New Package Process

[Greg DeKoenigsberg]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005, Michael Schwendt wrote:

> I would really prefer if "architecture specific Fedora community
> developers" filled the role of package co-maintainers. Else we would play
> the "if it builds, publish it" game and offer something, which has not
> been tested at all.

Which is potentially bad, I agree -- but not guaranteed bad.

Let's play this game.  I'll present a scenario, and everyone pile on and 
tell me what's wrong with it.

1. A *very* lightweight *initial* package acceptance process, in which we 
determine:
  a. No obvious maliciousness;
  b. No obvious IP/copyright issues.

2. A policy of "build the world".  Every package in the build system, we 
build.  If it passes, it goes into the "untested" bucket.  This bucket 
is also a repo, for those who dare.

3. A mechanism for "final review" that marks the difference between "a
package that builds" and "a package the builds and is any good".  And 
let's think creatively about this final review: does it need to be a 
single person who says "this is ok, I bless it"?  Or could it *also* be a 
threshhold?  For example: we could say that any package that is installed 
100 times from the untested repo, without anyone voting against it, 
is automatically promoted to the "tested" bucket.  This would provide two 
paths: one path for packages that people are watching over, and a parallel 
path for packages that people aren't watching over, but are still using.

Is this foolish or wrong in any way?

--g

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