Subject: Re: LTS "lieutenant", was Re: [PATCH RFC v4 7/9] BreakingChanges: announce Rust becoming mandatory

From: Patrick Steinhardt <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:47:17 +0200

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 10:53:02AM +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
> Let me propose an alternative, one that is much more likely to be accepted
> by actual Git users, including professional ones: How about assigning a
> trusted, prolific Git contributor as LTS maintainer? One who is deeply
> familiar with the Git project and can, if the need arises, help the Git
> project steer clear of unnecessary conflict-making e.g. via
> intentionally-incompatible bug fixes on the non-LTS branch? Kind of like
> the lieutenants in the Linux kernel project.
> 
> Naturally, I am thinking of you, Patrick. You have demonstrated diligent
> work in the Git project, are highly trusted both inside and outside the
> Git project, and you seem to genuinely care about the long-term success of
> the Git project.
> 
> An additional benefit of this would be to have a dependable release policy
> for older release trains, just like other projects have. I have heard the
> desire for such a policy many times.

As I mentioned in another part of this thread I think it's still a bit
premature to talk about how all of this will play out, as the potential
LTS release is still at least a year out, and then it'll be probably a
while before we actually need to care about handing over to an LTS
maintainer.

That being said: I already mentioned somewhere (please don't ask me
where, I don't know anymore and the threads are huge) that I would be
willing to do this. It certainly is not the most glorious or joyful
task, but hopefully this isn't too much work? Maybe I'm being naive
and will regret it.

I certainly don't insist on doing it -- if anyone else would feel like
they would really like to do it in my stead, then I wouldn't complain,
either.

In the end I think we should discuss this more and finalize details once
the LTS release handover becomes more concrete. Right now, it's still
this distant thing in the future, and who knows what projects I'll find
until then to fall into disfavor :)

Patrick