Re: WANTED new maintainer for Linux/md (and mdadm)

From: Artur Paszkiewicz
Date: Wed Jan 20 2016 - 03:28:06 EST


On 12/21/2015 07:10 AM, NeilBrown wrote:
>
> hi,
> I became maintainer for md (Linux Software RAID) in late 2001 and on
> the whole it has been fun and a valuable experience. But I have been
> losing interest in recent years (https://lwn.net/Articles/511073/) and
> as was mentioned at the kernel summit, I would like to resign. Some
> years ago I managed to hand over nfsd to the excellent Bruce Fields,
> but I do not seem to have the gift that Linus has of attracting
> maintainers. While there are a number of people who know quite a bit
> about md and/or have contributed to development, there is no obvious
> candidate for replacement maintainer - no one who has already been
> doing significant parts of the maintainer role.
>
> So I have decided to fall back on the mechanism by which I ended up
> being maintainer in the first place. I will create a vacuum and hope
> someone fills it (yes: I was sucked-in....). So as of 1st February
> 2016 I will be resigning.
>
> At the kernel summit in October Linus talked about the value of
> maintainership teams (https://lwn.net/Articles/662979/). I think it
> would be great if a (small) team formed to continue to oversee md
> rather than just a single individual (or maybe the dm team could extend
> to include md??). If I had managed to be part of a team rather than
> "going it alone" for so long, I might feel less tired of the whole
> thing now.
>
> I don't see it as my place to appoint that team or any individuals, or
> even to nominate any candidates. A very important attribute of a
> maintainer is that they need to care about the code and the subsystem
> and I cannot tell other people to care (or even know if they do). It
> is really up to individuals to volunteer. A few people have been
> mentioned to me in earlier less-public conversations. Any of them may
> well be suitable, but I would rather they named themselves if
> interested.
>
> So I'm hoping to get one or more volunteers to be maintainer:
> - to gather and manage patches and outstanding issues,
> - to review patches or get them reviewed
> - to follow up bug reports and get them resolved
> - to feed patches upstream, maybe directly to Linus,
> maybe through some other maintainer, depending on what
> relationships already exist or can be formed,
> - to guide the longer term direction (saying "no" is important
> sometimes),
> - to care,
> but also to be aware that maintainership takes real effort and time, as
> does anything that is really worthwhile.
>
> This all applies to mdadm as well as md (except you would ultimately
> *be* upstream for mdadm, not needing to send it anywhere). Even if a
> clear team doesn't form it would be great if different people
> maintained mdadm and md.
>
> One part of the job that I have put a lot of time in to is following
> the linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx list and providing support. This makes
> people feel good about md and so more adventurous in using it.
> Consequently I tend to hear about bugs and usability issues nice and
> early (well before paying customers hit them in most cases) and that is
> a big win.
> In recent times I've been doing less of this and have been absolutely
> thrilled that the gap has been more than filled by other very competent
> community members. Not developers particular but a number of md users
> have been providing excellent support. I'd particularly like to
> high-light Phil Turmel who is very forthcoming with excellent advice,
> but he is certainly not the only one who deserves a lot of thanks.
> So "Thank you" to everyone who answers questions on linux-raid.
>
> This would be a good place for any future maintainer to hang out to
> receive wisdom as well as to provide support.
>
> I will still be around. I can certainly help out in some sort of
> mentor role, and can probably be convinced to review patches and
> comment on designs. But I really want to head towards spending less
> time on md (there are so many other interesting things to learn about).
>
> So: if anyone is interested - please announce yourself, ask questions
> and start doing things. I have no clear idea about how a transition
> will happen. That is really up to you (plural). Take the bull by the
> horns and start *being* a maintainer(team). I won't get in your way
> and I'll help where I can.
>
> Thanks,
> NeilBrown
>
> P.S. I'm committed to continue to work with the raid5-journal effort
> From Facebook and the raid1-cluster effort from SUSE and the
> line-in-the-sand of 1st February won't affect my support for those.
>

Hi Neil,

Thank you for your work and time spent on maintaining MD/mdadm. I would also
like to offer help for the emerging maintainership team. I've been working with
MD RAID for more than 4 years, mostly testing and developing the IMSM-related
parts on behalf of my employer - Intel. I realize that I was not very visible
on this mailing list, but I think I have a pretty good knowledge about mdadm
and the MD drivers. Now I have Intel's approval to take on maintaining MD RAID
as part of my job, not focusing primarily on IMSM. I definitely feel more
confident with maintaining mdadm, but I would certainly like to learn more
about the kernel MD stack and help with it as much as I can.

Regards,
Artur