1# Decision making in the curl project 2 3A rough guide to how we make decisions and who does what. 4 5## BDFL 6 7This project was started by and has to some extent been pushed forward over 8the years with Daniel Stenberg as the driving force. It matches a standard 9BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life) style project. 10 11This setup has been used due to convenience and the fact that is has worked 12fine this far. It is not because someone thinks of it as a superior project 13leadership model. It will also only continue working as long as Daniel manages 14to listen in to what the project and the general user population wants and 15expects from us. 16 17## Legal entity 18 19There is no legal entity. The curl project is just a bunch of people scattered 20around the globe with the common goal to produce source code that creates 21great products. We are not part of any umbrella organization and we are not 22located in any specific country. We are totally independent. 23 24The copyrights in the project are owned by the individuals and organizations 25that wrote those parts of the code. 26 27## Decisions 28 29The curl project is not a democracy, but everyone is entitled to state their 30opinion and may argue for their sake within the community. 31 32All and any changes that have been done or will be done are eligible to bring 33up for discussion, to object to or to praise. Ideally, we find consensus for 34the appropriate way forward in any given situation or challenge. 35 36If there is no obvious consensus, a maintainer who's knowledgeable in the 37specific area will take an "executive" decision that they think is the right 38for the project. 39 40## Donations 41 42Donating plain money to curl is best done to curl's [Open Collective 43fund](https://opencollective.com/curl). Open Collective is a US based 44non-profit organization that holds on to funds for us. This fund is then used 45for paying the curl security bug bounties, to reimburse project related 46expenses etc. 47 48Donations to the project can also come in form of server hosting, providing 49services and paying for people to work on curl related code etc. Usually, such 50donations are services paid for directly by the sponsors. 51 52We grade sponsors in a few different levels and if they meet the criteria, 53they can be mentioned on the Sponsors page on the curl website. 54 55## Commercial Support 56 57The curl project does not do or offer commercial support. It only hosts 58mailing lists, runs bug trackers etc to facilitate communication and work. 59 60However, Daniel works for wolfSSL and we offer commercial curl support there. 61 62## Key roles 63 64### Maintainers 65 66A maintainer in the curl project is an individual who has been given 67permissions to push commits to one of the git repositories. 68 69Maintainers are free to push commits to the repositories at their own will. 70Maintainers are however expected to listen to feedback from users and any 71change that is non-trivial in size or nature *should* be brought to the 72project as a PR to allow others to comment/object before merge. 73 74### Former maintainers 75 76A maintainer who stops being active in the project will at some point get 77their push permissions removed. We do this for security reasons but also to 78make sure that we always have the list of maintainers as "the team that push 79stuff to curl". 80 81Getting push permissions removed is not a punishment. Everyone who ever worked 82on maintaining curl is considered a hero, for all time hereafter. 83 84### Security team members 85 86We have a security team. That's the team of people who are subscribed to the 87curl-security mailing list; the receivers of security reports from users and 88developers. This list of people will vary over time but should be skilled 89developers familiar with the curl project. 90 91The security team works best when it consists of a small set of active 92persons. We invite new members when the team seems to need it, and we also 93expect to retire security team members as they "drift off" from the project or 94just find themselves unable to perform their duties there. 95 96### Server admins 97 98We run a web server, a mailing list and more on the curl project's primary 99server. That physical machine is owned and run by Haxx. Daniel is the primary 100admin of all things curl related server stuff, but Björn Stenberg and Linus 101Feltzing serve as backup admins for when Daniel is gone or unable. 102 103The primary server is paid for by Haxx. The machine is physically located in a 104server bunker in Stockholm Sweden, operated by the company Portlane. 105 106The website contents are served to the web via Fastly and Daniel is the 107primary curl contact with Fastly. 108 109### BDFL 110 111That's Daniel. 112 113# Maintainers 114 115A curl maintainer is a project volunteer who has the authority and rights to 116merge changes into a git repository in the curl project. 117 118Anyone can aspire to become a curl maintainer. 119 120### Duties 121 122There are no mandatory duties. We hope and wish that maintainers consider 123reviewing patches and help merging them, especially when the changes are 124within the area of personal expertise and experience. 125 126### Requirements 127 128- only merge code that meets our quality and style guide requirements. 129- *never* merge code without doing a PR first, unless the change is "trivial" 130- if in doubt, ask for input/feedback from others 131 132### Recommendations 133 134- we require two-factor authentication enabled on your github account to 135 reduce risk of malicious source code tampering 136- consider enabling signed git commits for additional verification of changes 137 138### Merge advice 139 140When you're merging patches/PRs... 141 142- make sure the commit messages follow our template 143- squash patch sets into a few logical commits even if the PR didn't, if 144 necessary 145- avoid the "merge" button on github, do it "manually" instead to get full 146 control and full audit trail (github leaves out you as "Committer:") 147- remember to credit the reporter and the helpers! 148 149## Who are maintainers? 150 151The [list of maintainers](https://github.com/orgs/curl/people). Be aware that 152the level of presence and activity in the project vary greatly between 153different individuals and over time. 154 155### Become a maintainer? 156 157If you think you can help making the project better by shouldering some 158maintaining responsibilities, then please get in touch. 159 160You will be expected to be familiar with the curl project and its ways of 161working. You need to have gotten a few quality patches merged as a proof of 162this. 163 164### Stop being a maintainer 165 166If you (appear to) not be active in the project anymore, you may be removed as 167a maintainer. Thank you for your service! 168