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Re: [fetchmail]fetchmail fork?

2004-05-24 23:44:48
OK, at this point I think I've heard from everyone I'm going to hear from, 
and it seems time to post on update on my thoughts.  Most of it has 
already been mentioned, but I'm gathering it in one place.  Feel free to 
speak up and disagree if you're so inclined.

* WHAT
The name of the project shall be Community Fetchmail, unless I hear any 
more votes for Bazaar Fetchmail.  The installed filenames will remain the 
same.

* WHO
This is the hardest part.  I hope I don't inadvertently hurt any feelings 
here.

I think it's important to determine an initial set of 2-5 maintainers who 
sort and apply patches.  These people should have some level of standing 
and be trusted in the community.  I hope nobody considers this too 
self-serving, but I think my status as one of ESR's designated backup 
maintainers gives me such standing.  (Though until I realized this fork 
was necessary, I always insisted that it gave me no status at all, so 
you're welcome to call me names for that.)  As I mentioned earlier, two of 
the others on that list disappeared a while back, and the fourth, Sunil 
Shetye, hasn't been seen here since December.  But I can't do the job 
alone, and would prefer to have two or three other core maintainers.

I already mentioned that Matthias Andree would be my first choice outside 
the backup maintainer list to be a maintainer; he's been around for quite 
a few years now (since 1999 according to my mailbox), and has demonstrated 
knowledge and understanding of the fetchmail code, the fetchmail 
philosophies, and wider email issues.  However, he has declined for now, 
while leaving the possibility open in the future.

My next candidate would be Graham Wilson. He has only been around this list 
since December as far as I can see, but has shown taste with respect to 
the fetchmail code, and since December has been the maintainer of the 
Debian package of fetchmail.  I would be happy if Graham would agree to 
take on the job of co-maintainer for the community fetchmail project.

At the risk of being impolitic, I'll go ahead and mention that the other 
two names that come to mind are Brian Candler and Clint Sharp.  While I 
think they have valuable contributions to make to the code, I'm not 
convinced that they're ready yet to be co-maintainers of fetchmail.  I do 
think they have the potential to become so in the future.

* HOW
As far as code control goes, Subversion was generally favored over CVS, so 
if possible we will try to host the code with Subversion.

I believe that a bug-tracking system is quite important, and in fact tend 
to prefer that, once we have one, all patches be submitted through it.

The code plan, as I see it, will be to first put 6.2.5 into code control, 
add whatever "round 1" patches are deemed necessary (bug fixes only, no 
major feature addition or removal), then do a release (What number 
designation?  6.2.6?  6.2.5.1?) with announcements of the new management 
going to all the usual places.  (I'd love it if someone could come up with 
a list of the usual places and their contact info.)  Then we work on round 
2, probably the UID stuff.

* WHERE
At this point I'd suggest that we try Berlios first, and if they don't 
accept the project or just ignore us, we fall back to Alioth.  Further 
comments, suggestions, and arguments for or against a particular site are 
quite welcome, preferably soon.

I'd suggest that the new project have its own development mailing list.  
Whether user assistance stays on fetchmail-friends or goes to another list 
is something we can discuss later among the community of developers and 
users.

* WHEN
I'll be offline from Thursday evening to Sunday evening. (I'll be at Marcon 
(www.marcon.org) in Columbus OH; if anyone else will be in the vicinity 
let me know!)  I'm hoping to have the new site live by early next week, 
but I have no idea how long it takes to get a project started at Berlios 
or Alioth. Monday is a U.S. holiday, which may also affect things; if 
nothing else I may need another day to hang out with friends offline. :-)


Did I miss anything?  Any comments, questions, arguments, ideas, et cetera?

-- 
==============================| "A slice of life isn't the whole cake
 Rob Funk <rfunk(_at_)funknet(_dot_)net> | One tooth will never make a full 
grin"
 http://www.funknet.net/rfunk |    -- Chris Mars, "Stuck in Rewind"