Re: How do I request a patch review?

[Olav Vitters <olav vitters nl>]

On Sun, Mar 07, 2010 at 07:56:25PM -0800, MPR wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 7:15 PM, Olav Vitters <olav vitters nl> wrote:
> > https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341441#c39
> >
> > The response from the maintainer is in the bug you referenced.
> 
> Yes, I know, but it's clear from his response that he didn't read the
> original developer's comments in the original bug (now marked
> duplicate). Nonetheless, I have attempted to contact said developer

Initially you mentioned that you got no feedback, you got feedback.

The author of the patch was/is a gnome-panel maintainer. As such, he
could've committed it. However, he did not. His comment indicates he is
not sure if the patch is correct (possible side-effects). The current
maintainer is also not sure. They're not just random developers.

Conclusion: Test this patch extensively. Ideally have some distribution
perhaps include it, wait for feedback from users.

> along with the original patch author, who is also a developer. I
> commented in the patch as well as sent an email to both of them. It's
> been well over a week and neither one of them have gotten back to me.

1 week would be fast for vuntz. He's quite busy.

> There has been a working patch for this bug for five years. I'd really
> like to see this bug closed, but to do so will require opening a
> dialog with the GNOME panel maintainers to get feedback on the patch.
> If something is wrong with the patch then they will need to
> communicate what that is so that I, or another developer, can update

They do not know what other problems it might cause as indicated in the
bug. Meaning: it might introduce other bugs.

> the patch to their satisfaction. People are willing to do the work to
> fix this bug, but our hands are tied if we can't get maintainers to
> talk to us.

They're not sure about regressions. So:
1) Do lots of testing (and I do not mean if it fixes the bug, I mean to
test if something else breaks)
2) or: fully understand what other implications there are and explain
that to the maintainers

-- 
Regards,
Olav