Packagers

Author: Victor Boctor

• Typically they have experience in packaging products or are the packagers for Mantis for one or more distributions. [giallu: I think it is very unlikely to be the packager on more of one distro, not a big deal though…]
• The packaging team will have CVS commit access (same access level as Mantis developers and globalization team).

• Focus on streamlining the Mantis packaging process.
• Responsible for maintaining unattended install / upgrade for Mantis.

• Maintain a list of Linux distributions that include Mantis.
• Maintain a list of Linux distributions that we should approach to include Mantis. [giallu: do we really want to actively do this? ]
• Keep close communication with Mantis packagers and Linux distributions.
• Responsible for integrating patches supplied to them by Mantis packagers.
• Work with Linux Distributions that provide a list of issues that need to be done for them to include Mantis.
• Communicate to packagers and Linux distributions that only Mantis stable releases should be included in their distributions (whether stable or unstable). [giallu: this is not easy for all distros. For example, anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong, debian stable is “stable” in the sense it will not change much overtime, and that only critical fixes are applied to packages, usually by backporting the patch]
• Packagers can also use the “Contact Us” page to send emails to myself (vboctor) directly, then I can address or re-direct them to the appropriate news group or individuals.

[giallu: this whole section seems quite orthogonal to the packaging issue; of course distro packagers are interested in security issues/patches, but this list seems more suited for a security team, not a packaging one]

• Manage the process of porting security bugs to the latest stable branch and make sure there are bugs to track such porting work (with summary starting with “Port:” prefix and adding a relationship of type “related”).
• Make sure that security fixes have the required level of documentation to support the process of creating security advisories.
• Maintain a list of sites on which we would like to submit our new advisories.
• Decide and maintain the format of the security advisory.
• Author and publish security advisories.
• Make sure security bugs cross references security advisories (e.g. include CVE in summary).
• Make sure security bugs are reported as private and are changed to public once a stable release is released.
• Make sure the security category is used “wisely” in the bug tracker.
  • Duplicate security issues should be marked as such.
  • If there are N security issues that indirectly refer to the same issue, then they a parent issue should be created and that is the one that should be documented, fixed, included in the change log, and published as a security advisory.
• Security fixes should include a description of the fix. It can be explanation of how to apply the fix, a patch, etc. This should allow packagers to apply the fix, users who are not ready to upgrade to also do the same.
• Advisories that are hosted on the Mantis website will be hosted on the wiki and will be all linked from an index page. The index page should include a table with information like: date, CVE, bug #s, versions affected, and summary.