Christian’s blog

As I was kinda bored after work today, I had a closer look at what I saw during my fuckup in the morning. Well, Steve said, that when he looked at metadata.xml it’d be “really common” .. still that isn’t making it right ..

There is a reason we do have a herds.xml (exactly for the reason to associate people with packages, and that’s what the <herd> tag is for in metadata.xml) file. So after a preliminary look through the repository, here are the winners:
700 : perl
126 : xemacs
63 : haskell
47 : sound
32 : ha-cluster
31 : crypto
19 : desktop-misc
16 : netmon
15 : forensics
13 : web-apps
8 : mips
8 : app-backup
7 : kde
6 : tcltk
6 : net-im
6 : media-tv
6 : dev-embedded
5 : voip
5 : theology
5 : samba
5 : net-p2p
4 : sparc
4 : java
4 : graphics
2 : net-mail
2 : kernel
2 : fonts
2 : embedded
2 : cpp
1 : x11
1 : wxwidgets
1 : www-servers
1 : tex
1 : shell-tools
1 : sh
1 : sgml
1 : sci
1 : python
1 : proaudio
1 : php
1 : media-optical
1 : kerberos
1 : hp-cluster
1 : gentopia
1 : amd64

Don’t know how accurate that list is, but you can check it for yourself. The commands I’ve used are these:

for i in $( < ../herds.list ); do
    grep --exclude=eclass --exclude=CVS \
    --exclude=profiles --exclude=skel.* -R \
    "<email>$i@gentoo.org</email>" /cvs/gentoo-x86/* ;
 done > redundant-metadata-xml.list

for i in $( < herds.list ); do
    echo -e " $( grep "<email>$i@gentoo.org</email>" \
                 ~/public_html/redundant-metadata-xml.list | \
                 wc -l )\t: $i"; done | \
     grep -v "^ 0" | \
     sort -nr > public_html/redundant-metadata-xml.overview

While herds.list holds a list (separated by \n) with all the herds there are. The raw files are here and here and here. Knock yourself out!

Gentoo herds, QA

So I ended up cleaning out some retired (~20) people from metadata.xml, where I found this interesting piece of metadata.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE pkgmetadata SYSTEM "http://www.gentoo.org/dtd/metadata.dtd">
<pkgmetadata>
<herd>kernel-misc</herd>
<maintainer>
  <email>crypto@gentoo.org</email>
  <name>Crypto herd</name>
</maintainer>
<maintainer>
  <email>masterdriverz@gentoo.org</email>
  <name>Charlie Shephered</name>
</maintainer>
</pkgmetadata>

And here the hint for all you people again: A DAMN HERD AIN’T NO MAINTAINER. SO IF YOUR HERD IS MAINTAINING A PACKAGE, PUT IT INTO <herd> and not into the <maintainer>. kthnxbye.

Gentoo herds, QA

… that’s the question. I’ve been thinking lots and lots about my involvement with our “beloved” distribution.

I talked to some of the users (that is Gordon), some fellow developers (hello Christina, Łukasz, solar, Jorge, Anders) about whether or not I’m actually still wanted and/or needed. Turns out, the collective opinion is, that I am fun to have around (*shrug* don’t ask me why, I don’t find myself particularly funny/amusing) and that’d I’d be the person to have around.

That being said, I still do have some things on my agenda (they haven’t changed .. like getting healthier - as in heading to the gym; getting a better paid job; getting my own life; getting some friends), which are going to jockey with those Gentoo interests.

Gentoo, Life Philosophical