Sponsorship

Ubuntu encourages contributions from any person in the wider community. However, direct uploading to the Ubuntu Archives is restricted, for obvious reasons.

Sponsorship is a process that allows developers who don’t have upload rights to submit their patches or new packages for review. If approved, an authorized developer (their sponsor) will upload the changes on their behalf.

Who are sponsors?

Sponsors are contributors with proven packaging skills, who have gained upload rights for a particular package. One can get upload rights for:

• certain sets of packages

• all universe packages

• the full Archive

Canonical employees are treated no differently than general community members and must follow the same processes for gaining upload rights. Sponsors are able to review and upload contributions from others as well.

How do I find a sponsor?

To find a sponsor who can upload your changes, you can refer to the How to find a sponsor page.

If you have gained upload rights, you can refer to the How to sponsor an upload page to learn how to sponsor other contributors’ changes.

Tracking for endorsements

You should keep good notes of who has sponsored for you, which package(s) they sponsored, and what team or part of the distribution they work on. These notes will be helpful both for finding sponsors in the future, and as endorsers on your future applications for upload rights.