Re: Stepping down from Patch Meister role

[pkx166h]

Hello,

On 22/01/2022 22:12, Carl Sorensen wrote:
> James,
>
> How much time do you spend per week as Patch Meister?

I spend about 15-20 mins every 2 days. I don't review code, I just check 
reg tests (pasting those that are new or changed significantly) I also 
make sure all threads that are still unresolved are either really 
unresolved or just not closed (in the latter case I don't close threads 
myself but will comment to make sure that the relevant parties know 
there is a thread that looks like it is still TBD). I don't send 
personal emails but do everything via GitLab so that all can see responses.

The original cadence was 4 days but that was when we had far fewer 
active developers. It has only moved to 2 days because of the regularity 
of MRs and patches.

I sometimes deliberately make the cadence longer if there are many 
patches in the three queues so that everyone gets a chance.

So Log in, look at the MRs in countdown (and change them to push / leave 
them or move them down, i.e. to review) then I look at MRs in review and 
move them to countdown (or if there is still ongoig discussion I will 
leave it there) and finally I look at MRs in 'new' and check reg tests 
and set them to review.

So I start at the top so to speak and work down. (Coutdown/review/new). 
Pushing everything up one step and out to patch Push.

I then use the 'countdown.py' script in the infrastructure repo that 
generates the list you see in the emails. I add the date of the 
countdown in the subject of the email and change the 'next countdown 
date' in the body and then just send the email to dev.

My general rule is any patch in review that is less than 24 hours old 
stays there (i.e. doesn't get moved on). I rely on developers that 
resubmit patches, depending on where it was in the queue to either set 
it back to the new/review queue or state in a note why they don;t think 
it needs to start back at review again.

I try to avoid the 'this is trivial we should push this now' comment 
because after all unless it is something that is affecting release, it's 
only 48 hours before the next countdown. Some developers tend to be 
impatient and I just ilke to make sure everyone gets to comment.

No comment in a thread is the same as a LGTM. This saves me having to 
wait for people to approve explicitly every MR.

Sometimes I see a thread in a MR that is not going anywhere and no one 
is replying or making a decision, so I will comment in the thread that 
something must be done and if after the next countdown nothing has 
changed I will 'do something' (be it set it to push or set it to needs 
work) as that usually generates some attention. But some MRs have been 
known to sit in 'review' for multiple countdowns and even at 'countdown' 
until it is obvious that something needs to change. I just state why it 
has not been moved (reference a comment for example) and then teh 
developer can tell me why I am wrong or why X needs to wait or why Y can 
be ignored. I always defer to the developers.

It's more or less just shuffling papers and checking reg tests with a 
bit of comment and running the countdown script that I paste into the email.

Hope that helps.

James


> If the time requirement is manageable, I could step in.  I don't have lots of 
> time to spend on Lilypond (hence my lack of current development work), but I  
> could plan to spend some.
>
> Please help me understand the time you spend.
>
> Carl
>
>
> On 1/22/22, 11:09 AM, "lilypond-devel on behalf of Jonas Hahnfeld via Discussions on 
> LilyPond development" <lilypond-devel-bounces+carl.d.sorensen+digest=gmail.com@gnu.org 
> on behalf of lilypond-devel@gnu.org> wrote:
>
>      Am Donnerstag, dem 13.01.2022 um 22:42 +0100 schrieb David Kastrup:
>      > Kevin Barry <barrykp@gmail.com> writes:
>      >
>      > > Hi James,
>      > >
>      > > This is a big loss; you will be missed. Thank you for all of your hard 
> work.
>      > >
>      > > > I want to stay a
>      > > > developer and that conflicts both time-wise and with respect to
>      > > > impartiality.
>      > >
>      > > Finding a non-developer to fill James's shoes sounds difficult. I
>      > > would volunteer, but I still plan to contribute patches.
>      >
>      > git shortlog --author Lowe
>      >
>      > should be some indication that this is not a conflict of interest as
>      > such.  It may end up a conflict of resources.
>      
>      Yes, my initial message wasn't entirely clear, it's of course possible
>      to contribute patches while being "Patch Meister". The "impartiality"
>      aspect is that you should try to apply the same standards to your own
>      submissions as to all other patches.
>      
>      So, there's around one week left until the end of January and this
>      thread has more or less died down, thus last call for volunteers.
>      
>      Jonas
>