DeveloperPerPackageUploadApplication

I, Alberto Contreras, apply for upload rights for package(s) cloud-init.

Name

Alberto Contreras

Launchpad Page

https://launchpad.net/~aciba

Wiki Page

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AlbertoContreras

I am applying because:

  • I'd like to eliminate delays in getting my work sponsored.
  • I'd like to reduce the burden on my sponsors.

Who I am

I am Alberto Contreras. I have a BSc in Mathematics from University of Granada and a MSc in Computer Science from University of Malaga.

Prior to working at Canonical, I worked as a software/scientific engineer during 5 years in the fields of Monte-Carlo simulations, smart cities, reconciliation in banking and digital marketing using technologies as C/C++, Matlab and Python.

I joined Canonical in 2022 as part of the Canonical Public Cloud (CPC) team as a software engineer with focus on a good integration of Ubuntu in Public Clouds, mainly working on Ubuntu Server projects, as cloud-init, ubuntu-pro.

My Ubuntu story

My first contact with Linux was with a mini laptop provided by my school, which had Debian installed. My first contact with Ubuntu was in 2008, when I downloaded an Ubuntu 8.04 ISO and installed it in my workstation. I was impressed by the performance, cohesiveness and beauty of the OS. I maintained a dual-boot system with Windows (mainly for gaming and windows-only compatible programs for my studies) during some years.

I used Debian / Ubuntu during my university studies and in an internship I did contributing to Normaliz. My professional career was full of Ubuntu too, either as a target and/or a development systems.

Since I joined Canonical in 2022, I have improved how Ubuntu behaves, adding features, fixing bugs, improving its perfomance and adding documentation. Working mainly in cloud-init upstream and downstream (Ubuntu), and ubuntu-pro.

My involvement

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Areas of work

Upgrade ec2-ami-tools to the latest version: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ec2-ami-tools/+bug/2078046

Things I could do better

Sometimes, while focused on planned features / bug fixes, is hard to find time to work more on code quality / refactorings for cloud-init.

Plans for the future

General

  • Improve boot performance.
  • Implement cloud-specific ubuntu cloud-init packages to reduce images size.
  • Close gaps in AWS multi-NIC auto-configuration.
  • Improve cloud-init's code quality, typing, documentation, release process, testing, etc.
  • Help more new contributors, either from the community or Canonical, to cloud-init.
  • Squash more old bugs.

What I like least in Ubuntu

(Specific to cloud-init) While we have improved and are working on boot performance, I still think it is probably the thing that I most dislike about cloud-init. We will continue working on it in future cycles.

Comments

If you'd like to comment, but are not the applicant or a sponsor, do it here. Don't forget to sign with @SIG@.

Endorsements

As a sponsor, just copy the template below, fill it out and add it to this section.

James Falcon

General feedback

Alberto has been a solid contributor to cloud-init for over two years. He came up to speed quickly and has taken on many tasks that have improved cloud-init and that require deep knowledge of the cloud-init codebase. Even though Alberto works on the CPC team, I consider him one of cloud-init's core contributors. He always contributes resilient, well designed, and well tested code.

Alberto's knowledge of and work with EC2 has proven to be especially helpful in understanding the best ways to approach cloud-init's hotplug feature on EC2. He has also been a strong contributor to our testing and quality efforts, including help maintaining the testing library pycloudlib. He has spearheaded new efforts for the project, such as the cloud config validation service.

Alberto is also regularly involved in releases and has prepared our releases for upload many times. This includes upstream snapshots as well as many separate packaging changes.

Specific Experiences of working together

I have reviewed dozens of his PRs and vice versa (not all are represented here).

His PRs are always top quality and the feedback on my PRs is always valuable. This includes packaging PRs for changes in cloud-init packaging.

Alberto also regularly attends the cloud-init meetings, including standups. He contributes valuable technical expertise and ideas when discussing architecture and thorny bugs.

