22.05 Call for Release Managers and Editor
We (@nrdxp and myself) will be needing a new release manager(s) for 22.05 and 22.11 release; you will need to work in co-operation with the community. The release process in NixOS is in a time of great change, so this is the perfect moment for someone who really wants to leave their mark. If you are interested, please reply here or get in contact with us.
With this release we are also looking to have an additional specified role for a Release Editor to focus on release notes and content for the homepage. This is a new role, but is part of the overall effort to improve our documentation and improve the on-boarding experience for new users.
Contact Info
| Github handle | Matrix ID |
|---|---|
| nrdxp | @timdeh:matrix.org |
| tomberek | @tomberek:matrix.org |
We also on the community discord server, feel free to reach out with any questions or issues.
Why do we need a release manager? What to expect?
Being a release manager in NixOS is not a solitary experience. On the contrary, most of the difficulty is to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate to meet the needs of a dispersed community.
There should always be two release managers, where each release manager serves
for two consecutive terms/releases. With each new release the previous team gets to
appoint new managers. (whatās happening right now). This way, you always have the guidance of release managers who had the experience of releasing NixOS before. See the RFC for more details. As mentioned, releasing NixOS is in a time of change, expect the ability to improve it within our means.
Being a release manager means you will have greater impact to the NixOS community, and develop greater insight into the community as a whole. You can also view this as an opportunity to acquire some project management skills as well.
This last iteration we had two new release managers and that pattern was fairly successful. This involves more coordination, but also allows for more aspects of the release to be attended to and should result in a more robust process.
Qualifications
- Commit Access to Nixos/Nixpkgs . A good portion of the work of a release manager is to review changes going into the release branch. And, some of the release tasks will require you to push directly to the repository.
Responsibilities
Outside of ZHF, the āworkloadā is minimal, however, the month leading up to the expected release date will have a few periods where you may need to set time aside to complete release management tasks. The release process is now detailed on a dedicated wiki , thanks to @worldofpeace and @jonringer for doing the majority of the wiki work.
In general the responsibilities are:
- Track blocking issues
- Review PRs ( other committers well aide you with this )
- Conduct stabilization (ZHF)
- Perform release management task, listed here
- Coordinate with other release manager about tasks
- You will want to be able to contact the manager on a semi-regular basis.
- Communicate release schedule and status with the community
The Editorās procedures and responsibilities are not fully defined, so this would be an excellent role for someone who wants to help define what they are and take the position in new directions.
Impact
Having a stable release goes a long way to allowing commercial adoption of Nixpkgs and NixOS. For the long-term future of NixOS, these releases are crucial to its success.
I hope to hear from all of you. 
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