threads / discuss / 57086

taking a break from Git

Subject: taking a break from Git

## tl;dr

11 messages between Dec 15, 2021 and Dec 21, 2021.

replies: 10people: 10as markdown or json

Jeff King· Dec 15, 2021, 16:38 UTC · lore
Hey all,

I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for five months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up in the air, but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.

Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone, and think it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like it's time for a break and to perhaps apply my brain to something else for a while.

There are a couple logistical things related to this:
  - I'm planning to step down from Git's Project Leadership Committee
    (the entity that represents Git within Software Freedom Conservancy,
    and which occasionally makes decisions on things like our project
    funds or assets like the trademark).
    That leaves Junio, Ævar, and Christian on the PLC, and the charter
    calls for having at least 3 members. So I don't technically need to
    be replaced, but maybe it's an opportunity for somebody else to get
    involved.
    We don't have a formal process here. The last discussion on adding
    new members was this thread from a few years ago:
      https://lore.kernel.org/git/20180816224138.GA15490@sigill.intra.peff.net/
  - I maintain the git-scm.com site (well, insofar as anybody does).
    There are a few regulars who review and merge pull requests at
    https://github.com/git/git-scm.com, but more help is always welcome
    there.
    The production parts of the site run on Heroku and Cloudflare. They
    don't need touched often, though we do trigger a manual update and
    flush the caches right after Junio releases, so that the site is
    updated immediately.  The Git PLC has the necessary credentials for
    those sites, though in practice I think I'm the only one there that
    touched it. Taylor (cc'd) has been helping out with that and also
    has access.
    If you want to get involved, I'd suggest subscribing to the repo
    linked above, and just helping out with issue/PR triage and
    response.  And of course bug fixes, features, and content updates
    are welcome, too. The README.md and ARCHITECTURE.md documents give
    an overview.
  - I really am going to stop reading the list. Even if you cc me. So
    please don't get mad if I don't review your patches, or respond to
    bug reports. :)
    Likewise, I'll be around for a bit more, and am trying to wrap up
    some personal topics and reviews. But undoubtedly I'll end up
    dropping many on the floor. Though that probably would have happened
    over the holidays anyway!
-Peff
Taylor Blau· Dec 15, 2021, 17:09 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 11:38:25AM -0500, Jeff King wrote:
Show 10 quoted lines
> Hey all,
>
> I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for
> five months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up
> in the air, but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.
>
> Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone,
> and think it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like
> it's time for a break and to perhaps apply my brain to something else
> for a while.
I am going to miss seeing patches and review from you tremendously.

As prolific as Peff has been on the mailing list for the past 15 years, he has also spent a lot of effort behind the scenes at GitHub as my manager. He has provided me invaluable guidance and mentorship over the years, and given me the freedom to pick and choose interesting projects to work on.

We were recently talking off-list about the projects that he and I have worked on together, and I remarked that none of it really felt like "work". I think it takes a special skill to create that environment for people, and Peff certainly has that skill.

I am a better programmer and Git contributor directly because of Peff's efforts. I am sure that anybody who has been fortunate enough to get review or advice from Peff feels the same as I do.

Show 16 quoted lines
> There are a couple logistical things related to this:
>
>   - I'm planning to step down from Git's Project Leadership Committee
>     (the entity that represents Git within Software Freedom Conservancy,
>     and which occasionally makes decisions on things like our project
>     funds or assets like the trademark).
>
>     That leaves Junio, Ævar, and Christian on the PLC, and the charter
>     calls for having at least 3 members. So I don't technically need to
>     be replaced, but maybe it's an opportunity for somebody else to get
>     involved.
>
>     We don't have a formal process here. The last discussion on adding
>     new members was this thread from a few years ago:
>
>       https://lore.kernel.org/git/20180816224138.GA15490@sigill.intra.peff.net/

I would be honored to serve on the PLC if that is something others would be in favor of, too. I can talk a little bit about my background and thoughts here in a separate thread from this one.

Show 12 quoted lines
>   - I maintain the git-scm.com site (well, insofar as anybody does).
>     There are a few regulars who review and merge pull requests at
>     https://github.com/git/git-scm.com, but more help is always welcome
>     there.
>
>     The production parts of the site run on Heroku and Cloudflare. They
>     don't need touched often, though we do trigger a manual update and
>     flush the caches right after Junio releases, so that the site is
>     updated immediately.  The Git PLC has the necessary credentials for
>     those sites, though in practice I think I'm the only one there that
>     touched it. Taylor (cc'd) has been helping out with that and also
>     has access.

