Getting PRs fixed

[Jamie Landeg-Jones]

Dieter BSD <dieterbsd at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dieter> Ignoring PRs for years and years and years and years...
>
> Mark> Please suggest a constructive solution.  (This is a serious request.)

> Recruiting additional developers might help.  How to do that?

I've been using FreeBSD both professionally and personally since
2.2.7-RELEASE and I've fixed various bugs over the years, but a year or
so ago, I got fed up with the general indifference these last few years.

I hate to say it, but I've now scripted all my systems to auto-patch new
source with my own collection of bug fixes. Some I've submitted as PR's,
some (especially the lesser important ones) I haven't.

But now it means my fixes are automated for me without having to rely on
upstream responding.

I also have a few "is this really intended?" questions that were simply
ignored.  I'm not going to push them just in case the changes were
intentional, and my pushing ends up annoying someone whose time I've wasted.
But still, they are changes that break POLA and aren't documented, so, *shrug*

My impulsive reaction to finding issues, however small, was to try and fix
them, and report them. Now it's fix them, and automate the fixes to my systems.

If I found a potential vulnerability I'd report it, but for the other
stuff...  maybe, if I have time, but if it's going to be ignored, why
bother?, especially as it's not even possible to email PR's now...
Requiring firing up a web browser, downloading whatever patch from the
server to the desktop just to submit it on a form. You can't even do it
through w3m/links/lynx!

I don't want this to sound like an attack on any one in particular, or
indeed, the project general. I'm most grateful to everyone, and there
are many very dilligent people who I know would respond if I emailed them
directly (but I'm not going to interrupt them like that)

Still, the more often things are ignored, and the more people arbitarily
remove stuff without warning, the less approchable the project seems, and
the less likely it is that new volunteers will appear..

(even if you don't want a discussion, how about at least an announcement
before the fact?)

Cheers, Jamie