Areas of Improvement

I could see value in having Alberto mentor other CPC members. Others from CPC are involved in cloud-init, and I think Alberto could provide a unique and more relatable perspective to help others come up to speed on the project.

Chad Smith

General feedback

Alberto has been a key asset in this upstream cloud-init project with his ability to development of simple, efficient and defensive solutions, thorough reviews for peers and community and investment in automation, tooling and documentation to improve the quality of our project.

I've sponsored 9 cloud-init package uploads from Alberto. In each upload, he shows vigilance in verification of expected versioning for releases across multiple series, the ability to clearly represent changed content succinctly in debian/changelog and run through full set suites to verify the quality of the package build. He has kept end-users needs front-of-mind by providing quilt patches (retain ec2 net events, retain status exit 0 on warnings, disable APT deb822 formatted sources to retain original behavior on stable releases.

The cloud-init project uses a set of tools, documentation and processes to create and validate our package uploads. In the event of packaging-related questions or inconsistencies in cloud-init's packaging tools, documentation or process, Alberto has typically provided pull requests or process improvements to our docs to resolve those issues or raises awareness with peers so we can collectively refine our processes.

He has touched most aspects of our package development, tooling and publication life-cycle:

  • Authored downstream quilt patches for stable releases to retain original behavior by setting feature flags in our product
  • He has maintained elements of our postinst/preinst scripts with defensive shell programming practices to avoid pitfalls of upgrade errors
  • integration with apport for better data collection during bug filing
  • managed introduction of depends/suggests in debian/control as our product evolves
  • fixed lintian warnings across our release support boundary

  • spent time extending our packaging tooling, release process and documentation to ensure our process is easy to follow and less prone to errors

  • consistently evaluated each upload he proposes with significant package build testing and verification of quilt patches

  • Has alternated as the upstream release manager for cloud-init which involves assessing and fixing integration test suite across all target platform prior to release, cutting that release, communicating, organizing and verifying all testing and verification prior to upload to meet our SRU exception

  • coordinated with SRU reviewers the review, resolution and acceptance of cloud-init uploads.

Alberto also has experience resolving regression-proposed conditions in LP: 20445582 . In this instance, he communicated clearly and succinctly the regression conditions, informed necessary parties, organized the fixes and the plan for resolution and the fix publication with engaged external customers to unblock our release.

In all of his involvement with the cloud-init project he shows:

  • a willingness to own very complex feature development and deliver simple, modular and well-tested solutions
  • the ability efficiently and correctly determine solutions to complex problems with appropriate error handling
  • as a reviewer of pull requests he provides thoughtful consideration in support of corner cases, avoidance of regressions and introduction of adequate automated testing.
  • clear communication and responsiveness, setting expectations, improving documentation and driving best practices to ensure we retain a supportable product.

Specific Experiences of working together

Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.

Alberto's work on UA auto-attach integration shows the ability communicate clearly to reach resolution, breakdown complex solutions into reviewable separate pull requests, communicate outstanding bugs and followup to resolve them. He prioritizes customer stability and thinks through corner-cases for users in his use of feature flags for APT deb822 format support. He invests in quality of community pull requests by providing test coverage in community PRs where lacking.

Areas of Improvement

Alberto historically has introduced additional tooling, test and CI automation to the cloud-init project and our test library pycloudlib such as mypy, static analysis tools, hypothesis testing I would like to see him continue to propose and drive project level changes/improvements to aid in automation to improve the maintainability of our projects.

TEMPLATE

== <SPONSORS NAME> ==
=== General feedback ===
## Please fill us in on your shared experience. (How many packages did you sponsor? How would you judge the quality? How would you describe the improvements? Do you trust the applicant?)


=== Specific Experiences of working together ===
''Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.''
## Full list of sponsored packages can be generated here:
##  https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi


=== Areas of Improvement ===

AlbertoContreras/DeveloperPerPackageUploadApplication (last edited 2024-09-05 12:14:26 by aciba)