I, Skia, hereby apply for core-dev.

I am applying because:

• I'd like to be able to officially join the Release Team.
• I'd like to help smoothen the release process by being able to upload some bits by myself.
• I'd like to be able to push some improvements to tools like MoM.

Who I am

This is almost plain copy-paste from my Contributing Developer application, given that the story hasn't changed.

My name is Florent Jacquet, but just call me Skia, even IRL, as everyone does.

I first installed Xubuntu 7.10 alternate edition on a 64MB RAM machine in 2008. The machine was already 10 years old by that time, but the lightweight system made it usable again, and it was great! Since then, I’ve installed a lot of {X,K,}Ubuntu on all my relative’s machines: parents, grand-parents, uncles, cousins, high-school companions, high school’s machines themselves, university friends and associations, you name it. I’ve personally distro-hoped for a while, but always kept either Debian or Ubuntu on my servers or machines that I wanted stable.

I now work since 2023-10-31 for Canonical as part of Foundations/Ubuntu QA/Release Management team.

My Ubuntu story

My involvement

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

• TODO: triage those

• 2024-02-13 - Ubuntu Mantic - autopkgtest/5.32ubuntu3~23.10.1

• 2023-12-15 - Ubuntu Noble - klibc/2.0.13-2ubuntu1

* https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/beets/+bug/2106276 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/beets/+bug/2107317 (https://salsa.debian.org/python-team/packages/beets/-/merge_requests/3)

CDimage stuff: https://code.launchpad.net/~hyask/ubuntu-cdimage/+git/ubuntu-cdimage/+merge/484314 TODO: add also ubuntu-release-tools, ubuntu-archive-tools, etc...

Feature and bugfix uploads

• whoopsie - AptSolverDump support + packaging improvements

  • 2025-03-19 - Ubuntu Plucky - whoopsie/0.2.79

  • This one counts as FFe too, mentioned below

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/whoopsie/+bug/2103526

• base-files - upload for Oracular release

  • 2024-10-07 - Ubuntu Oracular - base-files/13.3ubuntu6

  • interestingly made without git ubuntu

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/base-files/+bug/2083825

• whoopsie FTBFS

  • 2024-09-23 - Ubuntu Oracular - whoopsie/0.2.78

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/whoopsie/+bug/2081271

• autopkgtest - bugfix

  • 2024-07-30 - Ubuntu Oracular - autopkgtest/5.37ubuntu4

  • later SRU'd with autopkgtest 5.38 to Jammy and Noble.

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/autopkgtest/+bug/2075166

• apt-clone - fixing autopkgtests

  • 2024-04-19 - Ubuntu Noble - apt-clone/0.4.3+nmu2ubuntu2

  • Right before the Noble release, but didn't require an FFe because not seeded and leaf package.
  • Later synced from Debian (like, much later!)

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt-clone/+bug/2062622

Package Merges and Syncs

• apt-clone sync

  • 2025-04-09 - Ubuntu Plucky - apt-clone/0.5.3+nmu3 sync

  • Happened after upstream caught up (eventually!) with my 0.4.3+nmu2ubuntu2 bugfix.

• kbd boring merge

  • 2025-02-19 - Ubuntu Plucky - kbd/2.7.1-2ubuntu1 merge

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kbd/+bug/2098852

• shadow interesting merge

  • 2025-01-13 - Ubuntu Plucky - shadow/1:4.16.0-7ubuntu1 merge

  • Interesting merge that needed to be coordinated with the next one in util-linux, because of the login binary package moving from one to the other.

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/shadow/+bug/2089923

• util-linux interesting merge

  • 2025-01-13 - Ubuntu Plucky - util-linux/2.40.2-14ubuntu1 merge

  • See shadow merge description just above.

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/util-linux/+bug/2091862

SRUs

• mod_python crash:

  • 2025-03-03 - Ubuntu Jammy - libapache2-mod-python/3.5.0+git20211031-0ubuntu3

  • This one had an interesting story revolving around some Merge-O-Matic + mod_python + Python 3.9 madness.

  • SRU bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libapache2-mod-python/+bug/2100590

• base-files - upload for Noble .2

  • 2025-02-05 - Ubuntu Noble - base-files/13ubuntu10.2

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/base-files/+bug/2097469

• python-apt mirror refresh:

  • 2025-01-27 - Ubuntu Noble - python-apt/2.7.7ubuntu4

  • SRU exception to update mirror list before release

  • SRU bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-apt/+bug/2096775

• zip crash:

  • 2025-01-24 - Ubuntu Oracular - zip/3.0-14ubuntu0.2

  • 2025-01-24 - Ubuntu Noble - zip/3.0-13ubuntu0.2

  • 2025-01-17 - Ubuntu Plucky - zip/3.0-14ubuntu2

  • SRU bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zip/+bug/2093024

  • Pretty boring buffer overflow issue. One notable part is that this was apparently reported in 2018 as a CVE: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-13410

  • Submitted to Debian and uploaded

• autopkgtest new release

  • 2024-10-15 - Ubuntu Noble - autopkgtest/5.38ubuntu1~24.04.1

  • 2024-10-15 - Ubuntu Jammy - autopkgtest/5.38ubuntu1~22.04.1

  • SRU bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/autopkgtest/+bug/2071609

  • Special SRU exception: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#autopkgtest

Autopkgtest & DEP8

• bpftrace had its testsuite running, but logging was a bit poor in case of issue

  • TODO document this

• util-linux recently started shipping the login binary package.

