-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 March 20th 2010 for Alex Fernandez <alejandro...@gmail.com>, Alexander Shulgin <alex.shul...@gmail.com> copy savannah-hackers-public@gnu.org, g...@gnu.org thread "Help need in Savannah"
Hi. >How long does this process take, in a typical case? There is no "typical" case. Some project met all the hosting requirement and are approved just after reviewing the tarball. Most cases some file lack the licensing information or so, and you have to ask the mantainer to include it and upload an updated tarball, then you review it again, and if all is ok, approve the project. >Is it hard? I woudn't call it hard but rather, simple and time consuming. You have to pick a task and assign it to you (Assigned to) and put it "in progress" (Status), then review: *All files above 10 lines long include the licensing information: Copyrigth holder, copyrigth years as a list (Without ranges), license header. *Every file than can't contain the licensing information inside (Like images for example) must be listed in README file along with it copyright and licensing information. *A file called LICENSE, COPYING, PERMISSIONS or similar contains the license itself. This is not nessesary if license is included in each file, as usually is the case with short, permissive licenses. *GPL-ed project must use the "or any later" clause. *Documentation don't speak of open source but free software instead, and GNU/Linux as such, not "Linux". You don't need to dig a lot, just open the file in Emacs and search for Linux and open. *Some times there are references to commercial software in the documentation or project description. Again, open the documentation with Emacs, seach for "commercial" and Review carefully the context, most times, it must be replaced for "propiertary"; but very few times, is the correct word. Example: "This is a free commercial package I developed for Foobar Inc." is ok because the mantainer know what is free software, and he is talking about commercial free software; but however "This image editor is a replacement for commercial programs" is wrong, because commercial software isn't a problem. The problem is propietary sotware, so the pharse must be "This image editor is a replacement for propietary programs" *As in GNU we think software should not have owers, the software should not be named something like "Jhon Smith's editor". Also, when talking with the submitter or mantainer please avoid speaking of "your package" to refer to the package submitted, refer to the software by it name or by "this package", "the package you submitted" or so. The rationale is than we don't want than users nor developers think of free software as one phisical thing with owner. *The names begining in "GNU" and the type "GNU software and documentation" is reserved for GNU packages. Example: The hypotetical project name "GNU foo" and type="GNU package or documentation"is only allowed if foo is a GNU package. Remember to the submitter than you are evaluating the project for be hosted in GNU Savannah, the instructions for suggesting a package to be included in GNU project are in http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html. *Check the dependencies of the project. The mantainer must list them in the "dependencies" section, else ask him for do so and check their license, all they must be fully free software, without exeption. *The tarball, if compressed, must be in a free format like is gzip, bzip2, lzma, xz, lzip, but not rar. *Ideally, all files in the tarball must be inside a directory with the project name. Ask the mantainer to follow this model, but remember to him than this is not mandatory, just is an adviced for the comfort of the users of the program he submitted. >you have to look at every submitted file? Do you have to dig a lot, >or just a cursory look will do? Well... the deepness of review vary with some factors: If mantainer speaks of open source, of linux or sends a zipball (The most common format in W systems) he is very likley, an developer unexperienced with free software, and the software he submitted is most likely to have mistrakes, so you should do the most deep review. If the mantainer speak of free software, and have provided an accurate information about the dependencies and it licences, he is likeley experienced with free software. If doccumentation is all ok, and project is very large you can just review one third randomly selected files in each directory, if there are no mistrakes at all in the reviewed files you can trust the another 2/3 are ok, but if there is a mistrake, review all source files. If project is not so large review all the files :). The doccumentation review is the "hardest" part because sometimes the licensing notice is at the end, or contain some of the "bad" words (Open, linux, commercial, "for free", and so). Code reviewing is much easy, you just open the file and see if it have the copyright information and license header, don't take more than one second per file. The copyright holder must be a complete human name ("Jhon Smith") or company name ("Johnsoft Inc.") not a nicke "jsmt". Always ping the old projects (> 10 days) before begin with registration process. Alex Fernandez: Please don't forget to say you are not administrator yet in your first message when evaluating a project, when you think all is ok let me know and I will do a final review and approve the project. After you get some experiencie I will propose to the rest savannah hackers to give you administrator permissions. The pending projects queue is in https://savannah.gnu.org/task/?group=administration&category_id=1&status_id=1&set=custom#results And please subscribe to http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/savannah-hackers-public and http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/savannah-register-public. Alexander Shulgin: Any help is welcome, but the most recent projects are more important, since I don't think the mantainers of old ones are still interested in hosting in savnnah. Regards and thanks both. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEAREIAAYFAkun1uEACgkQZ4DA0TLic4gXeACfaVSfHqX0u2CxWDls5KsITBAw v0gAn2GOrBuoGun9FiLl9hi6HDYlzf7c =6m/R -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----