[dm-devel] WANTED new maintainer for Linux/md (and mdadm)

Wed Jan 6 16:53:23 UTC 2016

Brassow Jonathan <jbrassow at redhat.com> writes:
> Many thanks Neil for all the work you’ve done and the help you gave me
> while working on the DM/MD interactions bits.  I’m happy you are
> sticking around for the raid1-cluster and raid5-journal bits and I’m
> interested to see what comes out of those.
>
> I know there are a number of folks around Red Hat who are capable and
> possibly interested to share the load.  They should be back from PTO
> soon and we’ll make sure they know about the opportunity.

Thanks Neil!

I mentioned to Neil last year that I could probably be convinced,
bribed, shamed, into maintaining mdadm.

The kernel MD stack I think really needs a team to run it. There is just
too much internal knowledge sitting in Neil's head and I personally am a
little scared of taking on that. Shaohua Li would be a good candidate
for that team IMHO.

Cheers,
Jes

> thanks,
>  brassow
>
>> On Dec 21, 2015, at 12:10 AM, NeilBrown <neilb at suse.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> hi,
>> I became maintainer for md (Linux Software RAID) in late 2001 and on
>> the whole it has been fun and a valuable experience.  But I have been
>> losing interest in recent years (https://lwn.net/Articles/511073/) and
>> as was mentioned at the kernel summit, I would like to resign.  Some
>> years ago I managed to hand over nfsd to the excellent Bruce Fields,
>> but I do not seem to have the gift that Linus has of attracting
>> maintainers.  While there are a number of people who know quite a bit
>> about md and/or have contributed to development, there is no obvious
>> candidate for replacement maintainer - no one who has already been
>> doing significant parts of the maintainer role.
>> 
>> So I have decided to fall back on the mechanism by which I ended up
>> being maintainer in the first place.  I will create a vacuum and hope
>> someone fills it (yes: I was sucked-in....).  So as of 1st February
>> 2016 I will be resigning.
>> 
>> At the kernel summit in October Linus talked about the value of
>> maintainership teams (https://lwn.net/Articles/662979/).  I think it
>> would be great if a (small) team formed to continue to oversee md
>> rather than just a single individual (or maybe the dm team could extend
>> to include md??).  If I had managed to be part of a team rather than
>> "going it alone" for so long, I might feel less tired of the whole
>> thing now.
>> 
>> I don't see it as my place to appoint that team or any individuals, or
>> even to nominate any candidates.  A very important attribute of a
>> maintainer is that they need to care about the code and the subsystem
>> and I cannot tell other people to care (or even know if they do).  It
>> is really up to individuals to volunteer.  A few people have been
>> mentioned to me in earlier less-public conversations.  Any of them may
>> well be suitable, but I would rather they named themselves if
>> interested.
>> 
>> So I'm hoping to get one or more volunteers to be maintainer:
>>   - to gather and manage patches and outstanding issues,
>>   - to review patches or get them reviewed
>>   - to follow up bug reports and get them resolved
>>   - to feed patches upstream, maybe directly to Linus,
>>     maybe through some other maintainer, depending on what
>>     relationships already exist or can be formed,
>>   - to guide the longer term direction (saying "no" is important
>>     sometimes),
>>   - to care,
>> but also to be aware that maintainership takes real effort and time, as
>> does anything that is really worthwhile.
>> 
>> This all applies to mdadm as well as md (except you would ultimately
>> *be* upstream for mdadm, not needing to send it anywhere).  Even if a
>> clear team doesn't form it would be great if different people
>> maintained mdadm and md.
>> 
>> One part of the job that I have put a lot of time in to is following
>> the linux-raid at vger.kernel.org list and providing support.  This makes
>> people feel good about md and so more adventurous in using it.
>> Consequently I tend to hear about bugs and usability issues nice and
>> early (well before paying customers hit them in most cases) and that is
>> a big win.
>> In recent times I've been doing less of this and have been absolutely
>> thrilled that the gap has been more than filled by other very competent
>> community members.  Not developers particular but a number of md users
>> have been providing excellent support.  I'd particularly like to
>> high-light Phil Turmel who is very forthcoming with excellent advice,
>> but he is certainly not the only one who deserves a lot of thanks.
>> So "Thank you" to everyone who answers questions on linux-raid.
>> 
>> This would be a good place for any future maintainer to hang out to
>> receive wisdom as well as to provide support.
>> 
>> I will still be around.  I can certainly help out in some sort of
>> mentor role, and can probably be convinced to review patches and
>> comment on designs.  But I really want to head towards spending less
>> time on md (there are so many other interesting things to learn about).
>> 
>> So: if anyone is interested - please announce yourself, ask questions
>> and start doing things.  I have no clear idea about how a transition
>> will happen.  That is really up to you (plural). Take the bull by the
>> horns and start *being* a maintainer(team).  I won't get in your way
>> and I'll help where I can.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> NeilBrown
>> 
>> P.S. I'm committed to continue to work with the raid5-journal effort
>> From Facebook and the raid1-cluster effort from SUSE and the
>> line-in-the-sand of 1st February won't affect my support for those.
>> --
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>
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