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        <span id="publishDate">Last Published: 2012-04-19</span>
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    <div class="section"><h2>Apache James Project Guidelines<a name="Apache_James_Project_Guidelines"></a></h2>
      <p>
        This document defines the guidelines for the Apache James Project. It
        includes definitions of how conflict is resolved by voting, who
        is able to vote, and the procedures to follow for proposing and
        making changes to the Apache James products.
      </p>
      <p>
        The objective here is to avoid unnecessary conflict over changes and
        continue to produce a quality system in a timely manner. Not all
        conflict can be avoided, but at least we can agree on the
        procedures for conflict to be resolved.

      </p>
    </div>

    <div class="section"><h2>People, Places, and Things<a name="People_Places_and_Things"></a></h2>
      <div class="section"><h3>Apache James Project Management Committee<a name="Apache_James_Project_Management_Committee"></a></h3>
        <p>
          The group of volunteers who are responsible for managing the Apache
          James Project. This includes deciding what is distributed as
          products of the Apache James Project, maintaining the
          Project's shared resources, speaking on behalf of the Project,
          resolving license disputes regarding Apache James products,
          nominating new PMC members or committers, and establishing
          these guidelines.
        </p>
        <p>
          Membership in the Apache James PMC is by invitation only and must be approved
          by consensus of the active Apache James PMC members. A PMC
          member is considered inactive by their own declaration or by
          not contributing in any form to the project for over six
          months. An inactive member can become active again by
          reversing whichever condition made them inactive (i.e., by
          reversing their earlier declaration or by once again
          contributing toward the project's work). Membership can be
          revoked by a unanimous vote of all the active PMC members
          other than the member in question.

        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Apache James Committers<a name="Apache_James_Committers"></a></h3>
        <p>
          The group of volunteers who are responsible for the technical aspects
          of the Apache James Project. This group has write access to
          the appropriate source repositories and these volunteers may
          cast non-binding votes on any technical discussion.
        </p>
        <p>
          Membership as a Committer is by invitation only and must be approved by
          consensus of the active Apache James PMC members. A Committer
          is considered inactive by their own declaration or by not
          contributing in any form to the project for over six months.
          An inactive member can become active again by reversing
          whichever condition made them inactive (i.e., by reversing
          their earlier declaration or by once again contributing toward
          the project's work). Membership can be revoked by a unanimous
          vote of all the active PMC members (except the member in
          question if they are a PMC member).

        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Mailing list<a name="Mailing_list"></a></h3>
        <p>
          The Apache committers' primary mailing list for discussion of issues
          and changes related to the project
          (server-dev@james.apache.org). Subscription to the list is
          open, but only subscribers can post directly to the list.
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Private list<a name="Private_list"></a></h3>
        <p>
          The Apache James Project's private mailing list for discussion of
          issues that are inappropriate for public discussion, such as
          legal, personal, or security issues prior to a published fix.
          Subscription to the list is only open to Apache James PMC
          members and Apache Software Foundation Members.
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>SVN<a name="SVN"></a></h3>
        <p>
          All of the Apache James products are maintained in shared information
          repositories using SVN on svn.apache.org. The Apache
          committers have write access to these repositories; everyone
          has read access via anonymous SVN.
        </p>
      </div>
    </div>

    <div class="section"><h2>Status<a name="Status"></a></h2>
      <p>
        Each of the Apache Project's active source code repositories contain a
        file called &quot;STATUS&quot; which is used to keep track of the agenda
        and plans for work within that repository. The STATUS file
        includes information about release plans, a summary of code
        changes committed since the last release, a list of proposed
        changes that are under discussion, brief notes about items that
        individual committers are working on or want discussion about,
        and anything else that might be useful to help the group track
        progress. The active STATUS files are automatically posted to
        the mailing list each week.
      </p>
      <p>
        Many issues will be encountered by the project, each resulting in zero
        or more proposed action items. Issues should be raised on the
        mailing list as soon as they are identified. Action items must
        be raised on the mailing list and added to the relevant STATUS
        file. All action items may be voted on, but not all of them will
        require a formal vote.
      </p>
    </div>

