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<document>

  <properties>
    <title>Apache Ant Project Bylaws</title>
  </properties>

<body>
  <section name="Apache Ant Project Bylaws">
    <p>
      This document defines the bylaws under which the Apache Ant project 
      operates. It defines the the roles and responsibilities of the 
      project, who may vote, how voting works, how conflicts are resolved, 
      etc.
    </p>
  
    <p>
      Ant is a project of the 
      <a href="http://www.apache.org/foundation/">Apache Software 
      Foundation</a>.  The foundation holds the copyright on Apache 
      code including the code in the  Ant codebase. The   
      <a href="http://www.apache.org/foundation/faq.html">foundation FAQ</a> 
      explains the operation and background of the foundation.
    </p>
    
    <p>
      Ant is typical of Apache projects in that it operates under a set of 
      principles, known collectively as the &quot;Apache Way&quot;. If you are 
      new to Apache, please refer to the 
      <a href="http://incubator.apache.org">Incubator project</a> 
      for more information on how Apache projects operate. <b>Note:</b> the 
      incubator project has only been recently set up and does not yet explain 
      the Apache Way in great detail.
    </p>
  
    <ul>
        <li><a href="#Roles and Responsibilities">Roles and Responsibilities</a></li>
        <li><a href="#Decision Making">How decisions are made</a></li>
    </ul>    
  
  </section>

  <section name="Roles and Responsibilities">
    <p>
      Apache projects define a set of roles with associated rights and 
      responsibilities. These roles govern what tasks an individual may perform 
      within the project. The roles are defined in the the following sections
    </p>

    <ul>
      <li><a href="#Users">Users</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Developers">Developers</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Committers">Committers</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Project Management Committee">
        Project Management Committee (PMC)</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
    
    <subsection name="Users">
      <p>
        The most important participants in the project are people who use our 
        software. The majority of our developers start out as users and guide 
        their development efforts from the user's perspective.
      </p>

      <p>
        Users contribute to the Apache projects by providing feedback to 
        developers in the the form of bug reports and feature suggestions. As 
        well, users participate in the Apache community by helping other users 
        on mailing lists and user support forums.
      </p>

    </subsection>
    
    <subsection name="Developers">
      <p>
        All of the volunteers who are contributing time, code, documentation, 
        or resources to the Ant Project. A developer that makes sustained, 
        welcome contributions to the project may be invited to become a 
        Committer, though the exact timing of such invitations depends on many 
        factors.
      </p>
    </subsection>
    
    <subsection name="Committers">
      <p>
        The project's Committers are responsible for the project's technical 
        management. All committers have write access to the project's source 
        repositories. Committers may cast binding votes on any technical 
        discussion regarding the project.
      </p>

      <p>
        Committer access is by invitation only and must be approved by lazy 
        consensus of the active PMC members. A Committer is considered emeritus 
        by their own declaration or by not contributing in any form to the 
        project for over four months. An emeritus committer may request 
        reinstatement of commit access fromt he PMC. Such reinstatement is
        subject to lazy consensus of active PMC members. Commit access can be 
        revoked by a unanimous vote of all the active PMC members (except the 
        committer in question if they are also a PMC member).
      </p>

      <p>
        All Apache committers are required to have a signed Contributor License 
        Agreement (CLA) on file with the Apache Software Foundation. There is a
        <a href="http://www.apache.org/dev/committers.html">Committer FAQ</a> 
        which provides more details on the requirements for Committers
      </p>

      <p>
        A committer who makes a sustained contibution to the project may be 
        invited to become a member of the PMC.
      </p>
    </subsection>
    <subsection name="Project Management Committee">
      <p>
        The Project Management Committee (PMC) for Apache Ant was created by a 
        <a href="mission.html">resolution</a> of the board of the Apache 
        Software Foundation on 18<sup>th</sup> November 2002. The PMC is 
        responsible to the board and the ASF for the management and oversight 
        of the Apache Ant codebase. The responsibilites of the PMC include
      </p>

      <ul>
        <li>Deciding what is distributed as products of the Apache Ant project. 
            In particular all releases must be approved by the PMC
        </li>
        <li>Maintaining the project's shared resources, including the codebase 
            repository, mailing lists, websites.
        </li>
        <li>Speaking on behalf of the project.
        </li>
        <li>Resolving license disputes regarding products of the project
        </li>
        <li>Nominating new PMC members and committers
        </li>
        <li>Maintaining these bylaws and other guidelines of the project
        </li>
      </ul>

      <p>
        Membership of the PMC is by invitation only and must be approved by a 
        lazy consensus of active PMC members. A PMC member is considered 
        &quot;emeritus&quot; by their own declaration or by not contributing in 
        any form to the project for over four months. An emeritus member may 
        request reinstatement to the PMC. Such reinstatement is subject to lazy 
        consensus of the active PMC members. Membership of the PMC can be 
        revoked by an unanimous vote of all the active PMC members other than 
        the member in question.
      </p>

      <p>
        The chair of the PMC is appointed by the ASF board. The chair is an 
        office holder of the Apache Software Foundation (Vice President, 
        Apache Ant) and has primary responsibility to the board for the 
        management of the projects within the scope of the Ant PMC. The chair 
        reports to the board quarterly on developments within the Ant project. 
        The PMC may consider the position of PMC chair annually and if 
        supported by 3/4 Majority may recommend a new chair to the board. 
        Ultimately, however, it is the board's responsibility who to appoint as 
        the PMC chair.
      </p>
    </subsection>
  </section>
  
