Re: [dm-devel] WANTED new maintainer for Linux/md (and mdadm)

[Brassow Jonathan]

Many thanks Neil for all the work youâve done and the help you gave me while working on the DM/MD interactions bits.  Iâm happy you are sticking around for the raid1-cluster and raid5-journal bits and Iâm interested to see what comes out of those.

I know there are a number of folks around Red Hat who are capable and possibly interested to share the load.  They should be back from PTO soon and weâll make sure they know about the opportunity.

thanks,
 brassow

> On Dec 21, 2015, at 12:10 AM, NeilBrown <neilb@xxxxxxxx> 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.
> --
> dm-devel mailing list
> dm-devel@xxxxxxxxxx
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/dm-devel

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