Re: [RFC PATCH] NFSD: Add a subsystem policy document

[Chuck Lever <cel@kernel.org>]

On 9/22/25 3:25 AM, Jeff Layton wrote:
>> +Community roles and their authority
>> +-----------------------------------
>> +The purpose of Linux subsystem communities is to provide active
>> +stewardship of a narrow set of source files in the Linux kernel.
>> +This can include managing user space tooling as well.
>> +
>> +To contextualize the structure of the Linux NFS community that
>> +is responsible for stewardship of the NFS server code base, we
>> +define the community roles here.
>> +
>> +One person often takes on more than one of these roles. One role
>> +can be filled by multiple people. The roles and the people filling
>> +them are often fluid. Sometimes a person will say "Wearing my XYZ
>> +hat" -- which means, roughly, "speaking as the person filling the
>> +XYZ role."
>> +
> For completeness, I'd add a "**Maintainer**" section below too.

Thanks for your comments.

The role list below actually contains all of the maintainer's tasks,
so IMHO the list isn't lacking completeness. The list could include a
"Maintainer" role in the list simply because it's a term we refer
to in every day conversation... or... I could add a paragraph up front
that explains that the term "Maintainer" is a combination of these
roles.

(And above, snipped out, the "Key Cycle Dates" section title comes
from Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst. I'll
think of a more accurate section title).


>> +- **Contributor** : Anyone who submits a code change, bug fix,
>> +  recommendation, documentation fix, and so on. A contributor can
>> +  submit regularly or infrequently.
>> +
>> +- **Outside Contributor** : A contributor who is not a regular actor
>> +  in the Linux NFS community. This can mean someone who contributes
>> +  to other parts of the kernel, or someone who just noticed a
>> +  mis-spelling in a comment and sent a patch.
>> +
>> +- **Reviewer** : Someone who is named in the MAINTAINERS file as a
>> +  reviewer is an area expert who can request changes to contributed
>> +  code, and expects that contributors will address the request.
>> +
>> +- **Upstream Release Manager** : This role is responsible for
>> +  curating contributions into a branch, reviewing test results, and
>> +  then sending a pull request during merge windows. There is a
>> +  trust relationship between the release manager and Linus.
>> +
>> +- **Bug Triager** : Someone who is a first responder to bug reports
>> +  submitted to the linux-nfs mailing list or the bugzilla and helps
>> +  troubleshoot and identify next steps.
>> +
>> +- **Testing Lead** : The testing lead builds and runs the test
>> +  infrastructure for the subsystem. The testing lead can ask for
>> +  patches to be dropped because of ongoing high defect rates.
>> +
>> +- **LTS Maintainer** : The LTS maintainer is responsible for managing
>> +  the Fixes: and Cc: stable annotations on patches, and seeing that
>> +  patches that cannot be automatically applied to LTS kernels get
>> +  proper backports as necessary.
>> +
>> +- **Community Manager** : This umpire role can be asked to call balls
>> +  and strikes during conflicts, but is also responsible for ensuring
>> +  the health of the relationships within the community and
>> +  facilitating discussions on long-term topics such as how to manage
>> +  growing technical debt.


-- 
Chuck Lever