sru-developer

I, Heitor Alves de Siqueira, apply for SRU Developer rights.

Name

Heitor Alves de Siqueira

Launchpad Page

https://launchpad.net/~halves

Wiki Page

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/halves

I am applying because:

  • I'd like to reduce delays in getting my work sponsored.
  • I'd like to reduce the burden on my sponsors.

Who I am

I've started "late" with Linux, having a first proper contact during my first year of university in 2011. I've been an avid Linux user since then, using it exclusively in all my personal systems.

Ubuntu is very special for me, being my first Linux distro. I've come to greatly appreciate the packaging process and all testing involved in each release, ensuring that Ubuntu is one of the most stable and user friendly distributions. The Ubuntu community has always been very helpful and approachable, which further cements it as my go-to distro and recommendation for most use cases.

My professional involvement with Linux started with an internship at IBM's LTC in 2015, where I did kernel driver related work for Power systems. In 2019 I joined Canonical's Sustaining Engineering team, working on issues for both server and kernel packages across the supported Ubuntu releases.

My Ubuntu story

I first started working on Ubuntu during my internship at IBM's LTC. At the time, my focus was on bootstrapping and testing POWER8 specific drivers, notably NVMe and IBM Power RAID (IPR). I've come to greatly appreciate the consistent user-friendliness and stability of Ubuntu, and have deployed it on most of my personal systems since then. In 2019 I joined Canonical's Sustaining Engineering, and started to become more aware of the procedures that make Ubuntu the distro that it is today. I've been working on userspace/server and kernel packages, and have quite enjoyed the transparency of the SRU and testing process for packages.

My involvement

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of


Areas of work

I've been mostly involved in resolving bugs opened by Ubuntu Advantage customers, with a focus on kernel and userspace packages. This includes writing up test scenarios and reproducers for issues, working with upstream maintainers to patch bugs and backporting fixes to supported Ubuntu releases.

I usually work together with other members of the Sustaining Engineering team, some members of the kernel team and occasionally some engineers from Server and Foundations.

Things I could do better

I could do a better job of time managing my work across different Launchpad bugs, especially when tackling more complex issues. I'd also like to get more experience with the more advanced Ubuntu packaging processes such as merging and syncing, and step outside of the SRU "comfort zone".

Plans for the future

General

I'd like to continue contributing to the Ubuntu community, helping make Ubuntu a great Linux experience for users and professional customers alike.

What I like least in Ubuntu

I feel like Ubuntu is sometimes a bit distant from upstream development, mostly focusing in getting stable packages for our supported series. Recent releases have been a great improvement in this point, shipping with more up-to-date packages and having a closer relationship to upstream development, but I think there's still room for improvement.


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@.

I've been working with Heitor since he was an intern in IBM Linux Technology Center, and I've always been fascinated about how versed he is/was in new technologies - I guess he's was one of the first active users of ZFS (on *his rootfs*!) I knew, also an early adopter of WireGuard, etc. That said, he would be a very great addition to the SRU developers team, being able to easily interface with upstream communities for the backports (and new fixes) and with a very broad and deep knowledge in multiple fronts (as kernel, userland low-level packages, new techonologies, etc). From my work experience with him, I'm nothing but compliments about how serious and careful he is, always considering the pros and cons of the approaches, a very reasonable attitude that matches IMO the required profile of a SRU developer. -- gpiccoli 2021-07-07 21:02:20


Endorsements

As a sponsor, just copy the template below, fill it out and add it to this section.

ddstreet

General feedback

I've sponsored a number of uploads for halves in the last couple years, and the quality has been consistently good. Anytime I have any feedback or questions he is very responsive and usually any problems are relatively trivial administrative issues such as version numbers. The actual bugfix patches are almost always good quality with little or no adjustments needed.

I trust that halves with sru upload rights as I feel he is well versed in the sru process and completely capable with the technical aspects.

Specific Experiences of working together

I sponsored the systemd patch from LP:#1846787 which was a complex bug and fix, and halves handled the backporting, preparation, and testing excellently.

I've sponsored other uploads for halves in systemd and other packages, as the quality was similarly excellent.

Areas of Improvement

For the SRU area, I would only recommend halves pay closer attention to the version numbers, which can be tricky at times, and also to double-check the backport for each SRU release before uploading.

I'd like to see him work on some development release uploads as well, towards getting coredev in the future.

slashd

General feedback

I have sponsored a few uploads for Heitor over the years. All debdiff(s) provided were of high quality, with solid documentation and of course testing. I have no doubt that Heitor will be a good asset for the sru-developer team.

Specific Experiences of working together

Heitor and I are part of the same team. He is an engineer with solid knowledge and experience in userspace, but also in the kernel. He is open to constructive comment/feedbacks and always willing to improve.

Areas of Improvement

Eventually, I'd like to see Heitor do more Ubuntu development tasks outside the usual SRU in order to be involved in other sphere of Ubuntu: merge, sync, FTBFS, +1 maintenance, ...

cking (Colin Ian King)

General feedback

I've sponsored ZFS changes for halves (LP#1875577) that included some more intricate changes to the user space scripts and needed some thorough SRU testing.

Specific Experiences of working together

Working with halves was a pleasure, his work was as required and halves put in the necessary thorough effort in the regression checking of the SRU. I refer to ZFS bug LP#1875577.

Areas of Improvement

I'd like to work with halves on maybe a few more ZFS related userspace changes in the future to get some more experience on these more complex packages. Perhaps understanding how ZFS is sync'd from the Debian with all the ubuntu specific changes that are required.


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 ===


halves/sru-developer (last edited 2022-02-01 17:48:00 by halves)