[Ksummit-2013-discuss] [ATTEND] What to do when a maintainer is no longer available

Olof Johansson olof at lixom.net
Wed Jul 10 21:54:30 UTC 2013


On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 1:45 PM, Steven Rostedt <rostedt at goodmis.org> wrote:

> Perhaps we should all have someone as a backup? Let others know who you
> trust to work as the maintainer if something were to happen to you. We
> can have limits to what that person can do in case you are still around
> but only monumentally incapacitated.
>
> I rather have something in place before it happens. Unfortunately, it
> will happen. It's just a matter of time.

Backup plans in case of worst case scenarios are of course very good
to have. But having a backup or co-maintainer can be very useful and
relieving even in normal circumstances; being able to take a couple of
weeks off for vacation knowing that things are still looked after
without close attention by yourself, for example.

I think the model Arnd and I have been using for arm-soc has been
working remarkably well in that sense. It's been easy to shift over
"point person" duties as we get busy with other things, switching back
when things go the other way, etc. Sometimes latency goes up during
the switchover since the new person doesn't pick it up immediately,
but it's not usually a big deal.

For those who don't co-maintain, having others step up and starting to
help out with reviews could be a good start. I think this has been
discussed a number of times already w.r.t. scalability and those
aspects. The same principles here apply, I'd say.


-Olof


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