Yes, I have credentials to our Heroku and Cloudfare accounts, and (I believe) write access to the git-scm.com repository on GitHub. So I can help do some light triage there, and at least prevent the site from bit-rotting.

I've been doing the post-release manual update and cache purging as part of my usual release routine for the past several releases, so I don't mind continuing to do that, either.

>   - I really am going to stop reading the list. Even if you cc me. So
>     please don't get mad if I don't review your patches, or respond to
>     bug reports. :)
Please do ;). Enjoy your well deserved time off, and thank you.
Taylor
Christian Couder· Dec 16, 2021, 09:46 UTC · re: Taylor Blau · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 6:09 PM Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com> wrote:
Show 14 quoted lines
>
> On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 11:38:25AM -0500, Jeff King wrote:
> > Hey all,
> >
> > I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for
> > five months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up
> > in the air, but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.
> >
> > Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone,
> > and think it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like
> > it's time for a break and to perhaps apply my brain to something else
> > for a while.
>
> I am going to miss seeing patches and review from you tremendously.
Yeah, you will be missed a lot Peff!
[...]
> I am a better programmer and Git contributor directly because of Peff's
> efforts. I am sure that anybody who has been fortunate enough to get
> review or advice from Peff feels the same as I do.
Yeah, I feel the same too.
Show 20 quoted lines
> > There are a couple logistical things related to this:
> >
> >   - I'm planning to step down from Git's Project Leadership Committee
> >     (the entity that represents Git within Software Freedom Conservancy,
> >     and which occasionally makes decisions on things like our project
> >     funds or assets like the trademark).
> >
> >     That leaves Junio, Ævar, and Christian on the PLC, and the charter
> >     calls for having at least 3 members. So I don't technically need to
> >     be replaced, but maybe it's an opportunity for somebody else to get
> >     involved.
> >
> >     We don't have a formal process here. The last discussion on adding
> >     new members was this thread from a few years ago:
> >
> >       https://lore.kernel.org/git/20180816224138.GA15490@sigill.intra.peff.net/
>
> I would be honored to serve on the PLC if that is something others would
> be in favor of, too. I can talk a little bit about my background and
> thoughts here in a separate thread from this one.

I am in favor of you serving on the PLC and I would appreciate it if others would nominate themself or others either publicly or privately by emailing git@sfconservancy.org. I think it's a good idea to open this up every few years.

Show 21 quoted lines
> >   - I maintain the git-scm.com site (well, insofar as anybody does).
> >     There are a few regulars who review and merge pull requests at
> >     https://github.com/git/git-scm.com, but more help is always welcome
> >     there.
> >
> >     The production parts of the site run on Heroku and Cloudflare. They
> >     don't need touched often, though we do trigger a manual update and
> >     flush the caches right after Junio releases, so that the site is
> >     updated immediately.  The Git PLC has the necessary credentials for
> >     those sites, though in practice I think I'm the only one there that
> >     touched it. Taylor (cc'd) has been helping out with that and also
> >     has access.
>
> Yes, I have credentials to our Heroku and Cloudfare accounts, and (I
> believe) write access to the git-scm.com repository on GitHub. So I can
> help do some light triage there, and at least prevent the site from
> bit-rotting.
>
> I've been doing the post-release manual update and cache purging as part
> of my usual release routine for the past several releases, so I don't
> mind continuing to do that, either.
Thanks for doing this!
Show 5 quoted lines
> >   - I really am going to stop reading the list. Even if you cc me. So
> >     please don't get mad if I don't review your patches, or respond to
> >     bug reports. :)
>
> Please do ;). Enjoy your well deserved time off, and thank you.
Yeah, thanks!
Kaartic Sivaraam· Dec 20, 2021, 19:18 UTC · re: Taylor Blau · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

Hi Peff,
On 15/12/21 10:39 pm, Taylor Blau wrote:
Show 20 quoted lines
> On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 11:38:25AM -0500, Jeff King wrote:
>> Hey all,
>>
>> I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for
>> five months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up
>> in the air, but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.
>>
>> Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone,
>> and think it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like
>> it's time for a break and to perhaps apply my brain to something else
>> for a while.
> 
> I am going to miss seeing patches and review from you tremendously.
> 
> ...
>
> I am a better programmer and Git contributor directly because of Peff's
> efforts. I am sure that anybody who has been fortunate enough to get
> review or advice from Peff feels the same as I do.
>

I could resonate with this. I've always seen you as a prolific contributor who is able to provide valuable feedback to long-timers and newcomers all the same. Thanks for all that you've done so, Peff!

