Proposal: How to request approval for the X11R6.8.x maintaince release 1 ...

[Roland Mainz]

Hi!

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I'd like to propose a new way to request, grant and deny approval for
checkin into the X11R6.8.x stable branch.

Until now a bugzilla bug was filed where the dependicy field was used to
add bugs to "nominate" them and then the release admin removed them if
approval was denied.
The disadvantage was that it was never clear whether a bug was really
approved or whether the approval was just pending. Or the dependicy list
wasn't updated at all. And there was no way to get the list of bugs
which still await approval by the release admin.

I'd like to solve these problems via the same way as mozilla.org solved
it - via Bugzilla attachment flags.
In newer versions of bugzilla (many thanks to Stuart Anderson for
updating Bugzilla :) each attachment can have "flags" which can be used
to mark attachments with boolean values ('+' or '-' - and '?' to request
that someone else should set the flag to a specific value).

I created such a flag in bugzilla for the "Xorg" product for the
upcoming X11R6.8.2 release called "approval_X11R6.8.x" to demonstrate
the new feature:

Just one example how to use the new flag (using Bug 1404 ("Xnest
crashing because of uninitialized GetWindowPixmap")):
1. Go to the bug where the patch which should be approved is stored:
https://freedesktop.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1404
2. Look at the "Attachment" table and click on the "Edit" link on the
right side of the patch:
https://freedesktop.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=939&action=edit
3. You will see a new dropdown "approval_X11R6.8.x".
Setting this dropdown to "?" means that you request approval for checkin
into the X11R6.8.x stable branch. An email will be send to the
release-wrangers at freedesktop.org mailinglist additionally to the normal
bugzilla email. And the bug will appear in the request queue
(https://freedesktop.org/bugzilla/request.cgi?action=queue&requester=&product=&type=approval_X11R6.8.x&requestee=&component=&group=type).
4. Set the flag to '?'.
5. Then the matching attachment should be discussed here and based on
the discussion the _release_admin_ (and really only that person) should
set the flag to either '+' to approve the patch or '-' to reject the
patch (if someone disagrees with the rejection the flag field can be
re-set to '?' again to request approval again).
For each state change bugzilla sends emails, one normal bugzilla email
to the owner of the bug and the people in the bug's CC: field and one to
release-wrangers.

Any comments/questons/etc. ?

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Bye,
Roland

P.S.: I already requested approval for
https://freedesktop.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=948&action=edit to
get the request queue filled and to demonstrate how this works...

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