The Postfix development model is not like that of other open source
projects with a steady stream of new commits, bugreports and bugfixes
for those new commits. One of the original Postfix goals, which
still stands today, is to provide software that isn't riddled with
security and other holes (besides providing world-class performance
and a few other desirable properties). If people are expecting a
development model that centers around bug trackers, and a general
approach that is based on releasing code first, and fixing the bugs
as they are discovered in the field, then that is not the model
that has led to Postfix (and its reputation) as we know it today.
In my limited experience, the number of people that can contribute
code that isn't riddled with holes is very, very, small. That doesn't
mean that everyone else is stupid - it just means that most people
are better at doing other things. While few Postfix contributions
have been adopted as is, most Postfix contributions require heavy
editing (and even this wasn't sufficient to eliminate security
holes, resulting in two CVE's in 2011 for 10-year old bugs).
Postfix development is not primarily focused on writing code that
builds without error and that provides the intended functionality
without crashing. Those are only secondary aspects of Postfix
development. The primary focus is on writing robust code that handles
all eventualities. This requires a different way of thinking about
how to solve a problem.
The result is slow development, and bug list that is empty most of
the time. If you want to see what little has changed in a release,
a simple "diff" will reveal all the secrets. I expect to adopt git
as a source-code control system because it provides the cryptographic
authentication that was not available when I needed it. In the light
of my past experiences with contributed code, I won't consider
multiple committers.
That said, Postfix is open source. If someone believes that Postfix
needs more security holes, then they are welcome to fork a project
and start destroying its good reputation. For this, there is no
need to wait until I stop working on Postfix.
Wietse
