[RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

Dave Chinner
2016-05-23T04:53:55Z

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Hi folks,

For some time now I've been somewhat neglecting xfstests. I've been
slow to review changes, slow to test and commit changes, and
generally been dragging my heels on getting general maintainer stuff
done.

My problem has several different aspects. The main issue I have is
that that I don't context switch between tasks at all well. I work
best when I have a problem I can focus on in depth until it is
solved. Getting interrupted by something means I start thrash
between different contexts and then don't get stuff done. I then get
frustrated because I'm not making progress on anything, and then I
turn into a nasty, evil, beligerant nay-sayer.

I don't like wearing cranky-pants all the time, but it's been
building for some time. To reduce the negative effect of context
switching, I've been ignoring things I need to pay regular attention
to (e.g. fstests patches). Then the backlog builds up and when I
finally get around to doing the merging work, I get annoyed by the
amount of patch futzing I have to do because of conflicts caused by
ignoring it for so long.

And so my care factor while doing this work has decreased, and I
miss things I should notice, and when I do see things I have
entirely the wrong attitude to be constructive. Recently I've even
found myself getting unreasonably annoyed by little things in this
process (like git am breaking in an unresolvable way on a patch) and
have ended up just walking away....

Rather than go on like this and let it continue into a downward
spiral that ends in a crash and an alcohol fueled rage-quitting burn
out, I think it's time to hand fstests on to someone else. I'd much
prefer to do a clean handover of fstests to someone who is keen and
eager to do the job. Then I will have less things I need to care
about and context switch over, and so will make me happier and more
productive. IMO, that will benefit fstests more than me trying to
hold on and just thrash harder.

So, now you know why I want to hand over fstests to someone else,
it's worth noting why I'm struggling to keep up - that's a better
story to focus on right now. In the past 2 and half years since I
became maintainer (in Nov 2013), there have been:

- 70+ contributors
- 800+ commits, which make up ~1/3rd of the total commits to
xfstests since 2001
- more than 450 new tests have been added (more than
doubled!)
- added support for CIFS, f2fs, overlay, tmpfs, and reiser4

IOWs, fstests development speed has increased signficantly while
I've been maintainer and the size of the project has more than
doubled. It's this growth and increase in community and development
pace that I can't keep up with - fstests is a healthy, growing
project. Hence I see this as a positive step for fstests - it has
grown to the point where it now needs a dedicated maintainer rather
than one who splits their time across multiple projects.

I am definitely not saying "I'm leaving, you're on your own!". I
don't plan on going anywhere - fstests is still going to be a
primary workflow tool for me. I'm expecting that there will be some
period of handover - I'll the spend the time to ensure the new
maintainer knows all they need to know to keep the tree in good
shape, and then I'll step back and let them ride the roller
coaster in their own way...

So it now comes down to finding a new maintainer. Rather than repeat
past mistakes of others when it comes to selecting a new maintainer,
I'm simply going to open the floor to discussion, nominations, etc.
The maintainer is your choice as fstests users and developers, not
mine as the outgoing maintainer. I have opinions (as always!) but
I'm going to remain quiet and let the discussion take it's course.
Which, I should note, is exactly how I became maintainer in the
first place. :P

Cheers,

Dave.
--
Dave Chinner
david@fromorbit.com

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