If you are a Fedora packager, you are probably aware of the new pkgdb.

One question which has been raised by this new version is: should we change the process to request new branches or integrate new packages in the distribution.

The discussion has occurred on the rel-eng mailing list but I'm gonna try to summarize here what the process is today and what it might become in the coming weeks.

Current new-package procedure:
  1. packager opens a review-request on bugzilla
  2. reviewer sets the fedora-review flag to ?
  3. reviewer does the review
  4. reviewer sets the fedora-review flag to +
  5. packager creates the scm-request and set fedora-cvs flag to ?
  6. cvsadmin checks the review (check reviewer is a packager)
  7. cvsadmin processes the scm-request (create git repo, create package in pkgdb)
  8. cvsadmin sets fedora-cvs flag to +
New procedure
  1. packager opens a review-request on bugzilla
  2. reviewer sets the fedora-review flag to ?
  3. reviewer does the review
  4. reviewer sets the fedora-review flag to +
  5. packager goes to pkgdb2 to request new package (specifying: package name, package summary, package branches, bugzilla ticket)
  6. requests added to the scm admin queue
  7. cvsadmin checks the review (check reviewer is a packager¹)
  8. cvsadmin approves the creation of the package in pkgdb
  9. package creation is broadcasted on fedmsg
  10. fedora-cvs flag set to + on bugzilla
  11. git adjusted automatically

Keeping the fedora-cvs flag in bugzilla allows to perform a regular (daily?) check that there are no fedora-review flag set as + that have been approved in pkgdb and whose fedmsg message hasn't been processed.

Looking at the number, it looks like there are more steps on the new procedure but eventually, most of them can be automated.

New branch process

For new branches, the process would be very similar:

  1. packager goes to pkgdb2 to request new branch
  2. requests added to the scm admin queue
  3. cvsadmin checks the request (requester is a packager...)
  4. cvsadmin approves the creation of the branch in pkgdb
  5. branch creation is broadcasted on fedmsg
  6. git adjusted automatically