Re: branching for 9.2devel - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On 11-04-25 03:40 PM, Robert Haas wrote:
> At the risk of getting a bit cranky, you haven't participated in a
> material way in any CommitFest we've had in well over a year.  AFAICS,
> the first, last, and only time you are listed in the CommitFest
> application is as co-reviewer of a patch in July 2009, which means
> that the last time you really had a major roll in this process was
> during the 8.4 cycle.  So I'm really rather suspicious that you know
> what's wrong with the process and how to fix it better than the people
> who are involved currently.  I think we need here is more input from
> the people who are regularly submitting and reviewing patches, and
> those who have tried recently but been turned off by some aspect of
> the process.
>

I reviewed a handful of patches during commitfests during the 9.1 
release.  I think  a commitfest lasting one week will make me review 
fewer patches not more.    At the start of a commitfest I would 
volunteer to review a single patch knowing that it wouldn't be hard to 
find 4-6 hours to review the patch during the next few weeks.   Once I 
was done with the first patch when I thought I'd have sometime in the 
next few days to review another patch I would pick another one off the 
list.   At the start of the commitfest I wasn't concerned about picking 
up a patch because I knew I had lots of time to get to it.  Near the end 
of the last commitfest I wasn't concerned about picking up an unassigned 
patch because there were so many patches people picked up earlier on in 
the commitfest waiting for review that I didn't think I'd get pressured 
on a patch I had only picked up a day or two ago.  If I knew I was 
expected to turn a review  around in a short window I think I would only 
pick up a patch if I was 90% sure I'd have time to get to it during the 
week. I sometimes can spend $work time on reviewing patches but I can 
rarely block time off or schedule when that will be, and the same 
somewhat applies to the patch reviews I do on my own time (postgresql 
stuff comes after other commitments).

It is easy to say four weeks in a row "I won't have time to review one 
patch this week" it is harder to say "I won't have time to review a 
single patch in the next month"

I also should add that sometimes I'd review a patch and the only issue 
from the review  might be "is this really how we want the thing to 
work?" and the commitfest app doesn't have a good state for this.  If 
patch needs feedback or a decision from the community and it sometimes 
isn't clear when enough silence or +1's justify moving it to a committer 
or bouncing the patch to be reworked.

Steve