I recently decided to finally become an active package maintainer. Quickly I had to realize that there are different ways to become a Fedora Packager. All have in common that, what a surprise, you maintain or co-maintain a package.
But, from all options, the most "classic" way seem to:
- Create a package
- Submit a Review Request
- When it's approved ask for a Sponsor
- Get sponsored into the packager group
- Publish your first package
The Fedora project has tons of documentation. I found it on the one hand great as a greenhorn to find all these information. And at the same time it was overwhelming and sometimes unclear which is current.
So I put together a short list with resources that helped me most. They are not necessary in a logical order. They will also not cover each and every question you might have. But you can use them as a starting point.
- New Package Process for New Contributors
- Installing Packager Tools
- Packaging Tutorial 2: GNU Hello
- Joining the Package Maintainers
- Package Maintainers > Package Maintenance Guide > Using fedpkg anonymously
- Packaging Guidelines > RPM Macros
- Fedora Packaging Guidelines
- Packaging Guidelines > Users and Groups > Dynamic allocation
What if you still have question?
Don't be shy, write to the devel mailing list and or join the Fedora Devel Matrix room!
After many many years in the industry, a lot of touch points and contributions to open source projects, I finally made the jump to become a package maintainer.
I learned so much in the last month and went from zero to ~15 Fedora and EPEL packages I became responsible for. This feels like a great success and a valuable way to give something back to the community.