    <div class="section"><h2>Voting<a name="Voting"></a></h2>
      <p>
        Any of the Apache James Committers may vote on any issue or action
        item. However, the only binding votes are those cast by active
        members of the Apache James PMC; if the vote is about a change
        to source code or documentation, the primary author of what is
        being changed may also cast a binding vote on that issue. All
        other votes are non-binding. All committers are encouraged to
        participate in decisions, but the decision itself is made by
        those who have been long-time contributors to the project. In
        other words, the Apache Project is a minimum-threshold
        meritocracy.
      </p>
      <p>
        The act of voting carries certain obligations -- voting members are not
        only stating their opinion, they are agreeing to help do the
        work of the Apache Project. Since we are all volunteers, members
        often become inactive for periods of time in order to take care
        of their &quot;real jobs&quot; or devote more time to other projects. It
        is therefore unlikely that the entire group membership will vote
        on every issue. To account for this, all voting decisions are
        based on a minimum quorum.
      </p>
      <p>
        Each vote can be made in one of three flavors:
      </p>
      <p>
        <b>+1</b>
        <br />
        Yes, agree, or the action should be performed. On some issues,
        this vote is only binding if the voter has tested the action on
        their own system(s).
      </p>
      <p>
        <b>+-0</b>
        <br />
        Abstain, no opinion, or I am happy to let the other group
        members decide this issue. An abstention may have detrimental
        effects if too many people abstain.
      </p>
      <p>
        <b>-1</b>
        <br />
        No. On issues where consensus is required, this vote counts as a
        veto. All vetos must include an explanation of why the veto is
        appropriate. A veto with no explanation is void. No veto can be
        overruled. If you disagree with the veto, you should lobby the
        person who cast the veto. Voters intending to veto an action
        item should make their opinions known to the group immediately,
        so that the problem can be remedied as early as possible.
      </p>
      <p>
        An action item requiring consensus approval must receive at least 3
        binding +1 votes and no vetos. An action item requiring majority
        approval must receive at least 3 binding +1 votes and more +1
        votes than -1 votes (i.e., a majority with a minimum quorum of
        three positive votes). All other action items are considered to
        have lazy approval until someone votes -1, after which point
        they are decided by either consensus or a majority vote,
        depending upon the type of action item.
      </p>
      <p>
        Votes are tallied within the STATUS file, adjacent to the action item
        under vote. All votes must be either sent to the mailing list or
        added directly to the STATUS file entry for that action item.
      </p>
      <p>
        Votes are to remain open for 72 hours after which the developer who put
        forth the vote should tabulate the result and send this to the
        mailing list. A developer should be sensitive to holidays that
        could dampen participation in the vote.
      </p>
    </div>

    <div class="section"><h2>Types of Action Items<a name="Types_of_Action_Items"></a></h2>
      <div class="section"><h3>Long Term Plans<a name="Long_Term_Plans"></a></h3>
        <p>
          Long term plans are simply announcements that group members are working
          on particular issues related to the Apache software. These are
          not voted on, but group members who do not agree with a
          particular plan, or think an alternate plan would be better,
          are obligated to inform the group of their feelings. In
          general, it is always better to hear about alternate plans
          prior to spending time on less adequate solutions.
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Short Term Plans<a name="Short_Term_Plans"></a></h3>
        <p>
          Short term plans are announcements that a developer is working on a
          particular set of documentation or code files, with the
          implication that other committers should avoid them or try to
          coordinate their changes. This is a good way to proactively
          avoid conflict and possible duplication of work.
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Release Plan<a name="Release_Plan"></a></h3>
        <p>
          A release plan is used to keep all the committers aware of when a
          release is desired, who will be the release manager, when the
          repository will be frozen in order to create the release, and
          assorted other trivia to keep us from tripping over ourselves
          during the final moments. Lazy majority decides each issue in
          the release plan.
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Release Testing<a name="Release_Testing"></a></h3>
        <p>
          After a new release is built, colloquially termed a tarball, it must be
          tested before being released to the public. Majority approval
          is required before the tarball can be publically released.
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Showstoppers<a name="Showstoppers"></a></h3>
        <p>
          Showstoppers are issues that require a fix be in place before the next public
          release. They are listed in the STATUS file in order to focus
          special attention on the problem. An issue becomes a
          showstopper when it is listed as such in STATUS and remains so
          by lazy consensus.
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Product Changes<a name="Product_Changes"></a></h3>
        <p>
          Changes to the Apache James products, including code and documentation,
          will appear as action items under several categories
          corresponding to the change status:
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Concept/Plan<a name="ConceptPlan"></a></h3>
        <p>
          An idea or plan for a change. These are usually only listed in STATUS
          when the change is substantial, significantly impacts the API,
          or is likely to be controversial. Votes are being requested
          early so as to uncover conflicts before too much work is done.
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Proposed Patch<a name="Proposed_Patch"></a></h3>
        <p>
          A specific set of changes to the current product in the form of
          input to the patch command (a diff output).
        </p>
      </div>
      <div class="section"><h3>Committed Change<a name="Committed_Change"></a></h3>
        <p>
          A one-line summary of a change that has been committed to the
          repository since the last public release.
        </p>
        <p>
          All product changes to the currently active repository are subject to
          lazy consensus. All product changes to a prior-branch (old
          version) repository require consensus before the change is
          committed.
        </p>
      </div>
    </div>

