I, Nick Rosbrook (aka enr0n), apply for core-dev.

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.
• I'd like to increase my involvement in the Ubuntu community.
• As a member of the Canonical Foundations team, my day-to-day work is very focused on the distro.

Who I am

My name is Nick Rosbrook, and I am an open source software developer. I am currently a member of the Canonical Foundations team. When I'm not at a computer, I try to spend as much time in the mountains as I can, whether it's moutain biking, rock climbing, skiing, or backpacking.

My Ubuntu story

I first started using Ubuntu (Trusty) during my first year in college, when I needed to setup a development environment for a project that I was contributing to. Soon after that I was installing Ubuntu on old machines to revive them as home servers, and I have used Ubuntu as my daily driver ever since. I am passionate about contributing to the software that I use, so it is natural that I now work on Ubuntu. I am happiest in my work when I am able to work with upstreams in order to improve Ubuntu.

My involvement

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

• Sponsored uploads

• +1

  • https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2022-March/041941.html

  • https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2022-August/042261.html

  • https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2023-February/042463.html

  • https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2023-June/042647.html

• SRU

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/1952947

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/245.4-4ubuntu3.16

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/248.3-1ubuntu8.5

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+bug/1968607

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/1:22.04.11

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/249.11-0ubuntu3.4

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd-hwe/249.11.1

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/245.4-4ubuntu3.18

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/249.11-0ubuntu3.6

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/1:9.0p1-1ubuntu7.1

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/debootstrap/+bug/1995612

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/1:22.04.15

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jammy/+source/mokutil/+bug/2015664

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/249.11-0ubuntu3.9

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/251.4-1ubuntu7.3

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/245.4-4ubuntu3.21

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/+bug/2011458

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/util-linux/+bug/2015355

• Merges

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/procps/+bug/1961805

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/251.2-2ubuntu1

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/252.1-1ubuntu1

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/avahi/0.8-10ubuntu1

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/1:9.2p1-2ubuntu1

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cron/3.0pl1-162ubuntu1

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rsyslog/8.2306.0-1ubuntu1

  • https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/1:9.3p1-1ubuntu1

• MIR

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plocate/+bug/1960864

  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd-hwe/+bug/1983996

• Creation of systemd-hwe package

• Upstream systemd contributions

• Adding deb822 support for PPAs in software-properties

Areas of work

As a member of the Canonical Foundations team, I work on many packages in the Ubuntu archive. Primarily, I am responsible for maintaining the systemd package in Ubuntu, and I am an upstream systemd contributor. I am also responsible for maintaining ubuntu-release-upgrader, and I have been helping in the effort to bring deb822 sources to Ubuntu by default. Recently I have been working on the openssh package, specifically around the work to make sshd use systemd socket-activation.

Things I could do better

I still have a lot to learn about Debian tooling and processes, and I would like to be more involved with Debian directly.

Plans for the future

General

I hope to continue to expand my involvement in upstream projects like systemd so that I can ultimately have a more positive impact on Ubuntu. I would also use my upload rights to more efficiently contribute to +1, proposed-migration, etc.

What I like least in Ubuntu

I wish that autopkgtest rights were not tied to upload rights. For developers that are learning Ubuntu development (e.g. through +1 maintenance and proposed-migration), it is cumbersome to request that another developer clicks a link for you. I do not know the internals of how these rights are managed, but it would be nice if there was an application process similar to Ubuntu Bug Control where developers could demonstrate that they understand enough to be given autopkgtest rights.

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.

Lukas 'slyon' Märdian

General feedback

Nick stepped up to become a co-maintainer for the systemd package a few months after joining the Foundations team in early 2022 and he took over most of the systemd duties by now. Maintaining the systemd package includes doing complex merges and high-impact SRUs that need to be planned ahead and need to be handled with lots of attention to detail, which Nick did from the very start. Such SRUs also tend to trigger the phased-updater to stop an SRU deployment (oftentimes caused by unrelated components), which Nick was able to work out, too. His implementation of the NEW systemd-hwe package already showed its benefits to speedup the OEM enablement process.

Besides "systemd" and "systemd-hwe", I sponsored a few other packages for Nick, related to +1 Maintenance or MIRs, one of which lead to an interesting discussion about the "~maysync1" version suffix: https://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com/msg10417.html

I feel like Nick has a good understanding of the different processes involved in the Ubuntu development workflow.

I fully endorse his Ubuntu Core-Dev application.

Specific Experiences of working together

I've been mostly working with him in a "systemd" context, reviewing and sponsoring his uploads with little to no refinement needed. He's always prepared nice merge-proposals, including PPA test builds and an analysis of PPA autopkgtest logs for several architectures, to make sure we won't break stuff. When mentioning some remarks/nitpicks during the reviews, those were promptly fixed and remembered for the future. Also, Nick didn't hesitate to ask questions if anything was unclear. I'm very happy about his involvement, as he's been doing a fantastic job, keeping the packages (devel + SRUs) in good shape, showing great learning ability in adopting to the git-buildpackage + Lauchpad merge-proposal workflow that we're using for systemd maintenance and especially his engagement with the upstream systemd community!