Show 7 quoted lines
> 
>>    - I really am going to stop reading the list. Even if you cc me. So
>>      please don't get mad if I don't review your patches, or respond to
>>      bug reports. :)
> 
> Please do ;). Enjoy your well deserved time off, and thank you.
> 
I hope the same too. Wishing you luck on your future endeavour, Peff!
-- 
Sivaraam

PS: I've been wanting to interview you for Git Rev News for
quite some time now. Looks like I've waited too long. Given
the circumstance, I don't wish to bother you with one. But if
you feel like giving an interview, feel free to let me know :-)
Junio C Hamano· Dec 15, 2021, 18:42 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:
Show 11 quoted lines
> I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for
> five months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up
> in the air, but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.
>
> Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone,
> and think it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like
> it's time for a break and to perhaps apply my brain to something else
> for a while.
>
> There are a couple logistical things related to this:
> ...

First, let me thank you for the tremendous impact to the community your contribution had in the past years. All of these "hidden from public" contributions of you have been very valuable, of course, but I am sure many of us will miss your public contributions, insightful comments on technical issues, suggestions to pursue possible different approaches and alternative solutions, encouragements given to new developers with gentle nudges, and helpful hints to new users.

The development community wouldn't have been what we have today without you. It has been a fun project for me, too, and that's largely thanks to your presence around here.

I hope that whatever you'd start doing next year is as enjoyable as working on Git with you has been for me in the past 15 years. If you find renewed interest in Git after 5 months' sabbatical, that would be more than fine, too ;-)

rsbecker@nexbridge.com· Dec 16, 2021, 14:26 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

RE: taking a break from Git

On December 15, 2021 11:38 AM, Jeff King wrote:
Show 9 quoted lines
> Hey all,
> 
> I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for five
> months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up in the air,
> but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.
> 
> Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone, and think
> it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like it's time for a break and to
> perhaps apply my brain to something else for a while.
I would like to chime in and thank Peff, for me and on behalf of my team, for his support in resolving and fixing issues we have found with the NonStop port - his advice has been invaluable. I will personally miss his help and advice.
Peff: my door is always open.

Kind Regards, Randall

Phillip Wood· Dec 17, 2021, 11:06 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

Hi Peff
On 15/12/2021 16:38, Jeff King wrote:
Show 10 quoted lines
> Hey all,
> 
> I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for
> five months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up
> in the air, but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.
> 
> Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone,
> and think it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like
> it's time for a break and to perhaps apply my brain to something else
> for a while.

As others have said you will be missed in many ways. Your clear, comprehensive commit messages and thoughtful comments on the list have been a particular inspiration to me. Enjoy your time off and good luck with whatever you decide to do after that.

Best Wishes
Phillip
Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason· Dec 20, 2021, 12:45 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

On Wed, Dec 15 2021, Jeff King wrote:

Thanks a lot for everything. Your contributions, advice and example have been invaluable.

I wish you all the best. I hope this isn't goodbye as far as interaction with this project is concerned.

>   - I really am going to stop reading the list. Even if you cc me. So
>     please don't get mad if I don't review your patches, or respond to
>     bug reports. :)
A couple of practical questions:

Do you have a preference either way for being kept or omitted from CC? I.e. if/when you'd come back to have that E-Mail backlog, or for us to stop CC-ing you? Clearly you'd still get some traffic, but at least us list regulars could take that into account.

You have various WIP code in topics at https://github.com/peff/git. Some of which has your SOB, some not. I keep it as a remote and sometimes run into prior art with "log --all <path>" and the like.

You noted a while ago (IIRC, haven't dug up where) that inline patches of yours to the list could be assumed to have your SOB, does the same apply to what's sitting in that repo?

I picked up/stole some patches from it recently for the e48a623dea0 (Merge branch 'ab/http-drop-old-curl', 2021-08-24) topic. It might be useful for me/others to similarly pick WIP work from there in the future, obviously while clearly communicating that this is based on some WIP patch that sat in your repo, not something you submitted on-list.

Jeff King· Dec 20, 2021, 13:43 UTC · re: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 01:45:05PM +0100, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
> Do you have a preference either way for being kept or omitted from CC?
> I.e. if/when you'd come back to have that E-Mail backlog, or for us to
> stop CC-ing you? Clearly you'd still get some traffic, but at least us
> list regulars could take that into account.

I don't care much either way. I long ago had to start filtering the cc's on list emails into a separate spot from my main inbox. So I can happily ignore that separate folder. :) As far as combing through the backlog, I expect I'd just have to declare bankruptcy anyway.

