How/where/when to ask for a patch review?

How/where/when to ask for a patch review?

[Tomas Volf]

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Hello Guix,

I would like to inquire what is the proper channel to ask for a patch review and
how long should one wait before doing so.  Bit of backstory:

At the beginning of the August 2023 I sent a patch to the mailing list.  However
it had no interaction at all (well, one user tried it and deemed it working and
useful).  So I am unsure what to do about it and how to push it forward.

What I tried so far:

1) Asking on the IRC (2x).  Once I even got a review, but from a non-committer.
2) Sending email directly to the main author of the edited source file.  No
   response.

Technically I even mentioned it to the main author directly in person, but it
was at a conference, so I can hardly blame them for it just slipping by. :)

Just to be completely clear, I do not feel entitled to a review.  If there is no
interest (from Guix), that is fine and within your rights.

But I realized there is a mistake in the patch (code is fine, commit message is
off), and before I spent more time on it, I would like to know if it even makes
sense to send v2.  I assume it will just sit in the same void, therefore this
inquiry.

Thank you and have a nice 2024,
Tomas Volf

PS: This patch being ignored was the last push I needed to start my personal
    fork, so technically I should be grateful I guess, but still, I would like
    to diverge as little as possible.

--
There are only two hard things in Computer Science:
cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.

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Re: How/where/when to ask for a patch review?

[Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.]

Hi Tomas,

On Sat, Jan 06 2024, Tomas Volf wrote:

> what is the proper channel to ask for a patch review and how long
> should one wait before doing so.

Please don't waste your time waiting. The process of patch review and
acceptance here is erratic. I won't go into reasons; the project
understands the problem and is trying several solutions but I'm not sure
they are working. Please go ahead and maintain your own fork of Guix.

They will take what they want.

> PS: This patch being ignored was the last push I needed to start my personal
>     fork

This one? [1]

> I would like to diverge as little as possible.

No chance. I run about a hundred patches on top of stock and build half
of all packages myself (mainly due to a defective eudev in Guix). In
another month, I'll be at two hundred.

Again, they will take what they want. Please don't wait. It's an
unreasonable expectation vis-a-vis the group.

Kind regards
Felix

[1] https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=67546

Re: How/where/when to ask for a patch review?

[Nicolas Goaziou via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.]

Hello,

Felix Lechner via "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System
distribution." <guix-devel@gnu.org> writes:

> On Sat, Jan 06 2024, Tomas Volf wrote:
>
>> what is the proper channel to ask for a patch review and how long
>> should one wait before doing so.

I think it is reasonable to bump the bug report associated to your patch
after a week, or possibly two during a winter break.

Note that committers generally wait for a green flag in the QA page
<https://qa.guix.gnu.org/patches>. Unfortunately, I noticed it had some
hiccups recently.

> Please don't waste your time waiting. The process of patch review and
> acceptance here is erratic. I won't go into reasons; the project
> understands the problem and is trying several solutions but I'm not sure
> they are working. Please go ahead and maintain your own fork of Guix.

It is certainly a pragmatic answer, but hopefully, we can do better.

> No chance. I run about a hundred patches on top of stock and build half
> of all packages myself (mainly due to a defective eudev in Guix). In
> another month, I'll be at two hundred.

IMHO, at this point, you should ask for write access to the project,
This would certainly help everyone involved.

Regards,
-- 
Nicolas Goaziou

Re: How/where/when to ask for a patch review?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi again Tomas,

Tomas Volf <~@wolfsden.cz> skribis:

> What I tried so far:
>
> 1) Asking on the IRC (2x).  Once I even got a review, but from a non-committer.
> 2) Sending email directly to the main author of the edited source file.  No
>    response.
>
> Technically I even mentioned it to the main author directly in person, but it
> was at a conference, so I can hardly blame them for it just slipping by. :)

Uh, I think I’m the guilty party, my sincere apologies!

I have to admit I have a hard time keeping up.  I review tons of
patches, but I also like to do stuff by myself, which means I tend to
select “easy” patches.

