Ubuntu Wiki

   1 [12:33] <valsum> here is our instructor, hey daniel
   2 [13:00] <dholbach> WELCOME EVERYBODY TO THIS SESSION!
   3 [13:00] <dholbach> Who do we have here for Patch Reviewing and Operation Cleansweep today?
   4 [13:00] <revolverXD> me
   5 [13:00] <paultag> dholbach, I'll be in and out, but I'd love to help you guys.
   6 === ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Current Session: Packaging Training: Patch Review and Operation Cleansweep - Instructor: dholbach
   7 [13:01] <dholbach> who else? come on, don't be shy :)
   8 [13:01] <norax> me
   9 [13:01] <dholbach> Awesome!
  10 [13:01] <dholbach> Most importantly, read and bookmark this page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReviewersTeam/ReviewGuide
  11 === devildante is now known as devildante-busy-
  12 [13:02] <dholbach> The reason we're working on Operation Cleansweep is simple: we have quite a bunch of bugs with attached patches in Launchpad
  13 === devildante-busy- is now known as devildante
  14 [13:02] <dholbach> The reason for that is simple too: there were times when we are all were very busy, or it was about packages that nobody knew much about, or sometimes "patches" would get attached that weren't really patches, or didn't apply, etc.
  15 [13:03] <dholbach> there's lots of reasons why we're sitting on this big pile of patches and need to do something about them now
  16 [13:03] <dholbach> nigelb and others thought long about the problem and came up with the process described on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReviewersTeam/ReviewGuide
  17 [13:03] <dholbach> basically it works like this:
  18 [13:03] <dholbach>  - try to reproduce the problem
  19 [13:03] <dholbach>  - test patch
  20 [13:04] <dholbach>  - if urgent: get into distro
  21 [13:04] <dholbach>  - forward upstream if applicable
  22 [13:04] <dholbach>  - forward to debian if applicable
  23 [13:04] <dholbach> if it's not so urgent, we can wait for it to get to us via upstream
  24 [13:05] <dholbach> it's good to get an opinion from somebody who maintains the package either as the software author or as the debian maintainer
  25 [13:05] <dholbach> are there any questions up until here? :)
  26 [13:05] <dholbach> all clear? :)
  27 [13:05] <paultag> dholbach, you might be covering this -- but is there an easy way to search LP for patches that are "unaswered" ?
  28 [13:05] <dholbach> yes, I'll cover that in a sec :)
  29 [13:06] <paultag> unanswered *
  30 [13:06] <dholbach> alright
  31 [13:06] <dholbach> let's get into patches :)
  32 [13:06] <dholbach> erm
  33 [13:06] <dholbach> into bug tags :)
  34 [13:07] <dholbach> we have a script that tagged lots of bugs with 'patch' to indicate that it's in our queue
  35 [13:07] <dholbach> if you find out that the patch does not apply or not work or not make sense, use patch-needswork
  36 [13:07] <dholbach> once you forwarded it upstream and / or debian, use patch-forwarded-upstream and patch-forwarded-debian
  37 [13:07] <dholbach> once it was accepted there, use patch-accepted-upstream (or patch-accepted-debian)
  38 [13:08] <dholbach> (that gives a nice todo list for people who want to integrate it into Ubuntu then)
  39 [13:08] <dholbach> if it gets rejected there, use patch-rejected-upstream (or patch-rejected-debian)
  40 [13:09] <dholbach> If the patch is unnecessary or addresses something that does not need to be fixed, add tag patch-rejected, give reason in the comments, and if required close the bug to Won't Fix.
  41 [13:09] <dholbach> paultag: so all patches that weren't answered yet, don't have one of these tags :)
  42 [13:10] <dholbach> paultag: we have a query for that and it's on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OperationCleansweep
  43 [13:10] <paultag> Ah, awesome.
  44 [13:10] <paultag> I was just putting one together :P
  45 [13:10] <dholbach> also do we put together http://daniel.holba.ch/review/example.html :-D
  46 [13:10] <dholbach> if you want to put that on your webpage, that'd be nice :)
  47 [13:11] <dholbach> does the process generally make sense? or are there any questions about it?
  48 [13:12] <dholbach> some people wondered why we used so many tags - it's simply because we want to make a statement about all these patches - right now it just looks like there's 2000 patches dangling there
  49 [13:12] <dholbach> but we don't know much about the individual statuses
  50 [13:13] <dholbach> I realise that some of the points I mentioned above sound easy but can be hairy
  51 [13:13] <dholbach> for example "test the patch"
  52 [13:13] <dholbach> or "forward upstream"
  53 [13:13] <dholbach> or "if applicable"
  54 [13:13] <norax> how long do we have to wait to upstream? or how do you define urgent?.
