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Tip: some people find it useful to use a DVCS to clone the whole of [[http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/nm/trunk/nm-templates/#_trunk_nm-templates_|http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/nm/trunk/nm-templates/]] and keep a local branch with their customisations. Feel free to post generally useful changes to debian-newmaint@lists.debian.org Tip: some people find it useful to use a DVCS to clone the whole of [[http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/nm/trunk/nm-templates/#_trunk_nm-templates_|http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/nm/trunk/nm-templates/]] (clone url: svn://anonscm.debian.org/nm/trunk/nm-templates/) and keep a local branch with their customisations. Feel free to post generally useful changes to debian-newmaint@lists.debian.org

Tutorial for new Application Managers

Becoming an AM

  1. Send a mail to Front Desk saying that you would like to become an AM. For example: "Hi, I'd like to become an AM".

  2. You will get a reply with account details for logging into https://nm.debian.org/ as application manager.

  3. Click "Change Profile" to edit your account details.

The various forms of the NM web interface should be 90% straightforward and 10% odd. For the 10% of oddities, feel free to ask in #debian-newmaint on OFTC, or mail debian-newmaint@lists.debian.org or Front Desk.

You start with one free AM slot. When Front Desk members spot an AM with a free AM slot, they assign a new applicant.

The idea is that you increase the number of slots if you can handle more applicants, or decrease it (even to 0) if you are busy.

Note that for new AMs, Front Desk will not assign more than one applicant, so the number of slots will become useful only after your first AM report is approved by Front Desk.

After the account is created, if there are applicants in the queue you will get one assigned.

Getting an applicant assigned

When an applicant is assigned to you, you will receive an email from a Front Desk member with attached all information currently known about the applicant. There is a little of pre-assignment triaging, so you can get useful information in this first mail.

At this point, if you log into https://nm.debian.org/ammain.php you will see the applicant in the interface, and you can choose to confirm or reject the assignment.

In 99% of cases assignments are confirmed, but if you prefer to get a different applicant, just contact Front Desk.

Contacting the applicant

After you accept the assignment you can contact the applicant. Most people customise this template mail for it.

Tip: some people find it useful to use a DVCS to clone the whole of http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/nm/trunk/nm-templates/ (clone url: svn://anonscm.debian.org/nm/trunk/nm-templates/) and keep a local branch with their customisations. Feel free to post generally useful changes to debian-newmaint@lists.debian.org

Forming an idea about the applicant

At this point, your task is to form yourself an idea about the applicant to decide if you trust them to become full DDs. Remember that full DD gives unsupervised upload rights to the whole Debian archive, so you are looking for someone who, among other things:

  • is responsible
  • is trustworthy
  • is competent enough for what they plan to do
  • understands Debian procedures and can be trusted to follow them
  • can coordinate with others
  • can tell if a software might not be free and will double check before uploading it to main
  • has a GPG key with at least one DD signature and another path into the web of trust.

You also need to get a GPG-signed statement of acceptance of the Social Contract, the DFSG and the DMUP.

You are free to follow any mean to form this opinion, within reason:

  • the DAM will need to form themselves an opinion by reading your AM report, which will normally include the mail exchange with the applicant, relevant mail exchanges with other people (if any), IRC logs or anything you'd find useful
  • try not to waste your time, or the time of the applicant
  • if in doubt, common sense applies

There are email templates which collect questions that other AMs use:

  • Philosophy, with questions about Debian in general, Free Software, the Social Contract, and about how to tell if a software can go to main. It also includes the bit about accepting SC, DFSG, DMUP

  • Procedures, with questions about Debian procedures, like use of the BTS, NMUs, various important Debian teams and so on.

  • Tasks&Skills 1, with technical questions

  • Tasks&Skills 2, with more technical questions

  • Alternate Tasks&Skills, with technical questions for non-packagers

You don't have to ask all of those questions: normally people select from the templates the questions that they consider useful for a specific applicant. See also FrontDesk/Tips

There is also a script that is extremely useful in checking if a key is signed by a Debian Developer. Its output is a required part of the final AM report.

Putting an applicant on hold

If an applicant tells you they're going to be busy for a while, you can put them "on hold": this will mark one of your AM slots as free, and Front Desk will assign you another NM applicant to process in the meantime.

To put an applicant on hold, set "AM Approves and Submits Report" to "No" and put a date (or "today") in the field below it. The form is counterintuitive in that point: setting "AM Approves" to "No" does not mean rejecting the applicant: to reject an applicant, add a note in the AM comments field and let Front Desk know.

Canceling an application, or rejecting an applicant

If you think the applicant is not ready to be a DD, or should not be a DD, you do not have not waste time trying to mentor them unless you feel inclined to do so. The NM process should not be a substitute for Debian Mentors, and applicants should be people who are ready to get an account already from the day they apply.

Feel free to contact the advocate if you have doubts: sometimes people get advocated in the NM process when they were intending to become DMs, or there are advocates that advocate people too early. Front Desk now catches most of these cases before they get assigned to an AM, but some may slip through.

Most of the reason for not approving an applicant is that they are not ready yet. In that case we talk about "canceling" the application, and we invite the applicant to build up more experience (perhaps as DM) and apply again after some months (see http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/11/msg00005.html under "No more rejections!")

In some rare cases there may be reason to say "this person should NOT be a DD": they are not easy decisions to take, and you can count on the help of the NM Committee and Front Desk if you want to discuss the situation or get a second opinion.

Approving an application

When you are satisfied that the applicant should indeed be a DD, you write the AM report and set "AM approves" to "Yes" in the web interfaces.

To write the report, you fill in a mail template and send the result to the emails listed at the top of the file.

Some caveats:

  • You will be sending out two mails: a public one for debian-newmaint@lists.debian.org, and a private one to Front Desk and DAM. The mail template indicates which sections go to both mails and which sections are only for the private one.

  • In the private mail, you are also attaching the mails exchanged with the applicant. The best way to do so is to attach a gzipped mbox file with all the mails: this will allow Front Desk and DAM to follow threads and check GPG signatures on the mails.

When you are filling in your first AM report, feel free to pop in #debian-newmaint on OFTC: people are happy to help and share their tips.

What happens later

Approving an applicant hands the application over to Front Desk and frees you an AM slot, so you are likely to get a new applicant after a day or two.

You application will then be checked by Front Desk for consistency (is the attached mailbox readable? Is the mail with the SC+DFSG+DMUP acceptance bit signed with the same key that is going in the Debian keyring? Are there missing bits?). If there are missing bits they may get in touch. Once everything is in place, the application is handed over to DAM.

Finally, DAM will read carefully through the whole thing and, if satisfied, contact keyring-maint and DSA for the creation of the account.

Help! Life takes over

If you become busy and cannot finish processing your current applicants, please contact Front Desk and we'll hand them over to someone else. In fact, please contact Front Desk anytime you want/need.

FAQ

  • What if my first NM applicant is rather inactive, and I cannot get a second one because it's my first NM applicant?

If your first NM applicant becomes inactive, please send a mail to Front Desk: possible options are to cancel the application or to put him on hold and get a new applicant.