Areas of Improvement

There are always new things to learn in Ubuntu. Gaining new permissions should allow Nick to more easily contribute to +1 Maintenance and proposed-migration, which will inevitably get him into edge cases, which require additional learning. Also, he should prepare for his upload rights, by getting comfortable with some recommended tooling, like dput-ng (using some extra bits: https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-server/+git/ubuntu-helpers/tree/cpaelzer/.dput.d) and git-ubuntu.

-- slyon 2023-01-11 10:42:27

William 'jawn-smith' Wilson

General feedback

I've sponsored 25 packages for Nick so far, and have had very few corrections to make. His attention to detail is excellent, and he is always eager to learn more. Nick is a very fast learner. I have never had to point out the same mistake more than once. He is also very careful about testing locally before asking for any autopkgtests to be triggered. I would trust Nick fully with upload rights.

Specific Experiences of working together

Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better. I sponsored python-uvicorn for Nick, and his changes to this package demonstrated a good understanding of Debian packaging. I've had to make a couple minor corrections to version numbers and adding bug numbers to d/changelog, but I've never seen him make the same mistake twice. None of the corrections I've made to his packaging have demonstrated any lack of packaging knowledge. Nick has even helped me figure out the cause of an FTBFS for vim, showing he has a good understanding of our build environments and processes. I've spent hours digging through our old conversations and LP bugs trying to find examples of Nick making mistakes, and have only come up with a few trivial little issues.

Areas of Improvement

While technically new versions of systemd trigger a transition, they don't usually have many issues so I don't think Nick has had to deal with an actual transition yet. I'm confident in his ability to handle it though. I've occasionally had to point out things like running update-maintainer and changing UNRELEASED to the target release, but that hasn't happened in a long time and only happened once.

Graham Inggs

General feedback

I've sponsored three uploads for Nick, two of which were syncs from Debian. One was a sync of

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/minimap2/2.24+dfsg-2

which was temporarily removed from Jammy due to

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/minimap2/+bug/1960028

and the other was

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pytest-mock/3.7.0-2

dropping the delta added in

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pytest-mock/3.6.1-1ubuntu1

fixing

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pytest-mock/+bug/1965442

It was refreshing to see someone following up on the bugs and getting the packages back in sync with Debian. Many of our veteran uploaders forget to do this.

The most recent was

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/1:23.10.1

I've reviewed three other uploads for Nick, and as William mentioned above, Nick's attention to detail is excellent. The quality of the prepared uploads was good and I would have them uploaded as-is, except Nick forwarded his patches upstream and all three were picked up by Debian maintainers and were handled by (auto-)sync, obviating the need for sponsoring. I trust Nick is ready to be a core developer, right now.

Specific Experiences of working together

Almost sponsored uploads

• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/faketime/+bug/1984446

• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/txt2regex/+bug/1988481

• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dh-python/+bug/1990562

Areas of Improvement

I don't think Nick's lack of experience with transitions should block him from becoming a core developer. There will be plenty of opportunities to "practice" on merges of universe packages, and I trust Nick to ask questions if he is unsure of anything.

Steve Langasek

General feedback

I have been working with, and sponsoring uploads for, Nick since the Ubuntu 22.04 release cycle. He has demonstrated himself to be a very capable generalist developer, tackling SRUs, autopkgtest regressions, build failures, fixes to the ubuntu-release-upgrader, maintenance of systemd, and even fixing of bugs introduced in my own code for openssh systemd socket activation. I have worked with him on various subtleties around Debian maintainer scripts, and have watched his mastery of Debian packaging grow over time. I trust him to ask questions and request reviews for any changes he's not confident in, and I trust him not to be over confident in his own changes. It would be to Ubuntu's benefit for him to have direct upload access to the full archive without the overhead of sponsorship.

If you are making changes to a preinst script in the binutils source package, you are doing the work of a core-dev, with or without the title.

Specific Experiences of working together

I have sponsored a total of 14 uploads:

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-reportlab/3.6.7-1ubuntu1

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/1:22.04.10

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libcloud/3.4.1-4ubuntu1

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libxsmm/1.17-1ubuntu1

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-pecan/1.4.1-1ubuntu1

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/251.4-1ubuntu4

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/binutils/2.40-2ubuntu4

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/1:9.0p1-1ubuntu8.1

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/1:9.0p1-1ubuntu7.2

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/1:9.2p1-2ubuntu1

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/1:9.0p1-1ubuntu8.2

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/util-linux/2.34-0.1ubuntu9.4

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/1:9.0p1-1ubuntu7.3

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mokutil/0.6.0-2~18.04.1

I also consulted with him on the fix for https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+bug/1965568 although I was not the uploader of that change.

Areas of Improvement

I think Nick could afford to deepen his familiarity with various nuances of Debian Policy which I don't think he's had a chance to be exposed to yet, but I also expect that will happen with time.

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 ===

CategoryCoreDevApplication