KnowledgeBase

Revision 10 as of 2017-03-20 16:32:11

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This page is intended to list all of the miscellaneous pieces of DMB knowledge that have accumulated over the years.

This page is authoritative. If you think you've found a mistake, please email the DMB.

Conducting meetings

Chair

We share the responsibility of chairing the meetings. There should be a list on the agenda page. If you have just chaired, rotate the list and update the entry at the top of the page so we know who is chairing next.

Quorum

The quorum is 50% + 1. For example, if the DMB has 7 members (as it does at the time of writing), quorum is 4. This number is the minimum number of +1 votes that we need for any resolution to pass. Members are allowed to submit their votes in advance of a meeting, which will count as if they are present when considering quorum.

Handling applications

  • Try to handle applicants in the order they applied, earliest first.
  • Applicants will usually attend an IRC meeting to be questioned by the DMB on matters that members wish to clarify before they can vote. If the applicants or the DMB are having trouble meeting each other then the application may be handled over email, but it is important this happens in a timely fashion.

  • Many of our applicants do not have English as their first language.
    • Be understanding if the answers you get are not 100% clear
    • Ask questions one at a time. Let the meeting know when you are done questioning so that others can take over.

Voting

Applications have to reach +1 in order to pass. If the meeting is quorate and all members present vote in the same way (+1 or -1), then the application will have passed or failed - the remaining members cannot overturn the vote. If the vote is in doubt then it is hung and the remaining members will be asked to vote by email or at the next meeting. In this case those members are entitled to ask the applicant further questions if they still have any on reviewing the meeting log.

Packagesets

Consider making packagesets if someone applies and the grouping makes logical sense. The application process is more or less the same as for developer upload rights. The differences are

  • Each packageset needs a description. This is so that developers can mail devel-permissions after the set is created in order to have packages added. One DMB member then needs to judge the description against the reqested change and may make it if they decide it is warranted.

  • We create packagesets with just one uploader, which is a team that we then add developers to. The team should be configured like so
    • Owned by the DMB (but without having the DMB as a member)
    • Self renewal
    • 720 day expiry period
    • ~ubuntu-core-dev as a member

    • Member of ~ubuntu-uploaders (in rare cases the DMB may require membership of packageset uploaders: in this case make the team a member of ~ubuntu-dev instead.)

If necessary, we can modify the description later on following a full vote, either by email or in a meeting.

Special packagesets

Automatically managed packagesets

Flavour packagesets are automatically managed from seeds. There is a script to control this, which contains a list of overrides too. See lp:~developer-membership-board/+junk/packageset. We should look at automating runs of this script, but currently we need to remember to manually run it from time to time.

The script encodes the logic about which packagesets packages should go to, based on how sources are shared between flavours. Broadly, kubuntu/ubuntu/ubuntu-server are considered top-tier flavours and if they contain a package that is shared with others then they win and it goes into their set. core and desktop-core win out over all flavour sets too. See the seed-sets mapping at the top of the packageset-push script in the above branch.

Personal packagesets and glob expansions

Where an individual has a special reason for upload rights to a large number of packages that the DMB expects to need to manage frequently, we can create a "personal packageset" for this person, named "personal-<lpid>". Currently there is only one: personal-gunnarhj. This is defined as the set that the DMB has agreed that Gunnar may upload, which includes individual packages to which he has PPU, as well as glob expansions. The globs are defined in the packageset description. This way, any DMB member may update the glob expansions for Gunnar (by relying on their existing definition) without needing to refer to the full DMB for agreement or the TB to make the change.

Currently this is managed manually, but it may be advisable to script updates if they are frequent.

See the thread starting at https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/devel-permissions/2016-May/000924.html, but extending over June, July, August and September for details.

Delegating packageset uploader permissions

The DMB can decide to delegate the granting of upload rights to a packageset to a different group of developers. An example is that the Ubuntu desktop team is self managed. This means that applicants to that packageset do not come to the DMB, but they come to the team itself instead. The procedure is the same as for most other applications: somebody approaches the DMB with the proposal and it is voted on at the meeting. If approved, the body delegated should be added as an administrator of the team. It is very important that the teams come with a policy that says how applications will be managed. That is the document which you approve. You can see some examples on DeveloperMembershipBoard, and it is important that this list is kept current.

SRU Developers

Based on this thread, the DMB agreed to create a new team for SRU developers. This was announced to ubuntu-devel on 28 February 2017.

This team is for contributors who work mostly on SRUs but don't necessarily yet have experience in wider Ubuntu development. Team membership allows the sponsors to get out of the way for SRUs only.

This team grants Ubuntu membership. In other words, the DMB must determine that an applicant meets the requirements for Ubuntu membership before granting an applicant membership of this team.

Add successful applicants to the https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-sru-developers team.

Teams to add uploaders to

By default, uploaders to packagesets and per-package uploaders should be granted membership. This does not happen automatically - they must be added to the ~ubuntu-dev team. The reason for this is that occasionally the DMB may want to grant people upload rights if they do not meet the usual significant and sustained (interpreted as 6 months of contributions). That is: when adding a new packageset or PPU uploader, add the individual to ~ubuntu-dev if they are being granted membership or (for PPU only) to ~ubuntu-uploaders if they are not.

An exception to the above is that some packagesets require membership. You can identify these because the uploading teams are a member of ~ubuntu-dev instead of ~ubuntu-uploaders. In these cases applicants must satisfy the membership critera: granting upload rights without membership is not possible.

Applications from DDs

DDs who are PPU through the normal process can apply by email to have their access extended to further packages they (or a team they are a member of) maintain. This only requires one DMB member to agree in order to pass.