  <section name="Decision Making">
    <p>
      Within the Ant project, different types of decisions require different 
      forms of approval. For example, the 
      <a href="#Roles and Responsibilities">previous section</a> describes 
      several decisions which require &quot;lazy consensus&quot; approval. This 
      section defines how voting is performed, the types of approvals, and which 
      types of decision require which type of approval.
    </p>

    <subsection name="Voting">
      <p>
        Decisions regarding the project are made by votes on the primary project 
        development mailing list (ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org). Where necessary, 
        PMC voting may take place on the private Ant PMC mailing list. 
        Votes are indicated by subject line starting with [VOTE]. Votes
        may contain multiple items for approval and these should be clearly 
        separated. Voting is carried out by replying to the vote mail. Voting 
        may take four flavours
      </p>

      <table>
        <tr>
          <td><strong>+1</strong></td> 
          <td>
            &quot;Yes,&quot; &quot;Agree,&quot; or &quot;the action should be
            performed.&quot; In general, this vote also indicates a willingness
            on the behalf of the voter in &quot;making it happen&quot;
          </td>
        </tr>
    
        <tr>
          <td><strong>+0</strong></td>
          <td>
            This vote indicates a willingness for the action under
            consideration to go ahead. The voter, however will not be able
            to help.
          </td>
        </tr>
        
        <tr>
          <td><strong>-0</strong></td>
          <td>
            This vote indicates that the voter does not, in general, agree with
            the proposed action but is not concerned enough to prevent the
            action going ahead.
          </td>
        </tr>
        
        <tr>
          <td><strong>-1</strong></td>
          <td>
            This is a negative vote. On issues where consensus is required, 
            this vote counts as a <strong>veto</strong>. All vetos must 
            contain an explanation of why the veto is appropriate. Vetos with 
            no explanation are void. 
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      
      <p>
        All participants in the Ant project are encouraged to show their
        agreement with or against a particular action by voting. For technical
        decisions, only the votes of active committers are binding. Non binding
        votes are still useful for Committers to understand the perception of an
        action in the wider Ant community. For PMC decisions, only the votes of
        PMC members are binding.
      </p>
      
      <p>
        Voting can also be applied to changes made to the Ant codebase. These
        typically take the form of a veto (-1) in reply to the commit message
        sent when the commit is made. 
      </p>
    </subsection>
    
    <subsection name="Approvals">
      <p>
        These are the types of approvals that can be sought. Different actions
        require different types of approvals
      </p>
      
      <table>
        <tr>
          <td><strong>Consensus</strong></td> 
          <td>
            For this to pass, all voters with binding votes must vote and there 
            can be no binding vetos (-1). Consensus votes are rarely required 
            due to the impracticality of getting all eligible voters to cast a 
            vote.
          </td>
        </tr>
      
        <tr>
          <td><strong>Lazy Consensus</strong></td> 
          <td>
            Lazy consensus requires 3 binding +1 votes and no binding vetos. 
          </td>
        </tr>
      
        <tr>
          <td><strong>Lazy Majority</strong></td> 
          <td>
            A lazy majority vote requires 3 binding +1 votes and more binding +1
            votes that -1 votes.
          </td>
        </tr>
        
        <tr>
          <td><strong>Lazy Approval</strong></td> 
          <td>
            An action with lazy approval is implicitly allowed unless a -1 vote
            is received, at which time, depending on the type of action, either
            Lazy Majority or Lazy consensus approval must be obtained.
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </subsection>
    
    <subsection name="Vetos">
      <p>
        A valid, binding veto cannot be overruled. If a veto is cast, it must be
        accompanied by a valid reason explaining the reasons for the veto. The 
        validity of a veto, if challeneged, can be confirmed by anyone who has 
        a binding vote. This does not necessarily  signify agreement with the
        veto - merely that the veto is valid. If you disagree with a veto, you 
        must lobby the person casting the veto to withdraw their veto. If a veto
        is not withdrawn, the action that has been vetoed bust be reversed in a
        timely manner.
      </p>
    </subsection>
    
    <subsection name="Actions">
      <p>
        This section describes the various actions which are undertaken within
        the project, the correspnding approval required for that action and
        those who have binding votes over the action.
      </p>
      
      <table>
        <tr>
          <th>Action</th>
          <th>Description</th>
          <th>Approval</th>
          <th>Binding Votes</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td><strong>Codebase Change</strong></td>
          <td>
            A change made to the main codebase of the project and committed
            by a committer. This includes source code, documentation, website
            content, etc.
          </td>
          <td>
            Lazy Approval and then Lazy consensus. 
          </td>
          <td>
            Active committers.
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td><strong>Release Plan</strong></td>
          <td>
            Defines the timetable and actions for a release. The plan also
            nominates a Release Manager.
          </td>
          <td>
            Lazy Majority
          </td>
          <td>
            Active committers
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td><strong>Product Release</strong></td>
          <td>
            When a release of one of the project's products is ready, a vote is
            required to accept the release as an official release of the
            Project.
          </td>
          <td>
            Lazy Majority
          </td>
          <td>
            Active PMC members
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td><strong>New Committer</strong></td>
          <td>
            When a new committer is proposed for the project
          </td>
          <td>
            Lazy consensus
          </td>
          <td>
            Active PMC members
          </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td><strong>New PMC Member</strong></td>
          <td>
            When a committer is proposed for the PMC
          </td>
          <td>
            Lazy consensus
          </td>
          <td>
            Active PMC members
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>        
    </subsection>
  </section>
</body>
</document>