Debian Technical Committee
The Technical Committee is established by the
Debian Constitution, section 6. It is the body
which makes the final decision on technical disputes in the Debian project.
How to refer a question to the committee
- Before referring a decision to the Technical Committee, you should try
to resolve it yourself. Engage in a constructive discussion and try
to understand the other person's point of view. If, after discussion,
you've identified a technical question which you can't agree on, you
can put it to the committee:
- Write up a summary of the disagreement, preferably agreeing it with
your opponent, and send it to the bug tracking system. Reassign the
bug report to the pseudo-package tech-ctte. If there is no
bug for the dispute yet, file one.
- The committee will discuss your question on the committee mailing list,
debian-ctte@lists.debian.org.
We will not CC all of our discussion to the bug report, though we may
CC the participants. Anyone else who wishes to do so may subscribe to
the debian-ctte mailing list and see our deliberations.
- The committee will aim to make a decision as soon as possible. In
practice this process is likely to take many weeks, or perhaps
longer. If the question is particularly urgent please say so.
- Sometimes, one side or other is convinced, during the committee's
deliberations, by the merit of the other side's arguments. This is a
good thing! If it happens, the committee need not make a formal
decision, and the bug report can be closed, or reassigned, as appropriate.
Some caveats about contacting the committee
- A sound and vigorous debate is important to ensure that all the
aspects of an issue are fully explored. When discussing technical
questions with other developers you should be ready to be challenged.
You should also be prepared to be convinced! There is no shame in
seeing the merit of good arguments.
- Please conduct your technical discussions with other maintainers
in a calm and civilised way; do not use insults, or question their
competence. Instead, address yourself to your opponents' arguments.
- The committee is only empowered to make technical decisions. If
you feel that someone has been misbehaving, the committee probably
can't help you much. You may wish to talk to the Project Leader,
leader@debian.org.
- To post to the committee mailing list you must either be
subscribed to the list from your posting address, or PGP-sign your
message. This is an anti-spam measure. We apologise for the
inconvenience, but this setup makes it possible for committee
members to pay proper attention to the committee list mails.
Membership
The current membership of the committee is documented on the
Debian Organizational Structure page.
Archives and status
The committee mailing list
is archived.
Questions pending decision
can be reviewed in the bug tracking system.
Formal technical decisions
The decision history sections are not necessarily up to date.
- 2009-09-04
Bug #535645: decline to
override ftp team's removal of ia32-libs-tools; reaffirm ftp team's
ability to remove packages; recommend clarification of
reasons for removal, and mechanism of reintroduction to the
archive.
- 2009-08-27
Bug #510415: allow Qmail
into Debian after fixing delayed-bounce issue with RC bug to block
transition for one month
- 2009-07-30
Bug #539158: refuse to
override udev maintainer; printf suggested to be documented as a
required builtin in policy.
- 2009-07-25
Bug #484841: by
default, /usr/local is not writable by group staff; change can be
implemented after transition plan which enables administrators to
keep the current behavoir.
- 2007-12-10
Bug #412976:
keep current behavior and existing policy regarding mixmaster's use of /etc/default.
- 2007-06-22
Bug #367709:
a libstdc++ udeb should not be created.
- 2007-06-19
Bug #341839:
the output of
md5sum should not change.
- 2007-04-09
Bug #385665:
fluidsynth remains in main.
- 2007-04-09
Bug #353277,
Bug #353278:
ndiswrapper remains in main.
- 2007-03-27
Bug #413926:
wordpress should be included in etch.
- 2004-06-24
Bug #254598:
amd64 is a fine name for that architecture.
Full text.
In favour: Wichert, Raul, Guy, Manoj, Ian.
Voting period ended early; no other votes.
- 2004-06-05
Bug #164591,
Bug #164889:
md5sum </dev/null should produce the bare md5sum value.
Full text.
In favour: Guy, Ian, Manoj, Raul.
No other votes.
- 2002-10-06
Bug #104101,
Bug #123987,
Bug #134220,
Bug #161931:
The default kernel should have VESA framebuffer support included.
Full text.
In favour: Ian, Jason, Raul; against: Manoj.
No other votes.
- 2002-07-19 Bug #119517:
Packages may sometimes contain binaries whose libraries are only
referred to in Suggests.
Full
text. In favour: Ian, Wichert; against: Bdale,
Manoj; no-one else voted and Ian used his casting vote.
NB that decisions from before the 1st of April 2002 are not yet
recorded here.
Formal recommendations and opinions
The committee has not yet issued any non-binding recommendations or
opinions.
Formal nontechnical and procedural decisions
- 2005-12-20 Approved Steve Langasek, Anthony Towns and Andreas Barth
as candidates for the committee.
(Full
text. In favour: Bdale, Manoj. Expressions of support,
with apologies, after end of the voting period: Ian, Raul.
None against or abstaining; Appointment approved by the DPL 2006-01-05;
Full
text).
- 2005-12-20 Proposed the removal of Wichert, Guy, and Jason
from the committee.
(Motion text; results. In favour: Manoj, Raul. Guy: in favour of his own removal; no opinion otherwise. Ian: in favour of removal of Jason; against otherwise.
Removal approved by the DPL 2006-01-05;
Full
text.)
- 2002-07-05 Passed the question of proper use of bug system
severities (Bug #97671)
on to the BTS admins and project leader.
(Full
text. In favour: Ian, Jason, Bdale; none against or abstaining.)
- 2002-01-31 Appointed Ian Jackson as chairman, following Raul's
resignation from the post. (In favour: Dale, Ian, Manoj, Raul, Wichert;
none against or abstaining.)
NB that decisions from before the 31st of January 2002 are not yet
recorded here.
Retired members
Thanks to the following people who have served on the committee:
- Raul Miller (to 2007-04-30)
- Wichert Akkerman (to 2006-01-05)
- Jason Gunthorpe (to 2006-01-05)
- Guy Maor (to 2006-01-05)
- Dale Scheetz (to 2002-09-02)
- Klee Dienes (to 2001-05-21)
