Information for being/becoming a portage developerPortage Developers work on the sys-apps/portage package by committing
code to the portage/main subversion repository, they have access to all branches. Portage Contributors work on specific aspects of the sys-apps/portage package
by committing code to certain branches of the portage/main subversion repository, their access
is usually limited to those branches. Portage Tools Developers work on the app-portage/gentoolkit and other packages
in the app-portage category. The portage release coordinator is responsible for creating releases of the
sys-apps/portage package and maintainng the associated ebuilds in the gentoo-x86 tree.
All aspects regarding portage releases and portage ebuilds should go through
the release coordinator. This includes all above groups as well as other people working on the project that
aren't part of any mentioned group. Each of the groups above may have one or more lead developers that have additional rights and responsibilities. The first and most important requirement is that you have an established positive
track record of contributions to the portage project, be it patches, new code, bugfixes,
documentation or other improvements. Another important requirement is to have good
interactions with existing members, e.g. repeated complaints on bugzilla involving foul
language is not going to help you to "get in". On the technical side you should be familiar with portage itself (even
if you won't work on it directly) as well as any tools and languages involved
with your work (languages generally being python and/or bash). You don't have to be
a certified expert with them though. If you are an existing Gentoo developer simply ask one of the Portage Lead Developers to become a member, he will then add you to the projects member list and get you the required access (or reject your request). For non-developers the general rules is "don't contact us, we
contact you", however if you feel that your work is neglected feel free to
contact either one of the lead developers or the dev-portage@gentoo.org mail alias Depending on the amount and quality of your existing contributions we may ask you to perform additional portage specific tests if we feel that your understanding of portage concepts and/or the work you're going to do has substantial lacks, however this will be decided on a case by case situation. One more thing to note: Due to social group dynamics we try to keep and number of members at a reasonable size, so we don't take you in that doesn't always mean that don't value your existing contributions, it might just be that we think that the project is getting to big to be handled efficiently (we'll tell you the reason of course). If you have the feeling that you aren't going to contribute to the project anymore
you're free to leave the project at any time you want. However it would be nice
to inform the project (especially the lead developers) in advance when you're
leaving, if you plan to return and if there are any open issues that have to be
resolved (e.g. unfinished tools or docs, you were the only one working on a
branch and things like that).
In case one or more project members feel that another member abuses his priviledges in some way they can report it to the lead developers, and in case of serious abuse request a suspension of the member from the portage project. Upon such a report (or if they are noticing an abuse themselves) the lead developers will look into the matter, and if the report was justified (evidence for abuse is found) they will take actions, ranging from "don't do this again" notices up to suspension from the project (including removal of any access to project repositories). It's important to note that this does not affect the general Gentoo conflict resolution procedures, so suspensions from the portage project do not affect any priviledges outside the portage project, however a suspension might involve a complaint to developer relations to invoke a global suspension. According to the current metastructure model each Gentoo project must elect its leads at least once per year. However to simplify matters the portage project has agreed to only hold elections upon request by a member (as most members simply don't care about leads) and otherwise rely on the existing leads. Once an election is requested (by sending a mail to the dev-portage@gentoo.org alias) an election will be held within the next four weeks, and the way the election will be hold will be announced on the dev-portage@gentoo.org alias within one week after the request. To avoid deadlocks the request for an election can be rejected by the existing leads if an election was already hold in the last six months prior to the request. Role changes: Release Coordinator The role of the Portage Release Coordinator is appointed by the Portage Lead Developers. The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license. |
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