[Fedora-packaging] Suggestion: require inclusion of cvs location in completed review request

[Dominik 'Rathann' Mierzejewski]

On Sunday, 06 April 2008 at 10:17, David Timms wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am keen to get the packaging process modified to include a final item 
> after ACCEPTED and CVS action done. This is simply to require the submitter 
> to make a final entry into the review request that indicates the URL to the 
> spec file on the fedora cvs server {or any future package source repo}. 
> Preferably via the web interface viewcvs.
>
> While some people think that the package submission, review, maintenance 
> can be burdensome, I think this would be an improvement to assist learning 
> packagers in seeing what the final completed .spec looks like.
>
> At the moment, many .spec URLs that are hosted outside Fedora are taken 
> down the moment or shortly after the process is complete. Hence it makes  
> it difficult to learn from the efforts of others in a package review in 
> Fedora because the .spec is no longer linked in the spec/SRPM urls provided 
> by the submitter.
>
> The second issue is that browsing the cvs server is quite slow - mainly at 
> the point where the "folder" has the complete list of {3000} package 
> folders. This means we could immediately click through to the correct 
> folder in the cvs server, rather than trawling from the top level.
>
> Any comments, rejections to this idea ?

I'm not opposed to the idea, but should be automated. I'm not thrilled
about adding another manual step to the package submission process.
-1 if done by hand, 0 otherwise.

> In the meantime, if you think it is a good idea, it would be appreciated  
> for others to do this in any case - if that is allowed ?
> ===
> Another idea along these lines would be to have a staging CVS server that 
> the reviewer would be required to commit the original and changes to the 
> spec under development. This could then be committed to the real cvs server 
> after acceptance. The submitter would still put his srpms on his own url, 
> not in the staging cvs server.

It's a problem because you'd need to create some accounts to provide
submitters who aren't yet sponsored with access.

> This would make it simpler to get a live diff on what the submitter's 
> changes have been, rather than viewing the spec as a whole and trying to 
> find the changes.

Granted, it might be useful in the handful of cases where the specfile is
fairly large, but the majority of specfiles are small and changes are
easily noticeable. -1 from me, as this puts more burden on both the
submitter and the infrastructure for very little gain.

Regards,
R.

-- 
Fedora contributor http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DominikMierzejewski
Livna contributor http://rpm.livna.org MPlayer developer http://mplayerhq.hu
"Faith manages."
        -- Delenn to Lennier in Babylon 5:"Confessions and Lamentations"