Show 7 quoted lines
> You have various WIP code in topics at https://github.com/peff/git. Some
> of which has your SOB, some not. I keep it as a remote and sometimes run
> into prior art with "log --all <path>" and the like.
> 
> You noted a while ago (IIRC, haven't dug up where) that inline patches
> of yours to the list could be assumed to have your SOB, does the same
> apply to what's sitting in that repo?

Yes, there's nothing in there that I wouldn't sign-off. But just to make things more clear, I went through and added one to all of the commits in the repository.

You or anyone else is welcome to mine it for ideas or code. There are dragons, of course, but a lot of it is working code that I just didn't get around to polishing. Any branch not marked with "-wip" is something that I merged into my daily-driver version of Git, and passed all tests. So at least it shouldn't be _too_ broken. :)

Thanks for thinking about these logistical issues.
-Peff
Philip Oakley· Dec 21, 2021, 16:02 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

On 15/12/2021 16:38, Jeff King wrote:
Show 5 quoted lines
> Hey all,
>
> I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for
> five months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up
> in the air, but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.
May I wish you a very happy Christmas, a great New Year and enjoyable break.

Thank you for all the contributions and help over the years, and it was good to see you at Git Merge 2019 (seems so long ago now)

All the best
Philip
Show 52 quoted lines
>
> Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone,
> and think it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like
> it's time for a break and to perhaps apply my brain to something else
> for a while.
>
> There are a couple logistical things related to this:
>
>   - I'm planning to step down from Git's Project Leadership Committee
>     (the entity that represents Git within Software Freedom Conservancy,
>     and which occasionally makes decisions on things like our project
>     funds or assets like the trademark).
>
>     That leaves Junio, Ævar, and Christian on the PLC, and the charter
>     calls for having at least 3 members. So I don't technically need to
>     be replaced, but maybe it's an opportunity for somebody else to get
>     involved.
>
>     We don't have a formal process here. The last discussion on adding
>     new members was this thread from a few years ago:
>
>       https://lore.kernel.org/git/20180816224138.GA15490@sigill.intra.peff.net/
>
>   - I maintain the git-scm.com site (well, insofar as anybody does).
>     There are a few regulars who review and merge pull requests at
>     https://github.com/git/git-scm.com, but more help is always welcome
>     there.
>
>     The production parts of the site run on Heroku and Cloudflare. They
>     don't need touched often, though we do trigger a manual update and
>     flush the caches right after Junio releases, so that the site is
>     updated immediately.  The Git PLC has the necessary credentials for
>     those sites, though in practice I think I'm the only one there that
>     touched it. Taylor (cc'd) has been helping out with that and also
>     has access.
>
>     If you want to get involved, I'd suggest subscribing to the repo
>     linked above, and just helping out with issue/PR triage and
>     response.  And of course bug fixes, features, and content updates
>     are welcome, too. The README.md and ARCHITECTURE.md documents give
>     an overview.
>
>   - I really am going to stop reading the list. Even if you cc me. So
>     please don't get mad if I don't review your patches, or respond to
>     bug reports. :)
>
>     Likewise, I'll be around for a bit more, and am trying to wrap up
>     some personal topics and reviews. But undoubtedly I'll end up
>     dropping many on the floor. Though that probably would have happened
>     over the holidays anyway!
>
> -Peff
Elijah Newren· Dec 21, 2021, 18:23 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: taking a break from Git

On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 1:40 PM Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
Show 11 quoted lines
>
> Hey all,
>
> I'm going to be offline and completely absent from the mailing list for
> five months starting at the end of December. After that, things are up
> in the air, but I may not be as involved in the project as I have been.
>
> Sorry, there's no juicy gossip or drama to share. I still like everyone,
> and think it's a cool project. ;) After 15 years, it just feels like
> it's time for a break and to perhaps apply my brain to something else
> for a while.

Your contributions have been felt far and wide -- from patches, to reviewing and mentorship, to setting up events, to just all around friendliness. I wish you luck and joy in whatever you decide to do next. (And selfishly, I hope you decide to come back to Git after your five month sabbatical, but wish you the best with whatever you choose to do.)

I'm slightly regretting right now waiting for ns/tmp-objdir to merge to 'next' before resubmitting en/remerge-diff rebased on top of it; it's probably too late now, but I resubmitted it anyway[1]. If you have a chance for a follow-up review before you take off, I'd appreciate it. If not, you've already improved the series significantly with your suggestions. :-)

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.1103.git.1640109948.gitgitgadget@gmail.com/

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