[RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

[RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

[Dave Chinner]

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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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Re: [RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

[Zorro Lang]

On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 02:53:50PM +1000, Dave Chinner wrote:
> 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

Hi Dave,

Excuse me for my abrupt reply.

Thanks for what you did for us. I'm just thinking maybe you can
separate fstests maintenance jobs to several different maintainers?
Due to fstests project become bigger and bigger, it maybe hard for
someone review & merge & verify all kinds of patches.

As I know LTP have "not only one" maintainers. I think we still
need someone like you can make important decision for fstests.
But for some daily jobs, you can distribute them to others.

Thanks,
Zorro

> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Dave.
> -- 
> Dave Chinner
> david@fromorbit.com

Re: [RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 02:41:38PM +0800, Zorro Lang wrote:
> Thanks for what you did for us. I'm just thinking maybe you can
> separate fstests maintenance jobs to several different maintainers?
> Due to fstests project become bigger and bigger, it maybe hard for
> someone review & merge & verify all kinds of patches.
> 
> As I know LTP have "not only one" maintainers. I think we still
> need someone like you can make important decision for fstests.
> But for some daily jobs, you can distribute them to others.

FYI, back when we team-maintained the xfstests-dev repo together with
all the other xfs -dev repos it worked out fine.  But even with that
we need someone to volunteer for doing the day to day grunt work.

While I'd be happy to help out I fear I don't have time to do the
majority of the work at the moment either.

Re: [RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

[Eric Sandeen]

On 5/23/16 9:55 AM, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 02:41:38PM +0800, Zorro Lang wrote:
>> Thanks for what you did for us. I'm just thinking maybe you can
>> separate fstests maintenance jobs to several different maintainers?
>> Due to fstests project become bigger and bigger, it maybe hard for
>> someone review & merge & verify all kinds of patches.
>>
>> As I know LTP have "not only one" maintainers. I think we still
>> need someone like you can make important decision for fstests.
>> But for some daily jobs, you can distribute them to others.
> 
> FYI, back when we team-maintained the xfstests-dev repo together with
> all the other xfs -dev repos it worked out fine.  But even with that
> we need someone to volunteer for doing the day to day grunt work.
> 
> While I'd be happy to help out I fear I don't have time to do the
> majority of the work at the moment either.

Team maintenance probably makes good sense; while we do want to maintain
consistency across all filesystem tests, each fs does have its own
unique requirements as well.  So perhaps one maintainer from each major
fs contributor to the test corpus would make sense; a general agreement
about review requirements for the repo as a whole and for cross-fs
tests in particular would probably be a good idea, to maintain that
consistency and avoid surprises or contention.

-Eric

Re: [RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

[Eryu Guan]

On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 07:55:03AM -0700, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 02:41:38PM +0800, Zorro Lang wrote:
> > Thanks for what you did for us. I'm just thinking maybe you can
> > separate fstests maintenance jobs to several different maintainers?
> > Due to fstests project become bigger and bigger, it maybe hard for
> > someone review & merge & verify all kinds of patches.
> > 
> > As I know LTP have "not only one" maintainers. I think we still
> > need someone like you can make important decision for fstests.
> > But for some daily jobs, you can distribute them to others.
> 
> FYI, back when we team-maintained the xfstests-dev repo together with
> all the other xfs -dev repos it worked out fine.  But even with that
> we need someone to volunteer for doing the day to day grunt work.
> 
> While I'd be happy to help out I fear I don't have time to do the
> majority of the work at the moment either.

I'd like to help out to do the day to day dirty work as well, though I
don't have such experience before.

Thanks,
Eryu

Re: [RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

[Dave Chinner]

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 10:03:01PM +0800, Eryu Guan wrote:
> On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 07:55:03AM -0700, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 02:41:38PM +0800, Zorro Lang wrote:
> > > Thanks for what you did for us. I'm just thinking maybe you can
> > > separate fstests maintenance jobs to several different maintainers?
> > > Due to fstests project become bigger and bigger, it maybe hard for
> > > someone review & merge & verify all kinds of patches.
> > > 
> > > As I know LTP have "not only one" maintainers. I think we still
> > > need someone like you can make important decision for fstests.
> > > But for some daily jobs, you can distribute them to others.
> > 
> > FYI, back when we team-maintained the xfstests-dev repo together with
> > all the other xfs -dev repos it worked out fine.  But even with that
> > we need someone to volunteer for doing the day to day grunt work.
> > 
> > While I'd be happy to help out I fear I don't have time to do the
> > majority of the work at the moment either.
> 
> I'd like to help out to do the day to day dirty work as well, though I
> don't have such experience before.

Thank you for putting your hand up, Eryu. I don't think ayone else
is going to nominate themselves (or anyone else) at this point, so
I'll happily accept your offer. If anyone objects, then please speak
up now...

Eryu, I don't think a lack of experience will be a problem - there
isn't a whole lot of things you need to learn to manage git trees in
a consistent manner.

I'm not sure what the best way to start you off is - we can probably
talk a bit off-list and work out how best to get you up to speed and
so not overload and drown you instantly. Once we work that out we
can let everyone know how we'll manage everything and what the
longer term plan is.

Sound reasonable?

Cheers,

Dave.
-- 
Dave Chinner
david@fromorbit.com

Re: [RFD] fstests needs a new maintainer

[Eryu Guan]

On Wed, Jun 01, 2016 at 07:12:49AM +1000, Dave Chinner wrote:
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 10:03:01PM +0800, Eryu Guan wrote:
> > On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 07:55:03AM -0700, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > > On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 02:41:38PM +0800, Zorro Lang wrote:
> > > > Thanks for what you did for us. I'm just thinking maybe you can
> > > > separate fstests maintenance jobs to several different maintainers?
> > > > Due to fstests project become bigger and bigger, it maybe hard for
> > > > someone review & merge & verify all kinds of patches.
> > > > 
> > > > As I know LTP have "not only one" maintainers. I think we still
> > > > need someone like you can make important decision for fstests.
> > > > But for some daily jobs, you can distribute them to others.
> > > 
> > > FYI, back when we team-maintained the xfstests-dev repo together with
> > > all the other xfs -dev repos it worked out fine.  But even with that
> > > we need someone to volunteer for doing the day to day grunt work.
> > > 
> > > While I'd be happy to help out I fear I don't have time to do the
> > > majority of the work at the moment either.
> > 
> > I'd like to help out to do the day to day dirty work as well, though I
> > don't have such experience before.
> 
> Thank you for putting your hand up, Eryu. I don't think ayone else
> is going to nominate themselves (or anyone else) at this point, so
> I'll happily accept your offer. If anyone objects, then please speak
> up now...
> 
> Eryu, I don't think a lack of experience will be a problem - there
> isn't a whole lot of things you need to learn to manage git trees in
> a consistent manner.
> 
> I'm not sure what the best way to start you off is - we can probably
> talk a bit off-list and work out how best to get you up to speed and
> so not overload and drown you instantly. Once we work that out we
> can let everyone know how we'll manage everything and what the
> longer term plan is.
> 
> Sound reasonable?

Yes, that sounds reasonable to me. Though it's a big challenge to me,
I'll do my best to work it out. Thank you for the trust!

Thanks,
Eryu