Document GitLab as the only way to contribute to Samba?

[Andrew Bartlett]

On Fri, 2019-06-21 at 09:01 +0100, Rowland penny via samba-technical
wrote:
> On 21/06/2019 08:44, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> > On Fri, 2019-06-21 at 08:13 +0100, Rowland penny via samba-technical
> > wrote:
> > > Sorry, but I do not think it is 'wrong' to not want to use git-lab.
> > > Perhaps we should 'prefer' people to use git-lab, but we definitely
> > > shouldn't tell anybody off for sending a patch directly to samba-technical.
> > > 
> > G'Day Rowland,
> > 
> > Can you elaborate a bit more?  Can you explain a bit more why?  Can I
> > help you set up your account?
> > 
> > It would be really good to have you on-board.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > Andrew Bartlett
> 
> I wasn't actually thinking of myself.
..
> I was thinking of other potential users.
> 
> Rowland

Thanks Rowland.

I would say that is the same for me.  

So, for those other potential users, I think we both want to guide
users to the path of most likely success, right?

The problem as I see it is that sending the patches to samba-technical
risks them simply being lost, particularly if folks are not 'told off'
and re-directed to GitLab.  

Quite bluntly, I don't review patches sent here.  I simply don't have
the time to spend on it, and on the flip side the merge requests
page[1] is a great TODO list for me.

Now, thankfully, I'm not the only reviewer, but it makes me feel sad if
we document methods with a lower chance of success alongside the way
that works better for both reviewer and submitter.  

If the submitter doesn't send the patch to GitLab CI, someone else
needs to, and then be the human messenger when it fails etc.  (This
leaves less time to review patches, which is why I don't do that any
more.)

It makes me sad because I feel for our contributors, and I want them to
feel that if they follow our advise, their patches will be well
considered.

Given that, do you see the advantage in having a single, uniform,
'right' way to submit patches?  Is there anything more I can to to help
you support, or at least not object to, my proposal?

Finally, I would encourage you to try out GitLab, it is much easier to
support something you have used, and my offer still stands. 

Thanks,

Andrew Bartlett

[1] https://gitlab.com/samba-team/samba/merge_requests
-- 
Andrew Bartlett                       http://samba.org/~abartlet/
Authentication Developer, Samba Team  http://samba.org
Samba Developer, Catalyst IT          http://catalyst.net.nz/services/samba