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48cb5b3a | 1 | =head1 NAME |
3c78fafa | 2 | |
48cb5b3a JV |
3 | perlpolicy - Various and sundry policies and commitments related to the perl core |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | This document is the master document which records all written | |
8 | policies about how the Perl 5 Porters collectively develop and maintain | |
9 | the Perl core. | |
10 | ||
11 | ||
fcf56c88 JV |
12 | =head1 MAINTENANCE BRANCHES |
13 | ||
14 | =over | |
15 | ||
16 | =item * | |
17 | ||
18 | New releases of maint should contain as few changes as possible. | |
19 | If there is any question about whether a given patch might merit | |
20 | inclusion in a maint release, then it almost certainly should not | |
21 | be included. | |
22 | ||
23 | =item * | |
24 | ||
25 | Portability fixes, such as changes to Configure and the files in | |
26 | hints/ are acceptable. Ports of Perl to a new platform, architecture | |
27 | or OS release that involve changes to the implementation are NOT | |
28 | acceptable. | |
29 | ||
30 | =item * | |
31 | ||
32 | Documentation updates are acceptable. | |
33 | ||
34 | =item * | |
35 | ||
36 | Patches that add new warnings or errors or deprecate features | |
37 | are not acceptable. | |
38 | ||
39 | =item * | |
40 | ||
41 | Patches that fix crashing bugs that do not otherwise change Perl's | |
42 | functionality or negatively impact performance are acceptable. | |
43 | ||
44 | =item * | |
45 | ||
46 | Patches that fix CVEs or security issues are acceptable, but should | |
47 | be run through the perl5-security-report@perl.org mailing list | |
48 | rather than applied directly. | |
49 | ||
50 | =item * | |
51 | ||
52 | Updates to dual-life modules should consist of minimal patches to | |
53 | fix crashing or security issues (as above). | |
54 | ||
55 | =item * | |
56 | ||
57 | New versions of dual-life modules should NOT be imported into maint. | |
58 | Those belong in the next stable series. | |
59 | ||
60 | =item * | |
61 | ||
62 | Patches that add or remove features are not acceptable. | |
63 | ||
64 | =item * | |
65 | ||
66 | Patches that break binary compatibility are not acceptable. (Please | |
67 | talk to a pumpking.) | |
68 | ||
69 | =back | |
70 | ||
71 | ||
72 | =head2 Getting changes into a maint branch | |
73 | ||
74 | Historically, only the pumpking cherry-picked changes from bleadperl | |
75 | into maintperl. This has...scaling problems. At the same time, | |
76 | maintenance branches of stable versions of Perl need to be treated with | |
77 | great care. To that end, we're going to try out a new process for | |
78 | maint-5.12. | |
79 | ||
80 | Any committer may cherry-pick any commit from blead to maint-5.12 if | |
81 | they send mail to perl5-porters announcing their intent to cherry-pick | |
82 | a specific commit along with a rationale for doing so and at least two | |
83 | other committers respond to the list giving their assent. (This policy | |
84 | applies to current and former pumpkings, as well as other committers.) | |
48cb5b3a JV |
85 | |
86 | =head1 CONTRIBUTED MODULES | |
87 | ||
88 | ||
89 | =head2 A Social Contract about Artistic Control | |
6ee623d5 GS |
90 | |
91 | What follows is a statement about artistic control, defined as the ability | |
92 | of authors of packages to guide the future of their code and maintain | |
93 | control over their work. It is a recognition that authors should have | |
94 | control over their work, and that it is a responsibility of the rest of | |
95 | the Perl community to ensure that they retain this control. It is an | |
96 | attempt to document the standards to which we, as Perl developers, intend | |
97 | to hold ourselves. It is an attempt to write down rough guidelines about | |
98 | the respect we owe each other as Perl developers. | |
99 | ||
100 | This statement is not a legal contract. This statement is not a legal | |
101 | document in any way, shape, or form. Perl is distributed under the GNU | |
102 | Public License and under the Artistic License; those are the precise legal | |
103 | terms. This statement isn't about the law or licenses. It's about | |
104 | community, mutual respect, trust, and good-faith cooperation. | |
105 | ||
106 | We recognize that the Perl core, defined as the software distributed with | |
107 | the heart of Perl itself, is a joint project on the part of all of us. | |
aaa2bbb1 | 108 | From time to time, a script, module, or set of modules (hereafter referred |
6ee623d5 GS |
109 | to simply as a "module") will prove so widely useful and/or so integral to |
110 | the correct functioning of Perl itself that it should be distributed with | |
111 | Perl core. This should never be done without the author's explicit | |
112 | consent, and a clear recognition on all parts that this means the module | |
113 | is being distributed under the same terms as Perl itself. A module author | |
114 | should realize that inclusion of a module into the Perl core will | |
115 | necessarily mean some loss of control over it, since changes may | |
116 | occasionally have to be made on short notice or for consistency with the | |
117 | rest of Perl. | |
118 | ||
119 | Once a module has been included in the Perl core, however, everyone | |
