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> you should look at |
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> the archives to see what people decided. |
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|
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from reading the archives and the response so far as well as the current |
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documentation on the subject i conclude that the issue is still not clear |
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and people make up their own stuff as they go along. |
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|
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the following may be a formalisation of current (best) practices: |
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|
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- maintainers fall into three categories. herds, gentoo developers and |
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non-gentoo proxy maintainers. |
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|
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- a herd is defined in herds.xml. exception: no-herd. no-herd is limited |
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to the situation where no suitable herd can be found. |
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|
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- a gentoo developer is defined in dev-rel/roll-call/userinfo.xml. |
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|
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- every ebuild has a herd. |
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- a package can belong to more than one herd. |
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|
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- a package can be maintened by no or more parties. |
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|
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- a package with herd different from 'no-herd' is said to be maintained |
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by the members of that herd. |
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|
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- all maintainers different from herds state their maintainership using |
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the <maintainer> tag. the <maintainer> tag requires the <email> tag. |
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|
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- a package with herd 'no-herd' and no additional maintainers is said to |
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be unmaintained. |
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|
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- a <maintainer> of maintainer-needed@g.o indicates no maintainership and |
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is only allowed as the sole maintainer. meaning a single <maintainer> |
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tag and a single <herd>no-herd</herd> tag. infact it is semantically |
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equivalent to a single <herd>no-herd</herd> tag and no additional |
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maintainers. |
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|
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- a package that is proxy maintained needs an additional gentoo |
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association in form of a maintaining herd or gentoo developer. |
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maintainer-needed@g.o may be such an association, but only if the |
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original one disappeared. |
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|
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optionally one may want to include, although personally i prefer to state |
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it explicitly: |
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|
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- a missing or empty <herd> tag is equivalent to <herd>no-herd</herd> |
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|
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open questions: |
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|
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- what does it mean when the package is maintained by a herd and an |
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additional maintainer? how does one determine the order in which to |
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contact multiple maintainers? |
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|
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- are there situations in which we specify a <herd> other than no-herd |
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but don't want its members to act as maintainers? |
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|
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... |
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|
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what are your current best practices regarding metadata? |
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regards |
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Thilo |
Archives