23.11 Call for Release Manager & Editor

Development
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For the upcoming NixOS 23.11 we are looking for a new release manager, as well as a new release editor. Both roles are described on the release manual and require at least few hours each week, and likely more in the weeks directly leading up to the final release.

Both roles are fulfilled in tandem, meaning you get paired with an experienced partner, who already filled the role during the previous release.

I am @RaitoBezarius, for this release, I was helped by @riotbib. :wave:
A big thank you to our predecessors and especially direct ones: @hexa and @winter.

Responsibilities

Release Manager

The release managers first and foremost shape the roadmap that leads up to the release.

They are in a central position that allows them to keep track of the overall progress and requires them to communicate with the wider nixpkgs community here on Discourse, but also over on GitHub and the Release Management Matrix room.

They track blocking issues, participate in reviews and organize the Zero Hydra Failures bug-squashing effort.

They have the chance to interact with various infrastructure repositories (infra, homepage, search), that most Nixpkgs contributors don’t interact much with.

They need to perform a number of release management tasks, which are outlined in the manual.

They need to test the final release, and make sure the basics work as intended.

Overall I think that the strength in the release manager role comes from enabling your fellow community members to do what needs to be done.

The release manual and your partner are there to help you along the way.

Release Editor

The release editors improve the legibility of the final release communication, which includes the release announcement and the release notes.

While the release announcement may primarily need proofreading, the release notes require some additional effort to make them an enjoyable reading experience.

Since the release editor role is rather new, it would be appreciated if the role would also receive some additional documentation regarding scope and opportunities on the release manual.

Requirements

Both roles require a certain time commitment over the next two months.

The release managers require commit access to the Nixpkgs repository, but this isn’t strictly required for the release editors.

The release editors should be proficient in the English language and have great writing skills.

Reach out!

If you’re interested in this community position, please reach out to us! We’d love to hear from you and work together to make NixOS 23.11 the best possible release it can be.

Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out here on the thread or on Matrix or DM me personally.

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Hi,
I’ve followed closely the release process during the last release and I am interested in becoming a release manager. Following an IRL discussion with @RaitoBezarius I’ve been encouraged to make my interest public, which I am doing here :slight_smile:

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I’m interested in being the release manager as well

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I’m interested in filling the release editor role.

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Interested in the Release Editor Role.

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Contrary to the 23.05 call, this is an exciting time as we received two applications for the two roles.

As some folks may know, we do not really have a process, per se, to choose a release manager or editor in those circumstances.

While @JulienMalka didn’t meet the requirement for the commit bit, I would be inclined to nominate them in a close future as he has been working not only in nixpkgs but also on adjacent stuff such as the non-critical infrastructure team and participated into fixing ZHF for the past release. I also believe he has some changes being cooked for non-trivial nixpkgs changes.

So I considered both applications equally, independently of that commit bit concern. Nevertheless, I am inclined to nominate @figsoda as the next release manager as their track record is flawless.

That being said, I think that in the release management ecosystem, we always lack folks to help us, so I am pondering whether we could make place for @JulienMalka in the process.

Indeed, release management in nixpkgs is getting harder and harder as there is no shortage of task to share with the community, i.e. see Home - NixOS Release Wiki for more information.

One big challenge I remember for the last release I participated in was the Darwin ecosystem and in general: other architectures which we may not own hardware for or does not have enough expertise for.

With that in mind, I believe I would like to discuss offering to @JulienMalka who happens to care about Darwin and aarch64 in general, a place for the next two releases as a “Darwin release co-manager” or “aarch64 release co-manager” .

What would the role entail is always hard to define, but I can imagine this to happen organically while the release community works together towards the next release.

I also think this is very important to make an official role or place some formalism on that: as some of you know, I am very concerned about diversity in nixpkgs and the barrier to entry to hold a role can be discouraging.

With this in mind, I believe that it is our responsibility to offer clearer paths to feel empowered to improve things in nixpkgs and to go beyond the classical committer incentives, which I hope to see disappear someday in favor of more automation.

That is why, I would love to hear more about your opinion on that idea.

Thank you, @JulienMalka for caring about the release management process, and I hope to see you around in the release community no matter what happens.

Thank you, @figsoda for your work and happy that you are joining us as Release Manager for NixOS 23.11 and 24.05.

Onto Release Editors, I am very happy to see your interest @ziasquinn — I am thrilled that your first message in Discourse has been to express your interest.

Unfortunately, I think it would be good to spend more time in the community to know you better and I would highly recommend you to spend some time here and consider the next release cycle for the release editor role.

Thank you, @alejandrosame for your proposal, I had the chance to meet you in real life at the previous Ocean Sprint and I personally know your talent and your refreshing curiosity in things of the world, I am happy you are joining us for the hard role of editing awesome release notes. :slight_smile:

I’m looking forward to working with all of you. Let’s meet up on Matrix in the #nixos-release-management:nixos.org(https://matrix.to/#/#nixos-release-management:nixos.org ) room to schedule a first meeting.

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