120 | involved in maintaining Perl should be aware that the module is still the | |
121 | property of the original author unless the original author explicitly | |
122 | gives up their ownership of it. In particular: | |
123 | ||
48cb5b3a JV |
124 | =over |
125 | ||
171407a0 JJ |
126 | =item * |
127 | ||
128 | The version of the module in the core should still be considered the | |
129 | work of the original author. All patches, bug reports, and so | |
130 | forth should be fed back to them. Their development directions | |
131 | should be respected whenever possible. | |
6ee623d5 | 132 | |
48cb5b3a JV |
133 | =item * |
134 | ||
135 | Patches may be applied by the pumpkin holder without the explicit | |
136 | cooperation of the module author if and only if they are very minor, | |
137 | time-critical in some fashion (such as urgent security fixes), or if | |
138 | the module author cannot be reached. Those patches must still be | |
139 | given back to the author when possible, and if the author decides on | |
140 | an alternate fix in their version, that fix should be strongly | |
141 | preferred unless there is a serious problem with it. Any changes not | |
142 | endorsed by the author should be marked as such, and the contributor | |
143 | of the change acknowledged. | |
144 | ||
145 | =item * | |
146 | ||
147 | The version of the module distributed with Perl should, whenever | |
148 | possible, be the latest version of the module as distributed by the | |
149 | author (the latest non-beta version in the case of public Perl | |
150 | releases), although the pumpkin holder may hold off on upgrading the | |
151 | version of the module distributed with Perl to the latest version | |
152 | until the latest version has had sufficient testing. | |
153 | ||
154 | =back | |
6ee623d5 GS |
155 | |
156 | In other words, the author of a module should be considered to have final | |
157 | say on modifications to their module whenever possible (bearing in mind | |
158 | that it's expected that everyone involved will work together and arrive at | |
159 | reasonable compromises when there are disagreements). | |
160 | ||
161 | As a last resort, however: | |
162 | ||
48cb5b3a JV |
163 | |
164 | If the author's vision of the future of their module is sufficiently | |
165 | different from the vision of the pumpkin holder and perl5-porters as a | |
166 | whole so as to cause serious problems for Perl, the pumpkin holder may | |
167 | choose to formally fork the version of the module in the core from the | |
168 | one maintained by the author. This should not be done lightly and | |
c4f5d98d | 169 | should B<always> if at all possible be done only after direct input |
48cb5b3a JV |
170 | from Larry. If this is done, it must then be made explicit in the |
171 | module as distributed with Perl core that it is a forked version and | |
172 | that while it is based on the original author's work, it is no longer | |
173 | maintained by them. This must be noted in both the documentation and | |
174 | in the comments in the source of the module. | |
6ee623d5 GS |
175 | |
176 | Again, this should be a last resort only. Ideally, this should never | |
177 | happen, and every possible effort at cooperation and compromise should be | |
178 | made before doing this. If it does prove necessary to fork a module for | |
179 | the overall health of Perl, proper credit must be given to the original | |
180 | author in perpetuity and the decision should be constantly re-evaluated to | |
181 | see if a remerging of the two branches is possible down the road. | |
182 | ||
183 | In all dealings with contributed modules, everyone maintaining Perl should | |
184 | keep in mind that the code belongs to the original author, that they may | |
185 | not be on perl5-porters at any given time, and that a patch is not | |
186 | official unless it has been integrated into the author's copy of the | |
187 | module. To aid with this, and with points #1, #2, and #3 above, contact | |
188 | information for the authors of all contributed modules should be kept with | |
189 | the Perl distribution. | |
190 | ||
191 | Finally, the Perl community as a whole recognizes that respect for | |
192 | ownership of code, respect for artistic control, proper credit, and active | |
193 | effort to prevent unintentional code skew or communication gaps is vital | |
194 | to the health of the community and Perl itself. Members of a community | |
195 | should not normally have to resort to rules and laws to deal with each | |
196 | other, and this document, although it contains rules so as to be clear, is | |
197 | about an attitude and general approach. The first step in any dispute | |
198 | should be open communication, respect for opposing views, and an attempt | |
199 | at a compromise. In nearly every circumstance nothing more will be | |
200 | necessary, and certainly no more drastic measure should be used until | |
201 | every avenue of communication and discussion has failed. | |
3c78fafa | 202 | |
48cb5b3a JV |
203 | =head1 CREDITS |
204 | ||
76caf4b8 | 205 | Social Contract about Contributed Modules originally by Russ Allbery E<lt>rra@stanford.eduE<gt> and the perl5-porters. |
3c78fafa | 206 |