  55 [13:13] <dholbach> norax: exactly :)
  56 [13:13] <dholbach> for that reason we set up https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReviewersTeam/KnowledgeBase - it has short articles on almost all of these questions
  57 [13:14] <dholbach> norax: your questions are tough :)
  58 [13:14] <dholbach> obviously it's all about striking the balance between "getting important information from upstream" vs "getting the fix into Ubuntu because it fixes a real problem"
  59 [13:15] <dholbach> it goes without saying that the closer we are to upstream the better for everybody
  60 [13:15] <dholbach> but you know, there's release deadlines, there's people going on holidays, and sometimes there's thousands of users bitten by the bug
  61 [13:15] <dholbach> on the other hand there's patches that are huge and don't make sense to you or make integral changes
  62 [13:16] <dholbach> if you're unsure, ask somebody else
  63 [13:16] <dholbach> if the patch really needs to go into Ubuntu (while being discussed upstream), make use of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SponsorshipProcess
  64 [13:17] <dholbach> norax: I know this was hand-wavy, but does it answer the question somewhat?
  65 [13:17] <norax> yes, thx
  66 [13:17] <dholbach> if you have an obvious fix that fixes a HUGE and IMMEDIATE problem, forward it upstream and get it into Ubuntu ASAP :)
  67 [13:18] <dholbach> I realise that sometimes it's a bit harder to say :)
  68 [13:18] <dholbach> are there any more questions?
  69 [13:19] <devildante> Can we sponsorship a patch that is not ours?
  70 [13:19] <dholbach> sure
  71 [13:20] <dholbach> it's important the patch was tested and makes sense
  72 [13:21] <dholbach> the easier for the sponsors the patch is, the better
  73 [13:21] <dholbach> :)
  74 [13:22] <dholbach> if there are no more questions, we could just all go and join #ubuntu-reviews and work on a few patches and bugs together
  75 [13:22] <dholbach> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OperationCleansweep has the link you need in bright yellow
  76 [13:23] <dholbach> was there anything else that seemed unclear or whooly?
  77 [13:24] <revolverXD> i guess is should not try that if im quite a new user to linux?
  78 [13:25] <dholbach> revolverXD: if you're not afraid of playing around with patches and trying things out, then it should be fine
  79 [13:25] <dholbach> any other questions?
  80 [13:25] <rsajdok> dholbach: you might be covering this "once you forwarded it upstream and / or debian"
  81 [13:26] <dholbach> rsajdok: what is your question? how to forward something to debian or upstream?
  82 [13:27] <dholbach> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Debian/Bugs for example explains how to forward bugs and patches to debian
  83 [13:27] <dholbach> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME does the same thing for gnome
  84 [13:27] <rsajdok> dholbach: yes, how to forward patch to upstream?
  85 [13:27] <dholbach> plus there's always people in #ubuntu-bugs or #ubuntu-reviews who can help you with that
  86 [13:28] <dholbach> it makes sense to have a look for existing bugs already that discuss the problem
  87 [13:28] <rsajdok> dholbach: ok, thanks
  88 [13:28] <dholbach> in the case of debian you send an email
  89 [13:28] <dholbach> in the case of gnome (and lots of others), you need a login for their bugtracker
  90 [13:28] <dholbach> https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libpcap/+bug/523349 is an example of that
  91 [13:28] <ubot2> Ubuntu bug 523349 in libpcap (Debian) (and 1 other project) "Bad /sys path to text-based usbmon (affects: 2) (dups: 1) (heat: 29)" [Unknown,Fix released]
  92 [13:29] <dholbach> as you can see the bug is in ubuntu and debian
  93 [13:29] <dholbach> so Launchpad can (once you
  94 [13:29] <dholbach> forward the bug/patch and added that info to the bug in LP)
  95 [13:29] <dholbach> keep track of the bug report
  96 [13:29] <dholbach> and give you updates about the status
  97 [13:30] <dholbach> does it all make sense so far? :)
  98 [13:31] <dholbach> if not, you can all complain to nigelb
  99 [13:32] <dholbach> alright - I suggest we all hang out in #ubuntu-reviews now and each pick a few bugs off the list of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OperationCleansweep
 100 [13:32] <rsajdok> dholbach: ok:)
 101 [13:32] <dholbach> if there's any questions coming up, we can have a look at them together
 102 [13:32] <dholbach> thanks a lot for all the good questions so far
 103 [13:51] <ClassBot> There are are 10 minutes remaining in the current session.
 104 [13:53] <norax> when you submit a path to debian, I suppose that you send them the debdiff. But what is the standard type of file to be submitted upstream?
 105 [13:54] <dholbach> norax: just a diff -    diff -ruN old-directory new-directory > patch     should normally do
 106 [13:56] <ClassBot> There are are 5 minutes remaining in the current session.
 107 [13:56] <dholbach> (or: diff -u old-file new-file)
 108 [14:00] <norax> thanks. It seems that session is finishing so thanks for your speech.
 109 [14:00] <dholbach> thanks norax
 110 === ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi
 111 [14:01] <paultag> thanks dholbach!
 112 [14:01] <devildante> thanks dholbach :)
 113 [14:01] <dholbach> let's continue in #ubuntu-reviews
 114 [14:01] <nigelb> thanks dholbach
 115 [14:01]  * nigelb hugs dholbach :)
 116