Package Maintainers Flags policy

Bill Nottingham notting at redhat.com
Tue May 19 21:08:47 UTC 2009


Till Maas (opensource at till.name) said: 
> > There is an easier option 3, which is no flags in Fedora period,
> > regardless of what spin.  Far easier to implement.
> 
> This is not easier for package maintainers who want to maintain a package in 
> Fedora that contains flags, because additional work has to be done by the 
> package maintainer. Adding some flag to the spec that indicates that the 
> package contains political flags is a log easier.

We carry patches all the time, and if people can't manage to apply patches
to their packages when necessary, then co-maintainers may be in order.
And I'll be willing to pitch into help fix things that need fixing.

(drifiting afield from this specific issue now, but it's related)

And really... it's not about being 'easier for package maintainers'. I'm
really tired of hearing that trope applied any time any sort of policy
is applied or suggested, whether it be:

- not having flags in packages
- having actual update notes in bodhi (or even using bodhi at all)
- not pushing new libraries to every release immediately
- not cursing out your fellow developers

The entire point of joining a community like Fedora is to work together
towards some common goals.

To suggest as prima facie evidence that anything that makes things not
as easy for packagers is bad implies a view where the package maintainer
feels that his needs, his preferred workflow, or his convenience somehow
supercedes the needs of the project itself, or the needs of its users.

Frankly, such an attitude is just wrong. It smacks of elitism and an
overinflated sense of ego. In the context of the project, none of us is more
important than the project itself. Sometimes you have to do *actual work*
that can't be reduced to a three line perl script; it's part of pitching in
towards something greater than yourself. And in the grand scheme of things,
I'd suggest that a billion potential users and contributors far outweighs
the convenience of a few packagers (really, this will affect only a
small number of packagers, anyway.)

If maintainers can't handle that, well, then maybe they need to find a
comaintainer, or maybe Fedora isn't for them.

Bill




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