Committer Guideline

Adding new committers

Developers can obtain commit access to the GeoNetwork source code repository. Anyone can propose himself as a committer, although it is preferred that new committers are proposed by a member of the Project Steering Committee (PSC). If you feel you can make a sustainable contribution to the project, a good start is to discuss this with a member of the PSC before making a proposal.

To obtain such access, the following steps are required:

The new committer or his/her supporter should prepare a proposal giving some background and justification for the request. The proposal is send to the developer mailing list The Project Steering Committee has to vote on the proposal The new committer has to send an email to the developer mailing list introducing himself and clearly stating he accepts the Committer Responsibility Guidelines on this page A list of committers is maintained here Removal of SVN commit access should be handled by the same process.

The new committer should have demonstrated commitment to GeoNetwork and knowledge of the GeoNetwork source code and processes to the committee's satisfaction, usually by reporting bugs, submitting patches, and/or actively participating in the GeoNetwork mailing list(s).

The new committer should also be prepared to support any new feature or changes that he/she commits to the GeoNetwork source tree in future releases, or to find someone to which to delegate responsibility for them if he/she stops being available to support the portions of code that he/she is responsible for.

All committers should also be a member of the geonetwork-devel mailing list so they can stay informed on policies, technical developments and release preparation.

New commiters are responsible for having read, and understood this document.

Committer Responsibility Guidelines

Adopted through consensus on 08-10-2007

Committers are the front line gatekeepers to keep the code base clear of improperly contributed code. It is important to the GeoNetwork opensource users, developers and the OSGeo foundation to avoid contributing any code to the project without it being clearly licensed under the project license.

Generally speaking the key issues are that those providing code to be included in the repository understand that the code will be released under the GNU-GPL v2 license, and that the person providing the code has the right to contribute the code. For the committer themselves understanding about the license is hopefully clear. For other contributors, the committer should verify the understanding unless the committer is very comfortable that the contributor understands the license (for instance frequent contributors).

If the contribution was developed on behalf of an employer (on work time, as part of a work project, etc) then it is important that an appropriate representative of the employer understand that the code will be contributed under the GNU-GPL v2 license. The arrangement should be cleared with an authorized supervisor/manager, etc.

The code should be developed by the contributor, or the code should be from a source which can be rightfully contributed such as from the public domain, or from an open source project under a compatible license.

All unusual situations need to be discussed and/or documented.

Committers should adhere to the following guidelines, and may be personally legally liable for improperly contributing code to the source repository:

• Make sure the contributor (and possibly employer) is aware of the contribution terms.
• Code coming from a source other than the contributor (such as adapted from another project) should be clearly marked as to the original source, copyright holders, license terms and so forth. This information can be in the file headers, but should also be added to the project licensing file if not exactly matching normal project licensing (LICENSE.txt).
• Existing copyright headers and license text should never be stripped from a file. If a copyright holder wishes to give up copyright they must do so in writing to the foundation before copyright messages are removed. If license terms are changed it has to be by agreement (written in email is ok) of the copyright holders.
• When substantial contributions are added to a file (such as substantial patches) the author/contributor should be added to the list of copyright holders for the file.
• If there is uncertainty about whether a change is proper to be contributed to the code base, please seek more information from the project steering committee, or the foundation legal counsel.

Read more on the Project Steering Committee page