Re: "support" for end-user source modifications

Rick Jones <rick.jones2@xxxxxx> · Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:25:43 -0700

Nick Kew wrote:

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:24:00 -0700
Rick Jones <rick.jones2@xxxxxx> wrote:

Hi -

After perusing the FAQs I could find I am left with a question with 

which I hope the folks here can assist.  To what degree might an 

end-user's source code modifications be "supported" by the Apache 

maintainers?  Do they have to first submit that source-code

modification as a patch and get it approved before it would be
"supported?"

What do you mean by "support"?

An exceedingly good question.

Something along the lines of:

http://www.spec.org/osg/policy.html#AppendixC
http://www.spec.org/web2005/docs/1.20/run_rules.html#Philosophy
http://www.spec.org/web2005/docs/1.20/run_rules.html#OpenSourceRules

If you've made a change that you think might be of general interest
to the community, then by all means submit it upstream (once you've
cleared it with whoever controls your intellectual property if it's

nontrivial).  If it adds more value than bloat, and doesn't break 

things, there's a decent chance it'll get accepted.

I realize I'm asking some rather "dense/obvious" questions but I have 

little choice, so please bear with me.

Can I interpret your paragraph to mean that for a change in the code to 

be "supported" by the Apache team it needs to be submitted upstream and 

accepted?

Or maybe your changes can be made into a module, in which case you
can do what you like with it: sell it, give it away, or offer to
contribute it upstream to be supported by the Apache team.
The public API comes with a stability promise: if your module works
with 2.2.current, it will work with all 2.2.future versions.

I don't think that case is one of interest. I'm interested in changes to 

the core source(s) and not adding a module.

thanks,

rick jones

Otherwise, there are a number of companies that will support Apache
on commercial terms.  That was my bread-and-butter until a few months
ago.

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