Submitting packages

[Michael Schwendt]

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[All of the following is just my own point of view and does not
reflect any project's official policies or anything like that.]

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 01:04:35 +0200, Gerard Milmeister wrote:

> I submitted some packages to the old fedora bugzilla.
> I hope I didn't drive crazy the QA people there :-)
> Anyways, they have been helpful.
> What I would like to know, how long does the
> reviewing process go until the packages are included
> in the repository?

First of all, [at fedora.us] it's completely uncertain how long a
package remains in the queue before someone takes a first look at it.

With the limited human resources [at fedora.us], it is not guaranteed
that package requests are processed in first-come first-served order.

Especially when it is a big package which likely requires a reviewer
to have a good bit of familiarity with the software in order to test
whether the packaged files work and whether the set of included files
is complete and makes sense. This can be a big issue with special
purpose programming language packages, like you have submitted, which
have a special [and probably limited] target group [compared with
media players, for instance].

Even when the packager is trusted to assure that the packaged software
works on the chosen target platforms, it may need additional community
commitment before a package in the queue gets the necessary attention.

For the time the Fedora merger takes and as long as fedora.us serves
as a kind of testbed for Fedora Extras, it continues as a community
project where people with interest in particular packages to be
published can contribute, and help with QA/testing for instance.
The package queue is open (http://www.fedora.us/QA), basic
documentation is available (entry via main page). 

To speed up package reviews and approvals, preferably new packagers
team up with interested users and process package requests in
accordance with the published policies/guidelines (or even beyond) and
notify the fedora-devel at fedora.us list when a package has been
reviewed and is considered ready.

Even normal users, who fear they can't help with technical issues or
low-level package reviews, can give feedback on most-wanted software,
whether in the queue already or not even packaged yet.

> What happens to these packages?
> Will they be automatically included in the future Fedora extras
> repository?

Most likely not. Details of the Fedora Project package submission
procedure are not known yet. I can imagine that the requirements and
policies will be more strict. For instance with regard to registering
official package maintainers and assigning QA resources. The Fedora
Project will also have to deal with resource problems and emergency
response teams to allow for security fixes.

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