<!doctype html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
<title>Motivation and history — Gentoo Policy Guide documentation</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/pygments.css?v=fa44fd50" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/tyrian-sphinx-theme.css?v=637b0b67" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/custom.css?v=56c4699f" />
<link rel="icon" href="https://www.gentoo.org/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
<link href="https://assets.gentoo.org/tyrian/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen">
<link href="https://assets.gentoo.org/tyrian/tyrian.min.css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/pygments.css?v=fa44fd50" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/tyrian-sphinx-theme.css?v=637b0b67" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/custom.css?v=56c4699f" />
<script type="text/javascript" id="documentation_options" data-url_root="./" src="_static/documentation_options.js"></script>
<script src="_static/documentation_options.js?v=5929fcd5"></script>
<script src="_static/doctools.js?v=888ff710"></script>
<script src="_static/sphinx_highlight.js?v=dc90522c"></script>
<link rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html" />
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="search.html" />
<link rel="next" title="Basic information" href="basics.html" />
<link rel="prev" title="Preface" href="preface.html" />
</head><body>
<header>
<div class="site-title">
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="site-title-buttons">
<div class="btn-group btn-group-sm">
<a href="https://get.gentoo.org/" role="button" class="btn get-gentoo"><span class="fa fa-fw fa-download"></span> <strong>Get Gentoo!</strong></a>
<div class="btn-group btn-group-sm">
<a class="btn gentoo-org-sites dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" data-target="#" href="#">
<span class="fa fa-fw fa-map-o"></span> <span class="hidden-xs">gentoo.org sites</span> <span class="caret"></span>
</a>
<ul class="dropdown-menu dropdown-menu-right">
<li><a href="https://www.gentoo.org/" title="Main Gentoo website"><span class="fa fa-home fa-fw"></span> gentoo.org</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wiki.gentoo.org/" title="Find and contribute documentation"><span class="fa fa-file-text-o fa-fw"></span> Wiki</a></li>
<li><a href="https://bugs.gentoo.org/" title="Report issues and find common issues"><span class="fa fa-bug fa-fw"></span> Bugs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://forums.gentoo.org/" title="Discuss with the community"><span class="fa fa-comments-o fa-fw"></span> Forums</a></li>
<li><a href="https://packages.gentoo.org/" title="Find software for your Gentoo"><span class="fa fa-hdd-o fa-fw"></span> Packages</a></li>
<li class="divider"></li>
<li><a href="https://planet.gentoo.org/" title="Find out what's going on in the developer community"><span class="fa fa-rss fa-fw"></span> Planet</a></li>
<li><a href="https://archives.gentoo.org/" title="Read up on past discussions"><span class="fa fa-archive fa-fw"></span> Archives</a></li>
<li><a href="https://sources.gentoo.org/" title="Browse our source code"><span class="fa fa-code fa-fw"></span> Sources</a></li>
<li class="divider"></li>
<li><a href="https://infra-status.gentoo.org/" title="Get updates on the services provided by Gentoo"><span class="fa fa-server fa-fw"></span> Infra Status</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="logo">
<a href="index.html" title="Back to the homepage" class="site-logo"></a>
<span class="site-label"> Policy Guide </span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<nav class="tyrian-navbar" role="navigation">
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="navbar-header">
<button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".navbar-main-collapse">
<span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
</button>
</div>
<div class="collapse navbar-collapse navbar-main-collapse">
<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
<li>
<a href="index.html">Home</a></li>
<li class=""><a href="_sources/motivation.rst.txt">Source</a></li>
<li>
<a href="search.html">Search</a></li>
<li>
<a href="genindex.html">General Index</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="std-policy-index.html">Policy Index</a>
</li>
</ul>
<form action="search.html" class="navbar-form navbar-right" method="get" onsubmit="if (this.quicksearch.value == '')
{ alert('Please enter one or more search terms first.');
return false; } return true;">
<div class="input-group" style="margin-top:2px;">
<span class="input-group-addon" style="background:#61597b;color:#FFF;border:0px;" id="basic-addon1"><i class="fa fa-search" aria-hidden="true"></i></span>
<input class="form-control" style="height:30px;border:0px;background:#61597b;color:#FFF;padding-left:0px;box-shadow: none;" type="text" id="quicksearch_top" name="q" title="Quick Search" placeholder="Quick Search" value="">
</div>
<button class="btn btn-default hidden" type="submit" value="Search" id="find_top">Search</button>
</form>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
</header>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-9 col-sm-12 col-xs-12" role="main">
<section id="motivation-and-history">
<h1>Motivation and history<a class="headerlink" href="#motivation-and-history" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1>
<section id="historical-state-of-policy-documentation">
<h2>Historical state of policy documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#historical-state-of-policy-documentation" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
<p>At the time, Gentoo was lacking a clear and focused document listing all
development-related policies in a concise and clear way.</p>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://projects.gentoo.org/pms/latest/pms.html">PMS</a> provided a technical specification for the ebuild files but did
not provide a sufficient explanation on how to use it. Furthermore, PMS
was focused on wider usage of the ebuild files than intended for
the Gentoo repository, and therefore was partially restricted via tree
policies.</p>
<p>Past Council decisions can be found in the <a class="reference external" href="https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Council/Meeting_logs">Council meeting logs</a>.
