? |
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|
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Release Engineering is almost always looking for staff. The primary |
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need is architecture release coordinators for the architectures which |
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have lost them. Anyone considering joining Release Engineering should |
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be capable of being an ebuild developer, if they're not already, as most |
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issues are in ebuild code. Familiarity with catalyst and genkernel is a |
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requirement. Strong python and bash skills are preferred. |
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|
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> Are you aware that http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/staffing-needs/ |
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> lists no staffing needs for release engineering ? |
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|
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I am well aware. I have no intentions on asking our user pool for help |
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with this due to my own constraints. It has nothing to do with the |
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users themselves and everything to do with what we actually need. We |
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don't need people that we have to train, as that only takes time that we |
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already do not have to train the new person, compounding the problem |
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more than it helps. We don't really need people that are not on |
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architecture teams, because their work is representative of the team and |
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they need to work with the team in question. Unfortunately, this pretty |
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much leaves us pulling from our current developer pool. |
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|
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> Where do I volunteer and what amount of time-investment can I expect ? |
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|
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Well, first you would need to become a developer. I don't have time to |
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mentor someone myself, so you'd need to find a mentor and get yourself |
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into the developer pool. Aside that, you'd need to be able to use |
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catalyst and troubleshoot your own issues with it. I know that this |
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sounds really bad, but I don't mean it to be. It doesn't help me, at |
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all, if I have to teach someone. My familiarity with catalyst is such |
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that it is generally faster to do something myself than to teach someone |
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else to do it. Basically, we require people who are completely |
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self-motivated learners capable of reading code, understanding it, and |
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putting that new knowledge into practice without help. |
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|
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The amount of time required can vary wildly, depending on the quality of |
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the tree for your architecture, just how crazy the architecture boot |
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sequence is, the speed of your hardware, etc. On average, I spend |
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anywhere from 20 to 40 hours a *week* during release times. I've spent |
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as little as 3 or 4 hours and as much as 60 hours. Also, Release |
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Engineering is one of the few places where deadlines are very important, |
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meaning you have to be able to actually commit to time lines and follow |
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through, on time. Of course, this makes Release Engineering one of the |
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more stressful jobs around Gentoo. Just ask anyone who has been hanging |
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around #gentoo-releng during a release... ;] |
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|
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-- |
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Chris Gianelloni |
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Release Engineering Strategic Lead |
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Alpha/AMD64/x86 Architecture Teams |
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Games Developer/Foundation Trustee |
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Gentoo Foundation |
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