CoreDevApplication

I, Serge Hallyn, apply for core-dev.

Name

Serge Hallyn

Launchpad Page

http://launchpad.net/~serge-hallyn

Wiki Page

http://wiki.ubuntu.com/SergeHallyn

Who I am

I am a member of the Ubuntu Server Team, employed by Canonical. I'm involved with packaging of libvirt, qemu, lxc, and cgmanager, am the Debian maintainer for netcf, and on the debian packaging team for qemu.

My Ubuntu story

My interest first shifted from sunos to linux when I got involved in kernel development. The ability to modify my own kernel was a huge freedom. I started with slackware, moved to redhat, then gentoo, and finally Ubuntu. My shift to Ubuntu was at first practical, because it was the most likely at any time to 'just work' on any given laptop.

In 2010 I joined Canonical to work on Ubuntu full time, with the server team.

My involvement

I am most active in foundational and server related packages, including qemu, lxc, libvirt, libcap, cgmanager, netcf, etc - or, more generally, things relating to virtualization, containers, and security features.

Over the last few years, I've had a goal+vision of dead-simple-to-use, secure, unprivileged containers. Much of my time therefore has gone to development of this new functionality. Now that these are due to be delivered in 14.04, I'm hoping to be able to cast a wider net.

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

The heaviest packaging work I've done has been the migration from qemu-kvm+qemu-linaro to a mostly-in-sync-with-debian qemu. I'm one of the Ubuntu and upstream maintainers for lxc, having in my previous life worked on namespaces in the kernel. I introduced apparmor and seccomp support as well as the new C API in lxc. I also helped to shepherd the shadow changes needed to support unprivileged user namespace use into upstream, debian and Ubuntu, which are instrumental in unprivileged lxc use. I was the author and uploader of cgmanager (motivated by lxc) and it's dumber older brother cgroup-lite (motivated by libvirt).

Areas of work

Recently I've worked a great deal with stgraber on lxc, upstream and in Ubuntu. I've written the cgroup manager upstream and Ubuntu package, and before that wrote the cgroup-lite package and worked a bit with libcgroup. I maintain the netcf package in Debian, where I work with ahs3 as a sponsor, and Ubuntu. I work on libvirt in Ubuntu mainly with zulcss. Early on I worked on qemu-kvm with kirkland. I guess I now mainly consult the debian-qemu team on those matters. As I'm listed as the kernel capabilities maintainer, I try to keep an eye on libcap2. I'm supposed to be a co-maintainer with slangasek on edk2, and hope I can mend my ways to finally make good on that (as I've not given it it's due time).

A fuller list of packages I have been involved with is in launchpad: https://launchpad.net/~serge-hallyn/+uploaded-packages

Things I could do better

I've focused mainly on server related packages. In order to become more useful in general patch piloting and plusone maintenance activities, I should become more familiar with desktop related packages. I intend to do a second plusone stint, hopefully in April, to help make this happen.

Plans for the future

I intend to become more heavily involved in Debian packaging, and apply for DM. While I want to make sure that I can be helpful with desktop related packages, my focus will continue to be on foundational and server+cloud related packaging.

General

What I like least in Ubuntu

The integration of UDD was left in an unfortunate state. It would be awesome if it were possible to use a bzr tag to say "build new package from bzr source now," and (heck) lock packages so they can only be uploaded via bzr (or only via dut) Somewhat frequent auto-import failures make the situation much worse, so we effectively have to check two sources (rmadison/pull-lp-source and bzr) to make sure we don't lose information.


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.

Andres Rodriguez (roaksoax)

I've worked with Serge in numerous occasions, sponsoring uploads of some of this packages throughout various releases. Serge, has always shown high quality in his packages, but not only that, he was always open to suggestions and willing to make fixes or improvements as recommended. I support his application.

Dave Walker (Daviey)

I have reviewed and sponsored a number of Serge's uploads for over 3 years, and they have always been of high quality. Serge's level of work has always been to a good standard. Where there have been areas of improvement, Serge has responded promptly to rectifying. Serge has learned from mistakes, and never had the same issue happen again.He understands the ecosystem, and appreciates things he should not do. The +1maint stints have helped broaden his knowledge and interest outside the Server package set. He is good to work with, and takes a good level of ownership of his uploads. He is committed and I thoroughly recommend his application. I have been urging him to apply for this, for the last year.

James Page (james-page)

I've reviewed and sponsored Serge's work occasionally over the last few years; IMO he works to a high standard. I've also been impressed with his work in libvirt, qemu and lxc packaging (and upstream for that last one), all critical packages for Ubuntu server! I would trust him with core-dev upload rights so +1 on his application for core-dev.

Scott Moser (smoser)

I've sponsored some of Serge's work over the past few years, and have been happy with his work. He has very successfully maintained qemu, which is non-trivial and of utmost importance to Ubuntu server.

Serge is deliberate and meticulous in his maintenance of Ubuntu packages, the qualities most important in my opinion. Additionally, he is *extremely* responsive to bug reports.

I have zero hesitation in recommending core dev privileges for Serge.


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.''
=== Areas of Improvement ===


SergeHallyn/CoreDevApplication (last edited 2014-03-10 13:41:01 by smoser)