[maemo-developers] Updating the info for Extras-devel non-free

[From: Jeremiah Foster]

On Nov 25, 2009, at 15:11, Valerio Valerio wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 1:55 PM, Dave Neary <dneary at maemo.org> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I know I'm not the only one confused here...
> 
> Quim says:
> >>>> We are seeing more questions about this and actually the
> >>>> current information is misleading since it suggests that
> >>>> non-free packages can bypass the Extras-testing QA process,
> >>>> which is not true.
> 
> And Jeremiah says:
> > Here is the relevant line that I believe X-fade added regarding this:
> > "There is no promotion available for non-free. You need to upload
> > yourpackage to the right repository yourself." When he states
> > 'promotion' he is referring to extras-testing.
> 
> This directly contradicts what Quim said - either non-free packages
> bypass the extras-testing QA process, or they don't. Which is it?

It "is" what the code allows it to be. In other words, if Niels says it does not go through promotion, and he wrote the code, then I think it doesn't go through promotion.

> 
> > It is preferable that we make sure the wiki reflects reality rather
> > than just changing things on the fly. This page;
> > http://wiki.maemo.org/Uploading_to_Extras-devel#.22non-free.22_packages
> > stated that non-free packages go through the same testing procedure
> > as free packages. This is not the case.
> 
> I put this in place today, following Quim's mail. Previously it said
> "It's your responsibility to upload to the right place" or something
> like that.
> 
> > Let's wait until Niels comes back so that he can explain exactly what
> > his code does, then we can decide if we want to change the policy.
> 
> Perhaps part of Niels' tasks when he comes back should be to ensure that
> we don't need him to come back to explain what policy is? It seems like
> an awful lot of things depend on him being around.
> 
> Totally agree.

We all should be easily replaced. The code we write, what we do, how we administer the servers, should all be documented. This fortunately is pretty much the case with what you do Dave, but I think the rest of us, myself included, have been less effective at documentation. 

I wrote an email about this to the internal team list, but it got little response.

I think the maemo council should really take this up, if the council wants an overview of what the staff they have hired are working on, they should make sure documentation is available. Only then can they know if they need more staff, different staff, or what the staff actually does. It would also help me explaining what I do to the council.

I will start working on a Log Book where I describe the code I write to do BAU and what pieces of garage I am personally responsible for. 

> 
> Here's a example of a non-free package: http://maemo.org/packages/package_instance/view/fremantle_extras-devel_non-free_armel/fring/1.2.1.64-1
> 
> It seems to have a similar page structure to the other free apps on package interface, don't know if there's a promotion button there(I'm not the maintainer), but if no is because Neils disable it.
> 
> On a related topic is STILL possible to create a page at maemo.org and insert a .install file pointing to a external repository, bypassing all the Q&A Criteria (someone already did that :( ).

We should discuss this in relation to QA at the next sprint and see if we can come up with a way to deal with it.

Jeremiah

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