[Rdo-list] RDO and Upstream Packaging

[Mark McLoughlin]

On Mon, 2015-06-15 at 15:42 +0200, Jakub Ruzicka wrote:
> On 12.6.2015 14:32, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> > Hey
> > 
> > I started writing an email giving some context on the "upstream
> > packaging" conversation on openstack-dev, but the email started getting
> > very windy so I made it a blog post instead:
> > 
> > https://blogs.gnome.org/markmc/2015/06/12/rdo-and-upstream-packaging/
> > 
> > Hope that helps. Would love any feedback.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Mark.
> > 
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> > 
> 
> Hey Mark,
> 
> I agree with what you wrote and I also share your excitement about
> new and better way to package and collaborate we're paving.
> 
> OpenStack is just too big and too fast for the usual downstream distro
> packaging processes which are slow for a reason (stability). So we need
> to find a new approach, something in between the fast moving OpenStack
> upstream and slow downstream distros.
> 
> We're trying to do that with RDO but ideally, all the parts that are not
> specific to our targeted platforms should be moved upstream and everyone
> packaging OpenStack should be part of the same packaging community and
> ensure OpenStack is easy to package and consume.
> 
> > To my mind, the goal here should be to encourage downstream packaging
> > teams to work closer to the upstream project, and have downstream
> > packaging teams collaborate more with upstream developers.
> 
> To my mind, the goal here should be to encourage upstream developer
> teams to take packaging into serious consideration, and have upstream
> developer teams collaborate more with downstream packagers.
> 
> Wordplays aside, it would be much easier if all the packagers were
> united across distros and voicing their common problems upstream. There
> aren't that many of us compared to devs, you know.

All good points.

The example of this working in the past that I have in mind is
Smokestack. Back when Dan was maintaining Smokestack, you'd have him
regularly show up in a Gerrit review telling the code submitter why
what they're doing makes packaging difficult. We had the ability for
packagers to spot packaging-impacting issues with code before it was
ever merged.

That's the world I think we're pretty close to again, but instead this
time with the whole RDO package maintainer team involved.

Thanks,
Mark.