Hi! > > I have drafted a new DEP at > > https://salsa.debian.org/dep-team/deps/-/merge_requests/8 titled "DEP-18: > > Enable true open collaboration on all Debian packages". > > > > Direct link to raw text: > > https://salsa.debian.org/dep-team/deps/-/raw/798bfa5a1e1609afd4e48ee20aff80a82bcd4a2f/web/deps/dep18.mdwn .. > Sorry, but I disagree that the only true collaboration is Salsa-rich > collaboration. Where are my options to mirror the data at Salsa, as I > can do with mailinglists and Debbugs, to work with it also offline?
First of all, thanks for maintaining 650+ packages in Debian. You have for sure developed an optimal workflow for yourself. I also do a lot of email based stuff myself and often work offline. Note that GitLab does allow responding by email to notifications and to carry reviews by email. Depending on configuration, one could even submit patches by email[1]. There are also command-line tools that allow various actions without having to use the browser [2,3]. I do however understand that people who already have an optimal workflow are probably not keen to change it unless the new workflow is vastly superior, and GitLab/Salsa isn't always perfect in all regards. I do however believe that in the grand scheme of things promoting the five key principles outlined in DEP-18 would benefit Debian as a whole. Also, I can see that you are already following principles 1 and 2 of the proposal by having almost all of your packages in git and on salsa.debian.org. As the DEP-18 draft text says, strict enforcement is not a wise tactic in the context of fostering collaboration, and I would not expect you to move away from what you are doing now, as it works for you and benefits Debian with 650+ packages. In your case following the principles 3, 4 and 5 would probably not be appropriate in cost vs benefit. For example running Salsa CI or asking for code reviews prior to upload would probably just slow things down too much without the gain in your case. However, I would still argue that DEP-18 would be useful as a general guideline in Debian and in particular for team maintained packages and important packages (as discussed in the "end single maintainership thread"). Having such principles published would help maintainers (at least new maintainers) to align on a set of basic principles that help drive more collaborative development. [1] https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/creating_merge_requests.html [2] https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/devscripts/salsa.1.en.html [3] https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/glab/glab.1.en.html
