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Re: Clean up state on patchwork


On Mon, 28 Sep 2015, ricaljasan wrote:

> So now I'm curious: what does it take to be a qualified reviewer?  I see
> quite a bit of information in:
> 
> https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/HomePage#Development
> 
> but it seems to be directed at contributors and maintainers.  Is
> "reviewer" synonymous with "maintainer" in the current thread's context?

Anyone can review patches, without needing to be a subsystem maintainer, 
to have write access, or to have a copyright assignment.  If familiar with 
glibc coding standards and patch requirements, and with a good 
understanding of the limits of one's expertise and which sorts of changes 
may require more thorough consideration, one's reviews may contribute to 
the formation of consensus on patches, individually or together with 
reviews from other people.  (Even without such expertise a review can 
contribute to forming consensus but is less likely to be adequate on its 
own, and in such cases it may be more appropriate to describe what you 
have reviewed the patch for rather than asserting that it is thereby OK.)

People who are listed as maintainers or reviewers in particular areas at 
<https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/MAINTAINERS> may have some intent to 
take greater responsibility in those areas, and so be particularly 
appropriate to CC on patches in those areas, or to request to look at a 
patch in those areas that has gone unreviewed.

I'd still like to have more people become maintainers in particular areas 
through working through and fixing open bugs in those areas, reviewing 
patches others post and ultimately becoming sufficiently clearly expert in 
those areas to get consensus for being listed as maintainers.  (Though we 
also need people working through and fixing bugs and reviewing patches in 
the catch-all "libc" area, which has more open bugs than any other 
component, and is less suited to such maintainership.)

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
joseph@codesourcery.com


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