Project:Alpha/Arch tester

Abstract
The Alpha Arch Tester project is heavily based on the AMD64 Arch Tester project and the PPC Arch Tester project. The project is meant to help the Alpha Arch Team providing a stable, secure and up to date Gentoo Linux port.

Being an Arch Tester is the first step to becoming a developer, however, that does not mean every Arch Tester becomes a developer.

The Alpha Arch Team will eventually ask Alpha Arch Testers to officially join the team as developers.

Basic Requirements
In order to become an Alpha Arch Tester there are some steps you have to follow. And you also have to fulfil some requirements.

You should have Alpha hardware yourself. Being familiar with the Gentoo development style and ways is also 'a must'. Being an Arch Tester also requires having patience and being careful with testing.

Although it is not a requirement, having basic C programming skills is good since arch testers are often asked to test patches or even patch code.

First Steps

Before you become an Alpha Arch Tester we ask you to show you are a good candidate for such a position. There are a number of ways to do that, we normally recommend that you 'watch' the [mailto:alpha@gentoo.org alpha@gentoo.org] user in bugs.gentoo.org and help out testing and fixing bugs.

Helping out in forums and mailing lists is also good.

Once you feel you have shown you are a good candidate, you can ask us to consider you as a new Alpha Arch Tester.

The last step is taking a very basic quiz about Gentoo in general and the Alpha architecture. The quiz has more instructions to follow once it's finished.

What do I get for being an Alpha Arch Tester?
You will be given access to the resources used and provided by the arch team to its developers and arch testers.

Once you are accepted as an Alpha Arch Tester you will be added to the [mailto:alpha@gentoo.org alpha@gentoo.org] alias; that way you can easily track the development of the arch team.

Alpha Arch Testers will be covered by GLEP 41 if it ever gets implemented. That means you will, officially, be part of the Gentoo Project.

What would you do as an Alpha Arch Tester
Once you become an Alpha Arch Tester you will be helping the Alpha Arch Team with keywording and general bug fixing duties.

Alpha Arch Testers will not deal with security bugs, toolchain packages, nor alpha/ profiles.

The Alpha Arch Team will trust your abilities to test packages. The developer doing the final commit will be responsible for any breakages that might happen.

The developer doing the final commit will add your name and email to both the ChangeLog and the commit message. That way you are given credit and we can keep track of your activity.

How do I stop being an Alpha Arch Tester?
If you want to leave the project, that's fine.

If you are inactive for a couple of months and we don't have any news from you we will assume you will not come back in a while and will mark you inactive, however you can join us again if you come back. If you come back, and still want to belong to the project, you will not have to go through the whole process.

Everybody makes mistakes so you won't be given the boot if you make some mistakes. However, we ask you to do your job as good as possible, and if you continuously make mistakes we might ask you to reconsider if you want to belong to the project.

If you become an Alpha Gentoo Developer, you will not be an Alpha Arch Tester anymore. However, being a Gentoo Developer and being an Alpha Arch Tester is perfect. Though we will probably ask you to join the Team in such situation.

Useful links
The following documents may help you understand this policy and solve the quiz:


 * Gentoo/Alpha FAQ
 * Gentoo/Alpha Porting Guide
 * Gentoo/AMD64 Arch Testers Project procedures
 * Gentoo Documentation Resources
 * DevManual
 * Developer Handbook