Co-maintainersip policy for Fedora Packages

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

Greg, it seems to me we have different things in mind. Sure, something
like you outlined in your mail might help teaching new contributors
packaging -- but it would be a lot of work for some existing
contributors (you mentioned Professors/Instructors and homework [which
would need to be prepared or "checked"]). But it's to a wide part a
variant of the sponsorship process we have already. A variant that has a
higher entry burden then the current process afaics. That's a bit
problematic, too, IMHO -- but that's a different thing, so back to the
main topic:

Greg Dekoenigsberg schrieb:
> [...]
> In fact, one of the greatest potential motivators for a new packager is 
> simple: they can't find a package in Fedora that they really, really want. 

Sure, that's the greatest potential motivator and it was probably the
motivator for most of the current Extras contributors.

But that potential motivator got and still gets smaller and smaller with
every package that finds its way into the repo.

It IMHO is quite small already. Just imagine a alternate variant thl
that was busy with real life in the last three years, never became a
Fedora contributor (¹) until now but *now* wants to become one. All the
software I use that can be packaged in Fedora is there these days. So
this potential motivator would not exist for me and thus the
"traditional sponsership process" is no way of entry for me. So where do
I start? How do I get involved in Fedora?

We need a entry point for people like the alternate variant of thl. One
way for those people IMHO could be this:
* I read a bit about rpm packaging in general, look at the guidlines,
try a bit here, try a bit there.
* I look around what smaller packages exist in Fedora that I'm
interested it.
* I watch the maintainers of those packagers and their doings a bit
* I ask some of those maintainers if I can help them with some stuff
and/or I provide patches and enhancements for this or that
* I ask to become a co-maintainer for some of those packages. I of
course get only access to those packages in the beginning and *no*
permissions to build anything
* I start do do some regular maintain tasks; the primary maintainer
checks them and builds the package if everything is fine
* I learn while doing it
* I Learn more
* Sooner or later I will have learned a lot. Then the primary maintainer
IMHO could says: "okay, you are doing a good job, I'm involved in a lot
of other stuff these days, do you want to take the package over"

This often would have advantages for the primary maintainer at the same
time as well: After the initial learn and integration period of the new
contributor he has a bit less work to care about. He can use that time
for more crucial and more complicated stuff in Fedora land. E.g. work
directly on Features like a new init system for Fedora 8. Or work on
more complicated packages.

CU
thl

(¹) -- some people would probably prefer that scenario :)