Using pull requests on Aeolus

Jason Guiditta jguiditt at redhat.com
Tue Aug 7 13:25:21 UTC 2012


On 07/08/12 09:05 -0400, John Eckersberg wrote:
>On 08/06/2012 10:59 PM, Matt Wagner wrote:
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> Don't throw any tomatoes just yet! We've been going back and forth about
>> using pull requests on GitHub for a long time. I'd like to propose that
>> we slowly try an experiment. We've had a few outside contributions come
>> in through pull requests, and it's worked just fine. At the same time,
>> there are people who are more comfortable with sending patches to the
>> list. So, even though it seems like it would be nice to have everyone
>> work the same way, it seems like the two options aren't mutually
>> exclusive.
>>
>> I'm proposing that we allow people who want to use pull requests to try
>> it out. Send pull requests, and other people who want to try pull
>> requests can review them. If you don't like pull requests, don't use
>> them, and someone will review and push like we do today.  If you're on
>> the fence, you can try it out, or not.
>>
>> I don't love that this would cause us to split patch discussion across
>> two places, but I think it's worth it as an experiment. I think it will
>> help us iron out any kinks, and experiment with whether this is
>> something we want to go forward with. I don't think forcing everyone to
>> switch to pull requests (especially overnight) is a good idea, nor is
>> ignoring the subject because it's controversial. This gets things
>> moving, and I hope it will be like our Fedora vs. upstream gem thing,
>> where trying to support both ends up making us more robust, versus
>> needlessly distracting us.
>>
>> I'd like to give this a try. Would anyone care to join me?
>>
>> -- Matt
>
>I'm with you.  I've been wanting to try this for a while now, but my
>intentions were always a bit too... grandiose and forceful :)
>
>This strikes a good balance and lets those who wish to experiment to do
>so.

I am a cautious +1 on this as well.  I still have some reservations
(like the crappy comment threading/notifications on github), but this
is almost exactly what I was trying to propose on irc a little while
back (albeit with less positive feedback, probably because I am mean).
I personally prefer to have the patch review on a mailing list, as I
think it is easier to see context, and has generally higher
visibility, but I realize at the same time that a lot of others love
the clicky ui of github, and it would be a shame to exclude potential
new contributors because we didn't accept pull requests.  Lastly, I
think if we do this, anyone who is using them should assign themselves
(not to their own, to be clear, had trouble wording this) or another 
team member as the reviewer to make it obvious if a patch
if being looked at.  This is actually the primary useful point of pull
requests to me, so I hope it will be used.  We have long complained
that it was hard to know if patches were under review, but that will 
not be the case if we assign reviewers this way.

PS - yes, I know there is a gem for doing cli interaction with github,
and I will be trying it, but the setup for reviewing patches doesn't
seem great to me.

-j



More information about the aeolus-devel mailing list