Updates to the FTBFS policy
Hello,
after the recent discussions, the Fedora's "Fails to Build From Source"
policy
[0] has been updated [1][2].
The changes include:
## The policy no longer requires e-mails to devel to orphan a package
This requirement made automation hard and resulted in most of the packages never
being orphaned because almost nobody did this. The public e-mail about a certain
package failing to build may have been seen as public shaming by some.
## Packages with NEW bugs will be orphaned after 8 weeks
Orphaning packages where the maintainers don't respond at all makes sure that
all the dependent package maintainers are properly notified about the problem
long before the package is retired.
## Not orphaned packages are only retired after they FTBFS for 13+ months
A week before Fedora N branching, packages that haven't built successfully at
least on Fedora N-2 will be retired regardless of their FTBFS bug status.
This allows the maintainers to postpone the package retirement, but not
indefinitely. It also enforces that even if the bugs are closed by mistake, we
don't miss any packages.
The policy only allows the retirements to happen when there are several
announcements about this on the devel list, with the list of packages. This
makes sure nothing happens unexpectedly.
I hope the changes will help assure Fedora packages stay in an generally healthy
state without (especially occasional) Fedora contributors feeling intimidated by
the rules. In any case, if you feel you need help when your package fails to
build, please don't hesitate to use the devel mailing list to reach out, as does
the document describing Fedora packager responsibilities [3] suggests.
Thanks to everybody who was involved in this effort.
[0]
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fesco/Fails_to_build_from_source_Fai...
[1] https://pagure.io/fesco/issue/2244
[2] https://pagure.io/fesco/fesco-docs/pull-request/18
[3] https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fesco/Package_maintainer_responsibil...
--
Miro Hrončok
--
Phone: +420777974800
IRC: mhroncok