Finding the maintainers of a GNOME project

Keep seeing this question in gitlab issue and merge-request comments. So, here is a quick way:

Go to the project in GNOME gitlab ( say, https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/grilo ):

Step 1. Click Members entry in the left sidebar menu
Step 2. Change sort key from Account to Max role, and change sort direction to list max roles first.
Step 3. Maintainer (s) will be listed following GNOME gitlab admins ( Owners )

Screenshot:

Thanks!

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Or you could look in https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/grilo/-/blob/master/grilo.doap#L22-42

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The doap file lists 3 maintainers whereas the gitlab UI lists 2 active maintainers.

Also, there is some confusion on author vs maintainer in doap files.

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libgweather/-/merge_requests/84#note_1056720

Thanks!

GitLab permissions are synced from those files. If one of the people is not there, it means they are not on gitlab.

Very clear guide.

There is also a hack I made at https://gnome-metrics.afuera.me.uk/maintainers.html for people who want to explore in a bit more detail.

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Why though?

Most people, including contributors submitting merge requests, don’t actually need to know who the maintainer is. As a maintainer (and also as a translator), I have received direct email out of nowhere for topics that clearly belonged in a public space like an issue tracker or a mailing list. For MR all that matters is that someone eventually reviews, but it could be a developer. Actually, I can cite Fractal as a piece of software where the two people listed as maintainers are doing the least reviews currently amongst the dev team, and are probably not the ones you want to reach out to for most questions. Dani and I are maintainers because we take care of maintenance tasks (e.g. doing releases, project management…), and while we are also developers of the module, we are not the ones driving the current efforts.

So, if this is indeed a question that you have seen in issues and merge request, can you expand on the reasons why someone would actually need that information?

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