Ongoing Maintenance, Development, and User Support

Repository maintainers will need to monitor server logs and make needed changes to keep services running smoothly. They will want to keep abreast of new releases of server software and update their servers as necessary to take advantage of new features and bug fixes. Web pages should be maintained and checked for broken links using a tool such as MomSpider .

Authors of repository software need an easy-to-use method to notify repository maintainers of updates to their software, and to have new versions uploaded to the repository. This capability is provided by the RIB contributor's toolkit.

When a repository is just getting started, its initial collection should be a small number of software packages that are known to be of high quality and usefulness and that are targeted toward specific customers. Based on feedback from these customers, and using selection criteria determined during the domain scoping task described in section 2, the repository can gradually acquire additional software. If the repository is of high quality, contributors will come knocking at its door.

Repository maintainers need to make a decision about the level of user support they will provide. Options range from

1. no support whatsoever, as on some ftp sites, to
2. answering content-independent questions such as how to download, unpack, and compile files, but referring questions about specific software to the authors, to
3. offering a minimal level of support for the software but referring more complicated questions to the authors, to
4. fully supporting the software.

An approach to user support that works well for the Netlib mathematical software repository is to maintain a Frequently Asked Questions file to try to handle the most common questions immediately and to provide an email hotline for questions not found in the FAQ. The email hotline is manned by several Netlib maintainers with different areas of expertise. The Netlib maintainers answer what questions they are able to and refer questions to authors when appropriate. In some cases, where the user appears to have a local problem or needs considerable hand-holding, he is encouraged to seek the assistance of a local systems administrator or numerical consultant.