Re: [boost] Git permissions model

Subject: Re: [boost] Git permissions model
From: Gavin Lambert (gavinl_at_[hidden])
Date: 2013-12-08 23:04:07

On 6/12/2013 15:54, Quoth Beman Dawes:
>> I think the Linux kernel uses git's built in pull request mechanism. I
>> don't know anything about it, so I don't know if it would be
>> appropriate for us. Most people do seem to prefer using github, and as
>> many of our contributors are windows users they might be more
>> comfortable using a web interface than the command line. Here's Linus
>> Torvalds writing about it in his charming manner:
>>
>> https://github.com/torvalds/linux/pull/17#issuecomment-5654674
>>
> He isn't the only one who doesn't like GitHub's (as distinguished from
> git's) pull request mechanism. I read a blog about that a couple of days
> ago, where the author talked about how submitting a fix to an open source
> project was a process over time, not a single even. It has to start to with
> submitter having some feeling for how the project handles maintenance,
> testing, docs, etc. and progress through a dialog.

Speaking as one who has made several pull requests on GitHub (though 
admittedly only to a small number of projects), I can definitely attest 
to them being a process over time.  (But that's what you'd expect, and 
want, usually.)

Each request has both a discussion thread and a branch, allowing the 
maintainer to test the code and recommend additional changes be made by 
the submitter (even if just to merge up to latest HEAD and resolve 
conflicts if it takes a while).

I've had some simple requests get merged almost immediately, and more 
complex ones take several months until the maintainer can find time to 
look at them properly.  But the process was fairly smooth both ways.

(And the things that Linus was objecting to in that link look like 
things fairly unique to the kernel and its development habits.)