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+ <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.155 $">
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should retrieve the source package.</p>
<p>
Policy specifies that documentation should be shipped in HTML format.
-We also recommend shipping documentation in PDF and ASCII format if
+We also recommend shipping documentation in PDF and plain text format if
convenient and quality output is possible. However, it is generally
-not appropriate to ship ASCII versions of documentation whose source
+not appropriate to ship plain text versions of documentation whose source
format is HTML.</p>
<p>
Major shipped manuals should register themselves with
If someone doesn't feel confident with an NMU, he should just send a patch
to the BTS. It's far better than a broken NMU.
- <sect id="mia-qa">Dealing with unreachable maintainers
- <p>
-If you notice that a package is lacking maintenance, you should
-make sure the maintainer is active and will continue to work on
-his packages. Try contacting him yourself.
- <p>
-If you do not get a reply after a few weeks you should collect all
-useful information about this maintainer. Start by logging into
-the <url id="&url-debian-db;" name="Debian Developer's Database">
-and doing a full search to check whether the maintainer is on vacation
-and when they were last seen. Collect any important package names
-they maintain and any Release Critical bugs filed against them.
- <p>
-Send all this information to &email-debian-qa;, in order to let the
-QA people do whatever is needed.
<sect id="contacting-maintainers">Contacting other maintainers
<p>
email address.
+ <sect id="mia-qa">Dealing with inactive and/or unreachable maintainers
+ <p>
+If you notice that a package is lacking maintenance, you should
+make sure that the maintainer is active and will continue to work on
+their packages. It is possible that they are not active any more, but
+haven't registered out of the system, so to speak. On the other hand,
+it is also possible that they just need a reminder.
+ <p>
+The first step is to politely contact the maintainer, and wait for a
+response, for a reasonable time. It is quite hard to define "reasonable
+time", but it is important to take into account that real life is sometimes
+very hectic. One way to handle this would be send a reminder after two
+weeks.
+ <p>
+If the maintainer doesn't reply within four weeks (a month), one can
+assume that a response will probably not happen. If that happens, you
+should investigate further, and try to gather as much useful information
+about the maintainer in question as possible. This includes:
+ <p>
+ <list>
+ <item>The "echelon" information available through the
+ <url id="&url-debian-db;" name="developers' LDAP database">,
+ which indicates when's the last time a developer has posted to
+ a Debian mailing list. (This includes uploads via
+ debian-*-changes lists.) Also, remember to check whether the
+ maintainer is marked as "on vacation" in the database.
+
+ <item>The number of packages this maintainer is responsible for,
+ and the condition of those packages. In particular, are there
+ any RC bugs that have been open for ages? Furthermore, how
+ many bugs are there in general? Another important piece of
+ information is whether the packages have been NMUed, and if
+ so, by whom?
+
+ <item>Is there any activity of the maintainer outside of Debian?
+ For example, they might have posted something recently to
+ non-Debian mailing lists or news groups.
+ </list>
+ <p>
+One big problem are packages which were sponsored -- the maintainer is not
+an official Debian developer. The echelon information is not available for
+sponsored people, for example, so you need to find and contact the Debian
+developer who has actually uploaded the package. Given that they signed the
+package, they're responsible for the upload anyhow, and should know what
+happened to the person they sponsored.
+ <p>
+Once you have gathered all of this, you can contact &email-debian-qa;.
+People on this alias will use the information you provided in order to
+decide how to proceed. For example, they might orphan one or all of the
+packages of the maintainer. If a packages has been NMUed, they might prefer
+to contact the NMUer before orphaning the package -- perhaps the person who
+has done the NMU is interested in the package.
+ <p>
+One last word: please remember to be polite. We are all volunteers and
+cannot dedicate all of our time to Debian. Also, you are not aware of the
+circumstances of the person who is involved. Perhaps they might be
+seriously ill or might even had died -- you do not know who may be on the
+receiving side -- imagine how a relative will feel if they read the e-mail
+of the deceased and find a very impolite, angry and accusing message!)
+ <p>
+On the other hand, although we are volunteers, we do have a responsibility.
+So you can stress the importance of the greater good -- if a maintainer does
+not have the time or interest anymore, they should "let go" and give the
+package to someone with more time.
+
+
<sect id="newmaint">
<heading>Interacting with prospective Debian developers</heading>
<p>
~ianmdlvl / developers-reference.git / blobdiff