Summary from yesterdays (mini) FESCo meeting

[Michael Schwendt]

On Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:58:09 -0900, Jeff Spaleta wrote:

> As a reviewer and a packager, I'm always concerned that the liste of
> items I need to check as a matter of policy will shift under my feet.

That's why we need good communication channels where to announce policy
changes and where to reach all package maintainers.

> The packaging policy does evolve, and will continue to evolve, and I
> do my best to adhere to the stated guidance. If I'm not reading over
> the guidelines as I do any reviews, I'm garunteed to miss a policy
> change. 

> Right now I spend too much
> time reading over all the guidance looking for changes everytime I do
> a review.

The scenario you describe is unacceptable.

You should only feel the need to revisit the guidelines if they contain
things that contradict with your own packaging habits. In that case it'll
likely take some time to get used to the guidelines. However, if you read
them the first time and find nothing unusual, nothing special, there is no
need to revisit them (except when comparing ugly details such as scriptlet
sections).

> I can't reasonably assume that the guidelines I remember from 3 months
> ago are completely appropriate now.

Who cares? Three months in the future you should still be able to spot
questionable packaging techniques which require a closer look. All that
matters is whether a package contains anything nasty prior to approval or
after approval (when the packager can reintroduce severe packaging bugs
unless this is noticed via commits-list).