Sponsorship

Ubuntu encourages contributions from any person in the wider community. However, direct uploading to the Ubuntu Archive is restricted.

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

Sponsorship series

The article series provides guidance on requesting sponsorship and sponsoring.

Overview:
For contributors:
For sponsors:

Who are sponsors

Sponsors are contributors with proven packaging skills who have gained upload rights for a particular package set or area of the Archive. There are three categories of upload rights:

Note

Canonical employees are treated no differently than general community members and must follow the same processes for gaining upload rights.

How do I become a sponsor?

See the Ubuntu Developers section for guidance on how to get upload rights to the Archive.

How do I find a sponsor?

See How to find a sponsor when seeking sponsorship for uploading changes or syncing a package.

How do I sponsor an upload?

If you have upload rights and need help with sponsoring, see:

Tracking for endorsements

Keep notes of:

  • Who has sponsored for you.

  • Which package(s) they sponsored.

  • What team or part of the distribution they work on.

These notes are helpful both for finding sponsors in the future and for endorsersments on your future applications for upload rights.