Call for a new GNU Parted maintainer

[Andrew Clausen]

Hi all,

I am the GNU Parted maintainer.  I have just accepted an offer to study
economics at the University of Pennsylvania, beginning in September.
The first year of economics PhD programs has a reputation for being
extremely challenging and time consuming.  Moreover, I am going to
attempt to finish a masters thesis before then.  I think it is unlikely
that I will have any time to contribute anything to Parted between
August 2005 and August 2006.

So, Parted needs a new maintainer.  I think it would be best for a new
maintainer to replace me as soon as possible, so that I can help ease
any pain that arises in transition.  (eg: Parted's source isn't as well
commented as it could be.  Perhaps I should spend the next few months of
my Parted time on comments?)

Maintaining Parted is a relatively social job because Parted
 * supports several partition table types.  (People who know about these are
usually the people who run the Linux ports to the relevant
architectures.)
 * supports several filesystems (and should support more!)
 * supports two operating systems (and should support more!)
 * is included in most GNU/Linux distributions

This means you get to chat to lots of people (Linux arch people, Linux
file systems people, people from different OS projects, and people who
look after GNU/Linux distros) who are all doing interesting things.
Much of this discussion is in private (on Internet Relay Chat or private
email), and often feels less formal than the mailing list.  So,
maintaining Parted is a great way to learn and get in touch with what is
happening in the free software world, and meeting interesting people.

Being a maintainer involves:
 * providing peer review for patches, resolving disputes, and ensuring
changes integrate well into Parted.  This role can be delegated to a
large extent.  If a controversial patch hits the list or CVS, other
contributors will probably notice and raise objections.  I can recommend
Linus' guide to management:

        http://lwn.net/Articles/105375

 * getting contributors to sign forms giving the GNU project permission
to use their code.  (No SCO for us!)

 * keeping track of who wrote what (for both legal and technical reasons).
In particular, this means making sure everyone writes good ChangeLog
entries.

 * the GNU maintainer guidelines are here:

        http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain

You don't have to follow them very closely - they are merely guidelines.
For example, Parted does not follow the GNU Coding Standards, which are
described here:

        http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards

(I think these standards are terrible.)  If you are seriously
uncomfortable with the GNU maintainer guidelines, you could make Parted
a non-GNU project.  (This is akin to forking, with the GNU fork possibly
dying.)

Thanks,
Andrew