Place for DDs and DMs to request syncs

[Michael Bienia]

On 2010-08-14 15:21:02 +0200, Benjamin Drung wrote:
> Am Samstag, den 14.08.2010, 14:57 +0200 schrieb Lucas Nussbaum:
> > The use case for that is Debian maintainers who aren't interested in
> > getting involved in Ubuntu development, but know that version 1.0-2 of
> > their package is really much better than version 1.0-1 (currently in
> > Ubuntu) because many important bugs were fixed, and would like an easy to
> > notify someone, so 1.0-2 can be in the next Ubuntu release instead of
> > 1.0-1.

Wouldn't it be better for those DD to inform a team (or mailing list)
and let them handle it further? As those DDs don't want to get involved
into Ubuntu processes too much (or at all), I wouldn't assume they know
what to do to get their updated package into Ubuntu besides to inform
"Ubuntu".

Is a simple sync request enough? Need other (build-)dependencies need to
get synced/merged first too? Or does it need a merge? What about the
different freezes we have and how to get freeze exceptions if needed.

Using "requestsync" might not be enough as the sponsors might set it to
"Incomplete" because it doesn't build in Ubuntu or needs a merge or
needs a freeze exception and I don't believe the DD who doesn't want to
get too involved with Ubuntu process will follow up and the bug will
simple sit in LP and get the DD disappointed (he probably won't try this
again).

This needs a human who picks up this notification from the DD, starts
(and follows) the process to get the updated package into Ubuntu and
informs the DD later about the outcome.

> > Of course we can advertise requestsync more, but having a fallback
> > mechanism for people not willing to setup requestsync would be good
> > IMHO.
> 
> The fallback mechanism should be implemented in requestsync too.
> requestsync should fallback to it if Launchpad is not configured. Is it
> possible to file a bug via email without having a Launchpad account?

No, as you need to gpg-sign the email to let LP process it. And the key
has to be attached to an LP account. Who should LP report as the bug
reporter when no LP account exist? Anonymous?

Michael