merge reviews

[Jussi Lehtola]

On Thu, 2010-07-08 at 14:28 -0600, Kevin Fenzi wrote:
> So, here we are today with 242 still open merge reviews: 
> http://fedoraproject.org/PackageReviewStatus/MERGE.html
> (Plus a few that were closed when they shouldn't have been). 
> 
> So, what do we do? 
> 
> Some possible options:
> 
> a) Just close them all, any bugs in spec files in those packages can be
> filed as bugs against them. 
> 
> b) Try and make some kind of concerted effort to get the last 242 done? 
> We would need both people willing to review and maintainers willing to
> commit changes and get things completed. 

Just a few comments. First of all, option a) is IMHO out of the
question.

242 reviews is not that much. Maybe people have not been aware so far
that Merge Reviews exist and can be performed by anyone in the packagers
group. This discussion should raise awareness about the fact.

The work needed for the review depends, though, a lot on the nature of
the package. The further down the pile we go, the more work there is per
package: the spec files of say gcc, kernel or OpenOffice.org are rather
daunting.

I started doing merge reviews in late 2008, so far I've finished 24 of
them and have 8 reviews currently still open. The biggest problem so far
has been the lack of maintainer interest, often nothing has happened
after my comments. For the major part a lot of BZ pings and mails to
package-owner at fedoraproject.org has done the trick, but some bugs have
been awfully silent.
-- 
Jussi Lehtola
Fedora Project Contributor
jussilehtola at fedoraproject.org