Re: [Xen-devel] differing opinions between maintainers vs patch acks

[Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jan Beulich writes ("differing opinions between maintainers vs patch acks"):
> When there's an odd number of maintainers for a given piece of
> code, it may be acceptable to pull in a 3rd maintainer to break ties,
> but pulling in a non-maintainer (e.g. some [other] committer) to
> help out seems not really appropriate to me.

I'm afraid I disagree.  Someone with a fresh perspective is often
helpful, even if it involves a bit more explanation.

And, the use of committers as referees in inter-maintainer disputes is
explicitly laid out in the project governance document:
  https://xenproject.org/governance.html#roles-local
  | Committers
  ...
  | committers can also act as referees should disagreements amongst
  | maintainers arise

> My proposal is for the submitting maintainer's taste to take
> preference over the reviewing maintainer's one in such cases.
> And just to avoid any doubt - I don't mean this to extend to
> cases where correctness of the code would be affected (albeit
> I admit there may still be cases left sitting in a gray area in the
> middle).

I definitely agree that there is room for giving the author of some
code (whether they are a maintainer or not) some leeway on matters of
taste.  I think, though, that while this ought to be a principle
applied by maintainers, committers and anyone else making relevant
decisions, it is not a rule of governance to be applied in contested
cases.

Ian.

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