[debian-mysql] Your tips to MariaDB?

[Otto Kekäläinen]

Hi Robert (+Debian MariaB/MySQL mailing list)!

> Hello package maintainers,
>
> thank you for your work with Debian, deepin and Devuan. We are reaching out to package maintainers from MariaDB Foundation to inquire if you are content with MariaDB. Do you have any tips or feedback on how we at the Foundation could support effective or better packaging of MariaDB?
...

Thanks for reaching out!

The Debian packaging maintained at
https://salsa.debian.org/mariadb-team/mariadb-server has had tens of
contributors over the years, but I am the only person consistently
taking care of it, so I guess I'll reply on behalf of Debian (and also
Ubuntu, Devuan, Deepin, and also Apertis you sent an email about to
this same mailing list).

MariaDB packaging in Debian and the derivates has been pretty stable
over the past years. The fact that the maintenance policy is public
and consistent at https://mariadb.org/about/#maintenance-policy is
nice. Also seeing pre-annoucements like
https://lists.mariadb.org/hyperkitty/list/developers@lists.mariadb.org/thread/OMIWL7ULOLX5QGEHNK7W2DYERTPQQHMU/
will help with making maintenance updates quickly and consistently.

I don't have any particular "tips" from Debian perspective as you
requested, but to ensure that Debian maintenance remains easy going
forward, I would appreciate it if upstream was slightly faster in
reviewing and perhaps also accepting submissions so that the number of
patches carried in Debian could decrease. See patch files in
https://salsa.debian.org/mariadb-team/mariadb-server/-/tree/debian/latest/debian/patches
or the table https://udd.debian.org/patches.cgi?src=mariadb&version=1%3A11.4.3-1
of the same patches. If there is a shortage of reviewers, perhaps
invite other distro maintainers to review the submissions, as those
other distros are likely to benefit from the same fixes landing
upstream?

If the MariaDB Foundation has people available, it would also be good
to get some help in triaging and possibly even closing bug reports in
Debian at https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?repeatmerged=yes&src=mariadb
and Ubuntu at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mariadb


- Otto