Core Dev Application

Revision 15 as of 2016-01-18 12:47:56

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I, Louis Bouchard, Apply for Core Dev

Who Am I

Currently working as software engineer with Canonical sustaining engineering, my primary activities are fixing bugs, making them available in stable releases through the SRU process, collaborate with upstream developers, both in the Debian Project and upstream to fix root cause bugs and make them available downstream.

I have also been packaging makedumpfile for the Debian as Debian Maintainer for makedumpfile. I participate to the sosreport development and have been fixing bugs and packaging sosreport for Ubuntu and Debian for which I am the official DM.

I currently hold PPU right for the following packages :

  • sosreport
  • makedumpfile

Contact Information

Name

Louis Bouchard

Launchpad Page

https://launchpad.net/~louis-bouchard

IRC Nick

caribou

Wiki Page

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LouisBouchard

Ubuntu Activities

While still concentrating around Ubuntu Server and the Openstack projects I participate to some Foundation specific issues and a few kernel oriented activities, mostly around my previous kernel crash dump area of expertise.

Continuing my efforts around kernel crash dump mechanisms, I have completed enhancements for kdump-tools functionality to enable networked kernel dumps, both through SSH and NFS. It has been available since Vivid.

I have recently completed the elaboration of a crashdump subordinate charm for Juju (cs:crashdump) which has passed all review and is now available in the charm store.

During the last year, following my Per Package Upload rights attribution for the sosreport and makedumpfile packages, I have been actively working on those packages. I have also involved myself in a couple of merges to improve my packaging knowledge, namely :

  • ifenslave
  • rsyslog

The rsyslog merge (LP: #1464201) was rather challenging as it went from and rather old version (7.4.4) to another major version (8.9.0 at the time), including fixes needed upstream. It was also important to have it merged in 15.10 in order to have testing time before the upcoming LTS. And last but not least, since the merge did not get any sponsorship attention before Wily's feature freeze, a Feature Freeze Exception (FFE LP: #1488830) had to be requested in order to get the package merged. In the meantime, the debian version had evolved so I ended up redoing the merge for 8.12.0

My list of sponsored packages is various and are mostly for packages in the Main archive. This is the reason for applying directly for Core Dev : almost all my activity revolves around packages in the Main archive.

Helping others

Reporting issues and helping people do adequate diagnostics is the motivation behind my work on sosreport. I have done a sensible portion of the port of sosreport plugins to Debian and Ubuntu and I am still a major contributor to sosreport on those two projects.

I strongly believe that fixing issues as high as possible in the development chain is beneficial both to our community and to the quality of the open source ecosystem. Being part of both the Ubuntu and Debian communities is also a primary goal for me. This is why I recently completed the application and am now the official Debian Maintainer for makedumpfile the Debian project.

Some of my contributions

  • kdump-tools networked dump functionality
  • crashdump subordinate charm
  • makedumpfile Debian packaging
  • Multiple SRU

  • sosreport enablement on Ubuntu & Debian

  • Enhancements and fixes on some Openstack charms

Where I want to improve

While my packaging experience is now strong and solid, I do want to improve on complex packaging strategies. I also intent to continue to improve my merge and sync skills for the packages where I am TIL as well as for new packages in the future. I want to continue some PlusOne activities around FTBS issues.

I am also commited to continue my participation in the SRU process, to continue to gain experience in the process and to become more active in bug triaging and SRU.

I am actively working on improving my Python skills and want to do more work in package autotest implementation.

This is particularly true for sosreport where I intend to request a Micro Release Exception for the package. One of the requirement from the TB is to improve the testing to mitigate the regression risk tied to MREs.

What I like least in Ubuntu

Investigating failures and issues on an operating system requires systematic data gathering, tools to investigate and reliable forensics. Work is still needed on Ubuntu to make sure that these are easily available and configurable, do not require sysadmin knowledge to be provided and can be reliably analyzed. I hope to be able to dedicate more time in improving these areas, especially around sosreport in order to keep it in sync with upstream developments.

Comments

If you'd like to comment, but are not the applicant or a sponsor, do it here.

Gavin Guo

I have worked with Louis in many projects. Louis gave me many supports on the crash tool and the time management tool, (tl) , developed by himself. He has broad knowledge of the Ubuntu development and knows the SRU process well. In personality, he is really kind, friendly and always willing to provide the help to others where there is a chance. I'm convinced Louis is no doubt an invaluable asset to the community. -- mimi0213kimo 2016-01-17 07:14:45

Endorsements

Sebastien Bacher

I've been reviewing/sponsoring some of the merges and SRUs done by Louis over the recent cycles and I can say he has been doing good work. His changes were usually good quality, well documented and tested. Louis is also responsive to comments (via launchpad or IRC) and nice to work with. I recommend him for coredev rights

Chris J Arges

General feedback

Overall Louis has shown quality work and attention to detail. His patches are carefully constructed and the latest reviews I've done have required no changes. He understands the Ubuntu processes well. I endorse him for CoreDev.

Specific Experiences of working together

I've reviewed and sponsored the following uploads for Louis:

-- arges 2016-01-07 15:10:09

Martin Pitt

I sponsored 10 uploads for Louis. A few of them were trivial no-change rebuilds for libraries, in this case the challenge was to find out which ones to rebuild. I reviewed/sponsored several rsyslog merges; these took a few rounds of review, but I would expect that with any developer as this was a really complicated one. Other uploads were some backported patches.

All in all I am sufficiently convinced that Louis knows what he's doing, and also knows when to ask for a second opinion. I recommend him for core-dev.

-- pitti 2016-01-11 16:22:06

Andy Whitcroft

Though I have only sponsored a couple of small backports for Louis I have also had the opportunity to work with him on the recent significant changes to crash. In all of this I have found him thoughtful and keen to obtain review, and in particular to seek guidance when unsure as to his path. He is also mindful of the needs of older releases. I recommend him for core-dev.

-- apw 2016-01-14 08:20:06

Michael Vogt

I worked with Louis on various projects and sponsored some fixes to squid-deb-proxy. He knows what he is doing and is easy to work with. I recommend him for core-dev.

-- mvo

Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre

I have a few experiences working with Louis. He's very knowledgeable about the Ubuntu ecosystem and doesn't fear asking questions. He also does lots of research before proposing options, which is particularly useful when interacting with others on things that might affect many people. Both instances where I sponsored his packages (ifenslave and haproxy), the updates were relatively uncomplicated but perfectly executed. I recommend him for core-dev.

-- mathieu-tl 2016-01-18 12:47:37