183 lines
6.8 KiB
Markdown
183 lines
6.8 KiB
Markdown
# Decision making in the curl project
|
|
|
|
A rough guide to how we make decisions and who does what.
|
|
|
|
## BDFL
|
|
|
|
This project was started by and has to some extent been pushed forward over
|
|
the years with Daniel Stenberg as the driving force. It matches a standard
|
|
BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life) style project.
|
|
|
|
This setup has been used due to convenience and the fact that it has worked
|
|
fine this far. It is not because someone thinks of it as a superior project
|
|
leadership model. It will also only continue working as long as Daniel manages
|
|
to listen in to what the project and the general user population wants and
|
|
expects from us.
|
|
|
|
## Legal entity
|
|
|
|
There is no legal entity. The curl project is just a bunch of people scattered
|
|
around the globe with the common goal to produce source code that creates
|
|
great products. We are not part of any umbrella organization and we are not
|
|
located in any specific country. We are totally independent.
|
|
|
|
The copyrights in the project are owned by the individuals and organizations
|
|
that wrote those parts of the code.
|
|
|
|
## Decisions
|
|
|
|
The curl project is not a democracy, but everyone is entitled to state their
|
|
opinion and may argue for their sake within the community.
|
|
|
|
All and any changes that have been done or will be done are eligible to bring
|
|
up for discussion, to object to or to praise. Ideally, we find consensus for
|
|
the appropriate way forward in any given situation or challenge.
|
|
|
|
If there is no obvious consensus, a maintainer who's knowledgeable in the
|
|
specific area will take an "executive" decision that they think is the right
|
|
for the project.
|
|
|
|
## Donations
|
|
|
|
Donating plain money to curl is best done to curl's [Open Collective
|
|
fund](https://opencollective.com/curl). Open Collective is a US based
|
|
non-profit organization that holds on to funds for us. This fund is then used
|
|
for paying the curl security bug bounties, to reimburse project related
|
|
expenses etc.
|
|
|
|
Donations to the project can also come in the form of server hosting, providing
|
|
services and paying for people to work on curl related code etc. Usually, such
|
|
donations are services paid for directly by the sponsors.
|
|
|
|
We grade sponsors in a few different levels and if they meet the criteria,
|
|
they can be mentioned on the Sponsors page on the curl website.
|
|
|
|
## Commercial Support
|
|
|
|
The curl project does not do or offer commercial support. It only hosts
|
|
mailing lists, runs bug trackers etc to facilitate communication and work.
|
|
|
|
However, Daniel works for wolfSSL and we offer commercial curl support there.
|
|
|
|
# Key roles
|
|
|
|
## User
|
|
|
|
Someone who uses or has used curl or libcurl.
|
|
|
|
## Contributor
|
|
|
|
Someone who has helped the curl project, who has contributed to bring it
|
|
forward. Contributing could be to provide advice, debug a problem, file a bug
|
|
report, run test infrastructure or writing code etc.
|
|
|
|
## Commit author
|
|
|
|
Sometimes also called 'committer'. Someone who has authored a commit in the
|
|
curl source code repository. Committers are recorded as `Author` in git.
|
|
|
|
## Maintainers
|
|
|
|
A maintainer in the curl project is an individual who has been given
|
|
permissions to push commits to one of the git repositories.
|
|
|
|
Maintainers are free to push commits to the repositories at their own will.
|
|
Maintainers are however expected to listen to feedback from users and any
|
|
change that is non-trivial in size or nature *should* be brought to the
|
|
project as a Pull-Request (PR) to allow others to comment/object before merge.
|
|
|
|
## Former maintainers
|
|
|
|
A maintainer who stops being active in the project will at some point get
|
|
their push permissions removed. We do this for security reasons but also to
|
|
make sure that we always have the list of maintainers as "the team that push
|
|
stuff to curl".
|
|
|
|
Getting push permissions removed is not a punishment. Everyone who ever worked
|
|
on maintaining curl is considered a hero, for all time hereafter.
|
|
|
|
## Security team members
|
|
|
|
We have a security team. That is the team of people who are subscribed to the
|
|
curl-security mailing list; the receivers of security reports from users and
|
|
developers. This list of people will vary over time but should be skilled
|
|
developers familiar with the curl project.
|
|
|
|
The security team works best when it consists of a small set of active
|
|
persons. We invite new members when the team seems to need it, and we also
|
|
expect to retire security team members as they "drift off" from the project or
|
|
just find themselves unable to perform their duties there.
|
|
|
|
## Server admins
|
|
|
|
We run a web server, a mailing list and more on the curl project's primary
|
|
server. That physical machine is owned and run by Haxx. Daniel is the primary
|
|
admin of all things curl related server stuff, but Björn Stenberg and Linus
|
|
Feltzing serve as backup admins for when Daniel is gone or unable.
|
|
|
|
The primary server is paid for by Haxx. The machine is physically located in a
|
|
server bunker in Stockholm Sweden, operated by the company Glesys.
|
|
|
|
The website contents are served to the web via Fastly and Daniel is the
|
|
primary curl contact with Fastly.
|
|
|
|
## BDFL
|
|
|
|
That is Daniel.
|
|
|
|
# Maintainers
|
|
|
|
A curl maintainer is a project volunteer who has the authority and rights to
|
|
merge changes into a git repository in the curl project.
|
|
|
|
Anyone can aspire to become a curl maintainer.
|
|
|
|
### Duties
|
|
|
|
There are no mandatory duties. We hope and wish that maintainers consider
|
|
reviewing patches and help merging them, especially when the changes are
|
|
within the area of personal expertise and experience.
|
|
|
|
### Requirements
|
|
|
|
- only merge code that meets our quality and style guide requirements.
|
|
- *never* merge code without doing a PR first, unless the change is "trivial"
|
|
- if in doubt, ask for input/feedback from others
|
|
|
|
### Recommendations
|
|
|
|
- we require two-factor authentication enabled on your GitHub account to
|
|
reduce risk of malicious source code tampering
|
|
- consider enabling signed git commits for additional verification of changes
|
|
|
|
### Merge advice
|
|
|
|
When you are merging patches/pull requests...
|
|
|
|
- make sure the commit messages follow our template
|
|
- squash patch sets into a few logical commits even if the PR did not, if
|
|
necessary
|
|
- avoid the "merge" button on GitHub, do it "manually" instead to get full
|
|
control and full audit trail (GitHub leaves out you as "Committer:")
|
|
- remember to credit the reporter and the helpers.
|
|
|
|
## Who are maintainers?
|
|
|
|
The [list of maintainers](https://github.com/orgs/curl/people). Be aware that
|
|
the level of presence and activity in the project vary greatly between
|
|
different individuals and over time.
|
|
|
|
### Become a maintainer?
|
|
|
|
If you think you can help making the project better by shouldering some
|
|
maintaining responsibilities, then please get in touch.
|
|
|
|
You will be expected to be familiar with the curl project and its ways of
|
|
working. You need to have gotten a few quality patches merged as a proof of
|
|
this.
|
|
|
|
### Stop being a maintainer
|
|
|
|
If you (appear to) not be active in the project anymore, you may be removed as
|
|
a maintainer. Thank you for your service!
|