On 21.12.2015 07:10, NeilBrown wrote: > > hi, > I became maintainer for md (Linux Software RAID) in late 2001 and on > the whole it has been fun and a valuable experience. But I have been > losing interest in recent years (https://lwn.net/Articles/511073/) and > as was mentioned at the kernel summit, I would like to resign. Some > years ago I managed to hand over nfsd to the excellent Bruce Fields, > but I do not seem to have the gift that Linus has of attracting > maintainers. While there are a number of people who know quite a bit > about md and/or have contributed to development, there is no obvious > candidate for replacement maintainer - no one who has already been > doing significant parts of the maintainer role. > > So I have decided to fall back on the mechanism by which I ended up > being maintainer in the first place. I will create a vacuum and hope > someone fills it (yes: I was sucked-in....). So as of 1st February > 2016 I will be resigning. > > At the kernel summit in October Linus talked about the value of > maintainership teams (https://lwn.net/Articles/662979/). I think it > would be great if a (small) team formed to continue to oversee md > rather than just a single individual (or maybe the dm team could extend > to include md??). If I had managed to be part of a team rather than > "going it alone" for so long, I might feel less tired of the whole > thing now. > > I don't see it as my place to appoint that team or any individuals, or > even to nominate any candidates. A very important attribute of a > maintainer is that they need to care about the code and the subsystem > and I cannot tell other people to care (or even know if they do). It > is really up to individuals to volunteer. A few people have been > mentioned to me in earlier less-public conversations. Any of them may > well be suitable, but I would rather they named themselves if > interested. > > So I'm hoping to get one or more volunteers to be maintainer: > - to gather and manage patches and outstanding issues, > - to review patches or get them reviewed > - to follow up bug reports and get them resolved > - to feed patches upstream, maybe directly to Linus, > maybe through some other maintainer, depending on what > relationships already exist or can be formed, > - to guide the longer term direction (saying "no" is important > sometimes), > - to care, > but also to be aware that maintainership takes real effort and time, as > does anything that is really worthwhile. > > This all applies to mdadm as well as md (except you would ultimately > *be* upstream for mdadm, not needing to send it anywhere). Even if a > clear team doesn't form it would be great if different people > maintained mdadm and md. > > One part of the job that I have put a lot of time in to is following > the linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx list and providing support. This makes > people feel good about md and so more adventurous in using it. > Consequently I tend to hear about bugs and usability issues nice and > early (well before paying customers hit them in most cases) and that is > a big win. > In recent times I've been doing less of this and have been absolutely > thrilled that the gap has been more than filled by other very competent > community members. Not developers particular but a number of md users > have been providing excellent support. I'd particularly like to > high-light Phil Turmel who is very forthcoming with excellent advice, > but he is certainly not the only one who deserves a lot of thanks. > So "Thank you" to everyone who answers questions on linux-raid. > > This would be a good place for any future maintainer to hang out to > receive wisdom as well as to provide support. > > I will still be around. I can certainly help out in some sort of > mentor role, and can probably be convinced to review patches and > comment on designs. But I really want to head towards spending less > time on md (there are so many other interesting things to learn about). > > So: if anyone is interested - please announce yourself, ask questions > and start doing things. I have no clear idea about how a transition > will happen. That is really up to you (plural). Take the bull by the > horns and start *being* a maintainer(team). I won't get in your way > and I'll help where I can. > > Thanks, > NeilBrown > > P.S. I'm committed to continue to work with the raid5-journal effort > From Facebook and the raid1-cluster effort from SUSE and the > line-in-the-sand of 1st February won't affect my support for those. > Hi Neil, I've been maintaining the custom Linux kernels, custom MD and custom mdadm since more than 4 years at ProfitBricks now. I've learned a lot from you. Thank you very much for all the efforts! I will definitely miss you in the MD/mdadm maintainer role. I especially like that you care for all Linux distributions/kernel versions. That's what a real upstream is about. I wish you all the best for the future! Unfortunately my public activity has been very limited as company interests always have priority. I would really like to help maintaining MD/mdadm upstream but I would need an employer who pays me for that and provides access to the required hardware. In my leisure time I already maintain the upstream Linux memory scanner project scanmem/GameConqueror. Cheers, Sebastian -- dm-devel mailing list dm-devel@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/dm-devel