    <div class="section"><h2>When to Commit a Change<a name="When_to_Commit_a_Change"></a></h2>
      <p>
        Ideas must be review-then-commit; patches can be commit-then-review. With
        a commit-then-review process, we trust that the developer doing
        the commit has a high degree of confidence in the change.
        Doubtful changes, new features, and large-scale overhauls need
        to be discussed before being committed to a repository. Any
        change that affects the semantics of arguments to configurable
        directives, significantly adds to the runtime size of the
        program, or changes the semantics of an existing API function
        must receive consensus approval on the mailing list before being
        committed.
      </p>
      <p>
        Each developer is responsible for notifying the mailing list and adding
        an action item to STATUS when they have an idea for a new
        feature or major change to propose for the product. The
        distributed nature of the Apache project requires an advance
        notice of 48 hours in order to properly review a major change --
        consensus approval of either the concept or a specific patch is
        required before the change can be committed. Note that a member
        might veto the concept (with an adequate explanation), but later
        rescind that veto if a specific patch satisfies their
        objections. No advance notice is required to commit singular bug
        fixes.
      </p>
      <p>
        Related changes should be committed as a group, or very closely together.
        Half-completed projects should not be committed unless doing so
        is necessary to pass the baton to another developer who has
        agreed to complete the project in short order. All code changes
        must be successfully compiled on the developer's platform before
        being committed.
      </p>
      <p>
        The current source code tree should be capable of complete compilation
        at all times. However, it is sometimes impossible for a
        developer on one platform to avoid breaking some other platform
        when a change is committed, particularly when completing the
        change requires access to a special development tool on that
        other platform. If it is anticipated that a given change will
        break some other platform, the committer must indicate that in
        the commit log.
      </p>
      <p>
        The committer is responsible for the quality of any third-party code or
        documentation they commit to the repository. All software
        committed to the repository must be covered by the Apache
        LICENSE or contain a copyright and license that allows
        redistribution under the same conditions as the Apache LICENSE.
      </p>
      <p>
        A committed change must be reversed if it is vetoed by one of the
        voting members and the veto conditions cannot be immediately
        satisfied by the equivalent of a &quot;bug fix&quot; commit. The veto must
        be rescinded before the change can be included in any public
        release.
      </p>
    </div>

    <div class="section"><h2>Patch Format<a name="Patch_Format"></a></h2>
      <p>
        When a specific change to the software is proposed for discussion or
        voting on the mailing list, it should be presented in the form
        of input to the patch command. When sent to the mailing list,
        the message should contain a Subject beginning with [PATCH] and
        a distinctive one-line summary corresponding to the action item
        for that patch. Afterwords, the patch summary in the STATUS file
        should be updated to point to the Message-ID of that message.
      </p>
      <p>
        The patch should be created by using the diff -u command from the
        original software file(s) to the modified software file(s).
        E.g.,
      </p>
      <div class="source"><pre>
        diff -u James.java.orig James.java &gt;&gt; patchfile.txt
      </pre></div>
      <p>
        All patches necessary to address an action item should be concatenated
        within a single patch message. If later modification of the
        patch proves necessary, the entire new patch should be posted
        and not just the difference between two patches. The STATUS file
        entry should then be updated to point to the new patch message.

      </p>
      <p>
        The completed patchfile should produce no errors or prompts when the
        command,
      </p>
      <div class="source"><pre>
        patch -s &lt; patchfile
      </pre></div>
      <p>
        is issued in the target repository.
      </p>
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