As a project, the ratio of available reviewer time to incoming patches
remains chronically small.  I feel like there are more people reviewing
and pushing patches these days, but there’s also more patches coming
in—a good problem to have, but certainly also a source of frustration.

The good news is that I’ve now reviewed
<https://issues.guix.gnu.org/65002> and it looks almost ready to me.  So
perhaps you’ll have to ping me or some other committer one last time,
but I encourage you to not give up, not so close to the finish line.

Cheers,
Ludo’.

Re: How/where/when to ask for a patch review?

[Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.]

Hi Ludo'

On Wed, Jan 10 2024, Ludovic Courtès wrote:

> I have to admit I have a hard time keeping up.

You work too hard!  Jethro the Midianite high priest [1] liked to focus
on the "grand design":

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG0a9WFkgzU

More practically, Jethro said:

(13) It came about on the next day that Moses sat down to judge the
people, and the people stood before Moses from the morning until the
evening.  When Moses' father in law saw what he was doing to the people,
he said, "What is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why do
you sit by yourself, while all the people stand before you from morning
till evening?"  Moses said to his father in law, "For the people come to
me to seek God.  If any of them has a case, he comes to me, and I judge
between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the statutes of God and
His teachings."  Moses' father in law said to him, "The thing you are
doing is not good.  You will surely wear yourself out both you and these
people who are with you for the matter is too heavy for you; you cannot
do it alone.  Now listen to me. I will advise you, and may the Lord be
with you. [You] represent the people before God, and you shall bring the
matters to God.  And you shall admonish them concerning the statutes and
the teachings, and you shall make known to them the way they shall go
and the deed[s] they shall do.  But you shall choose out of the entire
nation men of substance, God fearers, men of truth, who hate monetary
gain, and you shall appoint over them [Israel] leaders over thousands,
leaders over hundreds, leaders over fifties, and leaders over tens.  And
they shall judge the people at all times, and it shall be that any major
matter they shall bring to you, and they themselves shall judge every
minor matter, thereby making it easier for you, and they shall bear [the
burden] with you.  If you do this thing, and the Lord commands you, you
will be able to survive, and also, all this people will come upon their
place in peace."  Moses obeyed his father in law, and he did all that he
said.  Moses chose men of substance out of all Israel and appointed them
as heads of the people, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds,
leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens.  And they would judge the
people at all times; the difficult case they would bring to Moses, but
any minor case they themselves would judge. [1]

Kind regards
Felix

[1] https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9879/jewish/Chapter-18.htm#v13

Re: How/where/when to ask for a patch review?

[Tomas Volf]

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On 2024-01-10 00:33:11 +0100, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Hi again Tomas,
> 
> Tomas Volf <~@wolfsden.cz> skribis:
> 
> > What I tried so far:
> >
> > 1) Asking on the IRC (2x).  Once I even got a review, but from a non-committer.
> > 2) Sending email directly to the main author of the edited source file.  No
> >    response.
> >
> > Technically I even mentioned it to the main author directly in person, but it
> > was at a conference, so I can hardly blame them for it just slipping by. :)
> 
> Uh, I think I’m the guilty party, my sincere apologies!

Do not worry about it!  I will not pretend it is not a bit frustrating to have
patches just sit there, but I do realize how busy your are and much you do
already.  I do appreciate all the work you do on Guix and around it.

It is unavoidable that some things just slip through.

> 
> I have to admit I have a hard time keeping up.  I review tons of
> patches, but I also like to do stuff by myself, which means I tend to
> select “easy” patches.
> 
> As a project, the ratio of available reviewer time to incoming patches
> remains chronically small.  I feel like there are more people reviewing
> and pushing patches these days, but there’s also more patches coming
> in—a good problem to have, but certainly also a source of frustration.

  I do not propose any magical solution, because I do not have one. :) Let's
hope it keeps getting better.

> 
> The good news is that I’ve now reviewed
> <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/65002> and it looks almost ready to me.  So
> perhaps you’ll have to ping me or some other committer one last time,
> but I encourage you to not give up, not so close to the finish line.

Thank you very much for the review, I will send the next revision sometime this
week.

Have a nice day,
Tomas Volf

-- 
There are only two hard things in Computer Science:
cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.

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