However, their form makes it hard to find any particular decision,
not to mention establishing a complete list of policies.</p>
<p>At some point, the QA team started listing <a class="reference external" href="https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Policies">QA policies</a> on its wiki
page. Only eight policies were listed so far. The policies were written
out as a flat list with no particular order which is not going to scale
well.</p>
<p>Finally, there was an attempt to turn <a class="reference external" href="https://devmanual.gentoo.org/">devmanual</a> into a source of
reference policies. It was rejected by its maintainers as explicitly
against the original purpose of this document. Furthermore, a large
amount of stale information combined with ability to edit by every
developer would make it unclear which parts are applicable policies,
and which are obsolete or non-binding tips.</p>
<p>There are also project policies, scattered across wiki pages and other
project documentation, and a lot of de facto policies that were
established less or more formally in the past but were never really
written down.</p>
</section>
<section id="purpose-of-the-policy-guide">
<h2>Purpose of the Policy Guide<a class="headerlink" href="#purpose-of-the-policy-guide" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2>
<p>The Policy Guide was created in order to address aforementioned
documentation deficiencies. Its primary purpose is to collect all
applicable policies from various sources and combine them into a single
logically organized document.</p>
<p>Along with a wording of each policy, its rationale should be provided
(if available) and an indication of which body set the policy.
The former should make it possible to better understand the policy,
and apply it in spirit rather than requiring very precise wording.
The latter should make it clear who can be queried for additional
information, and how the policy can be updated if need arises.</p>
<p>This Guide is going to replace the QA team policies page. All new QA
policies will be documented directly in it. Other documentation (e.g.
devmanual) should conform to policies stated here.</p>
</section>
</section>
<div class="row" style="margin-top:50px;">
<div class="col-sm-6">
<a href="preface.html" style="color:#767676;">
<i class="fa fa-angle-double-left" aria-hidden="true"></i>
Preface
</a>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-6">
<a href="basics.html" class="pull-right" style="color:#767676;">
Basic information
<i class="fa fa-angle-double-right" aria-hidden="true"></i>
</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="col-md-3 hidden-sm hidden-xs" role="main">
<div class="" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
<div class="">
<nav class="bs-docs-sidebar" data-spy="affix" data-offset-top="140" data-offset-bottom="400">
<p class="hidden" role="heading"><span class="hidden-text">Contents:</span></p>
<ul class='current nav'>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="preface.html">Preface</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 current"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">Motivation and history</a><ul class='nav'>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#historical-state-of-policy-documentation">Historical state of policy documentation</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#purpose-of-the-policy-guide">Purpose of the Policy Guide</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="basics.html">Basic information</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="other-docs.html">Other policy documents</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="editing.html">Editing and publishing updates to this Guide</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="dependencies.html">Dependencies</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="deprecation.html">Deprecations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="ebuild-format.html">Ebuild file format</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="filesystem.html">File system layout</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="installed-files.html">Installed files</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="keywords.html">Keywording and stabilization</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="languages.html">Language-specific policies</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="maintainer.html">Package Maintainers</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="other-metadata.html">Other metadata variables</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="use-flags.html">USE flags</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="user-group.html">Users and groups</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clearer"></div>
</div>
<footer>
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-xs-12 col-md-offset-2 col-md-7">
<h3 class="footerhead">Gentoo Policy Guide </h3>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-xs-12 col-md-4">
<span class="kk-group-header">Powered by</span><br><span><a href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx 7.2.6</a> & <a href="https://github.com/mmagorsc/tyrian_sphinx_theme">Tyrian Theme 0.0.8</a></span>
</div>
<div class="col-xs-12 col-md-4">
</div>
<div class="col-xs-12 col-md-4">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="col-xs-12 col-md-3">
<h3 class="footerhead">Questions or comments?</h3>
Please feel free to <a href="https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/contact/">contact us</a>.
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="text-center">
<a href="https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Foundation:Privacy_Policy">Privacy Policy</a>
</div>
<div class="col-xs-10 col-sm-9 col-md-10">
<strong>© 2001–2024 Gentoo Authors</strong><br>
<small>
Gentoo is a trademark of the Gentoo Foundation, Inc. and of Förderverein Gentoo e.V.
The contents of this document, unless otherwise expressly stated, are licensed under the
<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" rel="license">CC-BY-SA-4.0</a> license.
The <a href="https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/foundation/name-logo-guidelines.html">Gentoo Name and Logo Usage Guidelines</a> apply.
</small>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</footer>
<script src="https://assets.gentoo.org/tyrian/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$('body').scrollspy({
target: '.bs-docs-sidebar',
offset: 40
});
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$('#indices-and-tables').hide()
</script>
</body>
</html>