Comment 10 for bug 11177

Message-ID: <email address hidden>
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:00:21 +0100
From: Andries Brouwer <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Cc: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Bug#285520 acknowledged by developer (Sleeping developers)

On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 12:48:13AM -0800, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:
> This is an automatic notification regarding your Bug report
> #285520: util-linux: Debian maintainer asleep,
> which was filed against the util-linux package.
>
> It has been closed by one of the developers, namely
> Thomas Hood <email address hidden>.
>
> Their explanation is attached below. If this explanation is
> unsatisfactory and you have not received a better one in a separate
> message then please contact the developer, by replying to this email.
>
> Debian bug tracking system administrator
> (administrator, Debian Bugs database)
>
> Received: (at 285520-done) by bugs.debian.org; 14 Dec 2004 08:41:06 +0000
> Subject: Sleeping developers
> From: Thomas Hood <email address hidden>
> To: <email address hidden>
>
> > Debian has an util-linux maintainer who does nothing at all.
> > I have not received a single bug report from him.
>
>
> If you want to know what bugs are present in util-linux that have been
> reported by Debian users, please look at:
>
> http://bugs.debian.org/src:util-linux

That is the wrong reply. Yes, I can go around and search for bugs
in RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, etc etc databases.
That is not how it works.

People submit bug reports. The distribution package maintainers make
sure the report is not a misunderstanding, is not caused by private
modifications, really belongs to the util-linux package. If they
understand what happens they create a proposed patch and send it to
me. If they do not understand what happens they just send the bug
report.

It is important that this is done quickly - the submitter of the bug
is often needed for further clarification, or for confirming that a
patch solves the problem.

The current Debian data base contains many problem reports for problems
that were solved years ago, or even never existed.

> If you were to scan that list from time to time then it would save the
> Debian maintainer the secretarial work of forwarding bug reports to you.

It is not secretarial work. If it were, you should just set up an alias
so that the bug tracking machinery forwards the reports. That would be
much better than the current situation. But earlier Debian maintainers
did a lot of good work. The current maintainer does nothing for util-linux.
If users corresponded with me their bugs would actually get fixed
instead of stored in a data base.

> I have spoken to LaMont about the problem of maintaining util-linux. He
> said that he would like to import the package sources into arch and
> assemble a maintenance team. I assume that he is too busy these days to
> do much about those plans.

I called it "asleep", you call it "too busy". The conclusion stays:
the current Debian package maintainer does nothing for util-linux.
It would be good if Debian got a util-linux maintainer who actually
does the work implied by the maintainership.

> But while we are discussing developers' shortcomings, perhaps you can
> explain why you haven't applied the patch I sent you over a year ago
> which would allow mount to work with a symbolic link at /etc/mtab. You
> said you would apply the patch but you haven't done it. As a result, I
> was under the impression that _you_ were asleep.

A bad conclusion. There are frequent releases of util-linux, the last
yesterday. Bugs are fixed within hours. But wishlist items have low
priority. Not necessarily because of lack of time, but because
stability is important. There must not be too many changes.
Also size is important. Programs often used on a rescue floppy
must not collect bloat too quickly.

> Both you and LaMont should find some co-maintainers.

I would be very happy with a co-maintainer.
For example someone who did the work the Debian package maintainer
is expected to do.

Andries