  • TODO document this

• zip had a crash when using -T -TT options

  • TODO document this

• rust-reqwest autopkgtests were having troubles due to the proxy in Canonical's infrastructure:

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rust-reqwest/+bug/2071789

  • Fix upstream: https://github.com/seanmonstar/reqwest/pull/2418

  • Debian upload: https://tracker.debian.org/news/1543652/accepted-rust-reqwest-01127-3-source-into-unstable/

Proposed Migrations

• I'm regularly being affected packages stuck in proposed during Foundations' Thursday meetings. Working with those usually involves retriggering autopkgtest, sometimes finding the right triggers for the tests to pass, and more rarely a fix to be uploaded.

• As part of my work on the autopkgtest infrastructure, I also regularly run retry-autopkgtest-regression for massive re-run of tests, sometimes involving shenanigans like adding a particular trigger for big sets of packages, or even running them with all-proposed=1.

• Working on proposed migration also sometimes involves giving Britney some hints:

  • https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/britney/+git/hints-ubuntu/commit/?id=816184dc75f114a5ebf6812eb95d2afff12ac228

    • and its later drop: https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/britney/+git/hints-ubuntu/commit/?id=6f34c31bb389f84dff5b23dd70911fdd8ca23ee9

Transitions

TODO: make some more

• alberta

  • 2025-06-20 - Ubuntu Questing - dune-common/2.10.0-4ubuntu1

  • Helped the alberta transition from libalberta4t64 to libalberta5 by fixing the last remaining dependency: dune-grid.

  • git-ubuntu MP: https://code.launchpad.net/~hyask/ubuntu/+source/dune-common/+git/dune-common/+merge/487436

  • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dune-grid/+bug/2114917

• Infamous t64 transition

  • 2024-03-22 - Ubuntu Noble - pg-gvm/22.6.2-1build1

  • 2024-03-21 - Ubuntu Noble - gvmd/23.1.0-1ubuntu1

Milestones and Exceptions

• Debian Import Freeze:

  • capnproto sync

    • 2024-04-23 - Ubuntu Noble - capnproto/1.0.1-4

    • bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/capnproto/+bug/2063194

• FFe:

  • whoopsie - AptSolverDump support + packaging improvements

    • 2025-03-19 - Ubuntu Plucky - whoopsie/0.2.79

    • https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/whoopsie/+bug/2103526

• Putting in place the 24.04.2 SRU freeze in Britney:

  • https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-release/britney/+git/hints-ubuntu/commit/?id=f6a3c8e7c55cf88459e50096bff4113d2c171b11

+1 maintenance

* 2025, week 25: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/1-maintenance-report-week-25-2025/63166

MIRs

• util-linux - opt-in re-review after a merge

  • MIR bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/util-linux/+bug/2113961

• retry - new autopkgtest dependency - interesting story involving an SRU too

  • 2024-09-18 - Ubuntu Noble - retry/1.0.5-3build1~ubuntu0.24.04.1

  • 2024-09-16 - Ubuntu Jammy - retry/1.0.4-3build1

  • MIR bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/retry/+bug/2076381

  • SRU bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/retry/+bug/2080616

  • It fell under the particular case of having retry only in the jammy-release pocket, so couldn't be updated. This required a new upload to reach jammy-updates and then get promoted to main.

Seed Operations

• 2025-03-19 - Ubuntu Plucky - https://code.launchpad.net/~hyask/ubuntu-seeds/+git/ubuntu-seeds/+merge/483070

  • Simple update of ship-live for ARM laptops

  • commit: https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/+git/ubuntu/commit/?id=1b5098bb6635bb1181faa8b5f1c6806b0aada26d

Working with upstream

Debian

• beets:

  • Forwarded a bugfix: https://salsa.debian.org/python-team/packages/beets/-/merge_requests/3

  • Uploaded there: https://tracker.debian.org/news/1639271/accepted-beets-220-3-source-into-unstable/

• util-linux:

  • Forwarded a dep8 test for util-linux: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/util-linux/-/merge_requests/37

  • Subsequently patched this test after some feedback and discussion with @zeha (the Debian maintainer): https://salsa.debian.org/debian/util-linux/-/merge_requests/39

• autopkgtest:

  • This is closer to my regular work in Foundations, so there are many MR that have been merged there already.

  • See https://salsa.debian.org/ci-team/autopkgtest/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=all&author_username=skia

• zip: forwarded a dep8 test + bugfix: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1093629

  • Bugfix got uploaded: https://tracker.debian.org/news/1641790/accepted-zip-30-15-source-into-unstable/

  • Bigger plans for the test suite: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1104090#17

Upstream projects

• beets:

  • Forwarded a bugfix: https://github.com/beetbox/beets/pull/5708

• rust-reqwest: helped make the tests work within a proxy environment:

  • https://github.com/seanmonstar/reqwest/pull/2349

  • https://github.com/seanmonstar/reqwest/pull/2418

• systemd: some documentation update on the mutually beneficial integration autopkgtest has with the upstream project:

  • https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/32584

Misc

TODO

Bug Triage

• Regular Foundations bug triage:
  • TODO: describe and link that work

Areas of work

Things I could do better

Plans for the future

General

What I like least in Ubuntu

Comments

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Endorsements

TEMPLATE

== <SPONSORS NAME> ==
=== General feedback ===
## Please fill us in on your shared experience. (How many packages did you sponsor? How would you judge the quality? How would you describe the improvements? Do you trust the applicant?)

=== Specific Experiences of working together ===
''Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.''
## Full list of sponsored packages can be generated here:
##  https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi
=== Areas of Improvement ===

CategoryCoreDevApplication