Hi! > NOTE: The following idea might be out-of-scope in DEP-18, but specific > use-case to improve > collaboration in Debian, IMHO. > > Here is just an idea: put collaboration policy metadata in debian/control. > (The following idea assumes that non-maintainer DD tend to hesitate to > commit/merge it) > > * Collaboration-Policy: debian/CONTRIBUTION.md > Yes, we have README.source already, but it might be better to note > in a separate file about collaboration. > * Collaboration-Policy-Commit: yes > It declares that the package owner encourages non-maintainer DD to > commit directly without merge request. > * Collaboration-Policy-Merge: yes > It declares that the package owner encourages non-maintainer DD to > allow merge requests. > (DD has maintainer right in salsa.d.o by default as you know, but > you can merge without worry if there is it.) > * Collaboration-Policy-LowThresholdNmu: yes > It declares that LowThresholdNmu rule [1] is applied. > * Collabollation-Policy-NMU-Delay: 15 > It declares that NMU delay the package owner wants.
I agree that the CONTRIBUTING.md pattern is common on GitHub/GitLab, but we have already thousands of packages with debian/README.source (a couple also with README.source.md) as this file is documented in https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html#source-package-handling-debian-readme-source. This should be to go-to location for any generic info on how to maintain the package or contribute to it. We also have some debian/source/* files as documented in https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/dother.en.html#sourcel (and https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/dpkg-dev/dpkg-source.1.en.html#FILES) that instruct how patches should be managed in the sources. Perhaps there could be more metadata to define how patch submissions should be managed Nearly ten thousand packages also have a debian/gbp.conf file, which in a way is also a way to communicate (automatically) how to build the package and how to contribute to it correctly. I am tempted to put a gbp.conf and README.source template in DEP-18, but that would probably not be received well by those who prefer dgit, although dgit can be used together with git-buildpackage as well.
