-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Joop Boonen wrote:
All,
Hi Joop
I was looking via: http://software.opensuse.org/search trough different packages in OBS. I saw that there quite a few duplicate projects. Some with identical new versions and some with old versions.
Yes. That's quite a plague IMO, to put it mildly.
I saw there are also quite a few overlaps with the fwbuilder package that I also have in OBS.
So I'm wondering if there is a way to consolidate packages in groups so that more people can put effort in building packages and bundle their knowledge to get the best out of it. Currently a lot of people put a lot of time in "duplicate" packages.
I'm wondering wouldn't it be better to start for for instance fwbuilder a security project that can be maintained by joined effort of people? In that way more package can be maintained in OBS I think?
Yes, absolutely, that would be the best solution in this case. I personally believe that the problem is two-fold: 1) We're missing (quite?) a few top-level projects (such as filesharing, security:*, ...) and I personally managed to have a few packages that don't fit into any of them. I ended up putting them in my home:pbleser:* projects because of that. That might be a problem for more packagers, which would explain why so many packages end up in home:* repositories instead of top-level ones (or "non-home:" ones). 2) We don't have a lot of collaboration tooling around the OBS at this point. The branches/patching approach is not trivial and it doesn't really help wrt communication between packagers. Packagers who do their work during their free time, which is usually at night with whatever timezone, might also have a hard time to poke people who can give them maintainer role or create a new non-home: project quickly. Personally, I think it is an issue because waiting a few days for such stuff getting done is a major annoyance when you maintain several dozens of packages. Maybe a broader coverage of "super-maintainers" (I only know of Adrian having such root powers on the OBS, and.. darix maybe ?) would help there. I really think that we should get rid of home: repositories for anything else then playing around. The current situation is problematic because some home: repositories are really just playgrounds for experimenting or learning, and other home: repositories contain proper packages that are adequate for public consumption by the masses. If we could at least move such proper packages to non-home: repositories, the easy rule would be "don't use home: unless you _really_ know what you're doing". And also, for example, not return search results from home: repositories unless explicitly for (e.g. a checkbox on the search page). It could also somewhat soften the duplication problem as home: repositories are for fiddling around, but when a packager wants something advertised as stable and OK for everyone to use, she should get in touch with maintainers to have their packages moved to non-home: repositories. Or propose their help to co-maintain a duplication of that package in a non-home: repository. Or let go and package something else, it's not like there isn't enough work for everyone ;)
If this option if feaseble what is the best way to accomplish this? The project of course needs to be created. Shall the individual OBS builder contact the other OBS builder?
I'm afraid that is the only option as of now. Look up who the maintainers are for a specific non-home: repository if it already exists, and contact them directly (on IRC or by email or on the opensuse-buildservice mailing-list). If an appropriate non-home: repository does not exist yet, send an email to the opensuse-buildservice list. cheers - -- -o) Pascal Bleser <pascal.bleser@opensuse.org> /\\ http://opensuse.org -- I took the green pill _\_v FOSDEM::7+8 Feb 2009, Brussels, http://fosdem.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFJHsasr3NMWliFcXcRApJdAJ4v+iSF8WO6dzfJO3xXrO+Jla6W2QCgpx+a q7HUVxkSs7czrksDuTGcGic= =nR5U -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org