Re: Patch review - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> Gregory Stark wrote:
> 
> > so.... I went to look for the held patches queue to start reviewing patches.
> > There are over 2000 messages in the queue in 300 separate threads. At that
> > rate it would probably be just as easy to scan the patches and hackers mailing
> > list.
> 
> Pretty unwieldy, yes.  I'm not sure -patchers of -hackers is really
> "just as easy" though.
> 
> > Is someone working on dumping the list into a table on the wiki? I could
> > download the mbox files from the web site and filter them into a table.
> > 
> > Some part of me thinks this data should be in a postgres database so I can do
> > SQL queries against it to find a good patch to review.
> 
> It's hard to put this stuff in a database.  Truth is that it's highly
> unstructured.

Yep, _unstructured_ is the word for it.

We have a commit-fest coming March 1 I think so I will have the hold
patch queue cleaned up by then and only valid items will be left there.

> IMHO an mbox is not the right interface either, though.  I guess there
> must be something in the middle, like a *cough*patch manager*cough*.  At
> least there should be a way to mark patches: a "is this a patch" (or
> merely discussion) boolean; and a free-form field where other people can
> make comments.  Well, I guess that's what Review Board is for.  I think
> we should start asking patch submitters to load their patches on RB.

Frankly I think the structuring of the data is the hard part.  For 8.3
we had that web page that tracked the outstanding patches and that was
very useful because the patches were addressed over a 4-5 month period.

Ideally we could have that status for all patches all the time, but the
time required to structure/categorize them often isn't worth it.  We
could have the submitters do the categorizing or the patch appliers, but
in many cases the structuring is more work than just getting the patch
applied and completed.

If you think it would be easy to get patch submitters to categorize,
realize we have some very skilled people who don't even send email
reports of bugs, they just report them on IRC and can't be bothered with
email.  If email is a burden for them, imagine filling in a web form.

If patch appliers categorize, why would then do that if they are just
going to go an apply the patch and complete it?

Perhaps we can have two ways of submitting patches --- one that
categorizes and another that is more freeform via email?  Patch appliers
would have to deal with both.

--  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us EnterpriseDB
http://postgres.enterprisedb.com
 + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +