Wireshark · Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Why are authors never Cc'ed before their code is changed?

[Lori Jakab <lori@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 08/19/12 06:56, Pascal Quantin wrote:
> Having a RSS link (or something similar) to the subversion file log
> (http://anonsvn.wireshark.org/viewvc/trunk/epan/dissectors/packet-gsmtap.c?view=log
> for example) could be a way to easily monitor the changes done to a
> given file for whoever is interested. Of course it would not prevent
> the offending commit but it would allow a faster feedback / bugfix if
> needed (which could be sufficient from my point of vue). Would it be
> an acceptable first step towards improving the monitoring for changes
> by original authors / contributors?

I think that some kind of automatic and *opt-in* method to notify the
author(s) of a certain dissector that changes have been made to their
code should be available. Both the special header field proposed by Evan
("watch") and Sylvain ("maintainer") and the RSS feed would fulfill
this. And they are not mutually exclusive either. RSS would allow
interested non-authors as well to easily follow changes, while the
maintainer option could be integrated with bugzilla so that authors are
automatically CC'ed on patches submitted for files they maintain.

Regards,
-Lori Jakab (LISP dissector author)