1668725ceSAlex Bennée.. _maintainers: 2668725ceSAlex Bennée 3668725ceSAlex BennéeThe Role of Maintainers 4668725ceSAlex Bennée======================= 5668725ceSAlex Bennée 6668725ceSAlex BennéeMaintainers are a critical part of the project's contributor ecosystem. 7668725ceSAlex BennéeThey come from a wide range of backgrounds from unpaid hobbyists 8668725ceSAlex Bennéeworking in their spare time to employees who work on the project as 9668725ceSAlex Bennéepart of their job. Maintainer activities include: 10668725ceSAlex Bennée 11668725ceSAlex Bennée - reviewing patches and suggesting changes 12668725ceSAlex Bennée - collecting patches and preparing pull requests 13668725ceSAlex Bennée - tending to the long term health of their area 14668725ceSAlex Bennée - participating in other project activities 15668725ceSAlex Bennée 16668725ceSAlex BennéeThey are also human and subject to the same pressures as everyone else 17668725ceSAlex Bennéeincluding overload and burnout. Like everyone else they are subject 18668725ceSAlex Bennéeto project's :ref:`code_of_conduct` and should also be exemplars of 19668725ceSAlex Bennéeexcellent community collaborators. 20668725ceSAlex Bennée 21668725ceSAlex BennéeThe MAINTAINERS file 22668725ceSAlex Bennée-------------------- 23668725ceSAlex Bennée 24668725ceSAlex BennéeThe `MAINTAINERS 25668725ceSAlex Bennée<https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/blob/master/MAINTAINERS>`__ 26668725ceSAlex Bennéefile contains the canonical list of who is a maintainer. The file 27668725ceSAlex Bennéeis machine readable so an appropriately configured git (see 28668725ceSAlex Bennée:ref:`cc_the_relevant_maintainer`) can automatically Cc them on 29668725ceSAlex Bennéepatches that touch their area of code. 30668725ceSAlex Bennée 31668725ceSAlex BennéeThe file also describes the status of the area of code to give an idea 32668725ceSAlex Bennéeof how actively that section is maintained. 33668725ceSAlex Bennée 34668725ceSAlex Bennée.. list-table:: Meaning of support status in MAINTAINERS 35668725ceSAlex Bennée :widths: 25 75 36668725ceSAlex Bennée :header-rows: 1 37668725ceSAlex Bennée 38668725ceSAlex Bennée * - Status 39668725ceSAlex Bennée - Meaning 40668725ceSAlex Bennée * - Supported 41668725ceSAlex Bennée - Someone is actually paid to look after this. 42668725ceSAlex Bennée * - Maintained 43668725ceSAlex Bennée - Someone actually looks after it. 44668725ceSAlex Bennée * - Odd Fixes 45668725ceSAlex Bennée - It has a maintainer but they don't have time to do 46668725ceSAlex Bennée much other than throw the odd patch in. 47668725ceSAlex Bennée * - Orphan 48668725ceSAlex Bennée - No current maintainer. 49668725ceSAlex Bennée * - Obsolete 50668725ceSAlex Bennée - Old obsolete code, should use something else. 51668725ceSAlex Bennée 52668725ceSAlex BennéePlease bear in mind that even if someone is paid to support something 53668725ceSAlex Bennéeit does not mean they are paid to support you. This is open source and 54668725ceSAlex Bennéethe code comes with no warranty and the project makes no guarantees 55668725ceSAlex Bennéeabout dealing with bugs or features requests. 56668725ceSAlex Bennée 57668725ceSAlex Bennée 58668725ceSAlex Bennée 59668725ceSAlex BennéeBecoming a reviewer 60668725ceSAlex Bennée------------------- 61668725ceSAlex Bennée 62668725ceSAlex BennéeMost maintainers start by becoming subsystem reviewers. While anyone 63668725ceSAlex Bennéeis welcome to review code on the mailing list getting added to the 64668725ceSAlex BennéeMAINTAINERS file with a line like:: 65668725ceSAlex Bennée 66668725ceSAlex Bennée R: Random Hacker <rhacker@example.com> 67668725ceSAlex Bennée 68668725ceSAlex Bennéemarks you as a 'designated reviewer' - expected to provide regular 69668725ceSAlex Bennéespontaneous feedback. This will ensure that patches touching a given 70668725ceSAlex Bennéesubsystem will automatically be CC'd to you. 71668725ceSAlex Bennée 72668725ceSAlex BennéeBecoming a maintainer 73668725ceSAlex Bennée--------------------- 74668725ceSAlex Bennée 75668725ceSAlex BennéeMaintainers are volunteers who put themselves forward or have been 76668725ceSAlex Bennéeasked by others to keep an eye on an area of code. They have generally 77668725ceSAlex Bennéedemonstrated to the community, usually via contributions and code 78668725ceSAlex Bennéereviews, that they have a good understanding of the subsystem. They 79668725ceSAlex Bennéeare also trusted to make a positive contribution to the project and 80668725ceSAlex Bennéework well with the other contributors. 81668725ceSAlex Bennée 82668725ceSAlex BennéeThe process is simple - simply send a patch to the list that updates 83668725ceSAlex Bennéethe ``MAINTAINERS`` file. Sometimes this is done as part of a larger 84668725ceSAlex Bennéeseries when a new sub-system is being added to the code base. This can 85668725ceSAlex Bennéealso be done by a retiring maintainer who nominates their replacement 86668725ceSAlex Bennéeafter discussion with other contributors. 87668725ceSAlex Bennée 88668725ceSAlex BennéeOnce the patch is reviewed and merged the only other step is to make 89668725ceSAlex Bennéesure your GPG key is signed. 90668725ceSAlex Bennée 91668725ceSAlex Bennée.. _maintainer_keys: 92668725ceSAlex Bennée 93668725ceSAlex BennéeMaintainer GPG Keys 94668725ceSAlex Bennée~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 95668725ceSAlex Bennée 96668725ceSAlex BennéeGPG is used to sign pull requests so they can be identified as really 97668725ceSAlex Bennéecoming from the maintainer. If your key is not already signed by 98668725ceSAlex Bennéemembers of the QEMU community, you should make arrangements to attend 99668725ceSAlex Bennéea `KeySigningParty <https://wiki.qemu.org/KeySigningParty>`__ (for 100668725ceSAlex Bennéeexample at KVM Forum) or make alternative arrangements to have your 101668725ceSAlex Bennéekey signed by an attendee. Key signing requires meeting another 102*381d2c36SPaolo Bonzinicommunity member **in person**\ [#2020]_ so please make appropriate 103668725ceSAlex Bennéearrangements. 104668725ceSAlex Bennée 105*381d2c36SPaolo Bonzini.. [#2020] In recent pandemic times we have had to exercise some 106668725ceSAlex Bennée flexibility here. Maintainers still need to sign their pull 107668725ceSAlex Bennée requests though. 108