[Gdbheads] A small patch case study, -file-list-exec-source-files

[Michael Snyder]

Joel Brobecker wrote:
>>I completely agree with Ian here.  So the question is, 
>>is patch review the most important aspect of being a GNU GDB maintainer?
>>
>>How many GDB maintainers would answer yes to this?
> 
> 
> GDB is a volunteer work!
> 
> If you keep insisting that a maintainer have to review patches within a
> given timeframe and that they should step down if they can't, then I
> think we're going to lose a lot of maintainers. Will GDB really be
> better off? I think not.
> 
> I think you're looking at the wrong solution. The real solution,
> according to me, is not to push away good maintainers that have only so
> much time, but to help the group of maintainers to act as a team.
> When one maintainer is too busy, then the rest of the team should be
> allowed to step up and help the busy maintainer by reviewing patches
> and answering emails in his place. The real problem is that GDB
> currently has bottlenecks, and that's the issue that needs solving,
> one way or the other.

<aol> Here here.  </aol>

> I'm only a contributor, but I have barely enough time to followup
> on the review of my own patches. I have messages from some maintainers
> following up on my own messages that I need to answer and have been
> sitting in mail mailbox for weeks. How can I, a fairly regular
> contributor, ever ask/force volunteers maintainers to do any more than
> they are already doing?
>