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Robert Welz posted on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:42:48 +0200 as excerpted: |
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> I am a gentoo user and software developer for a quite a little while. I |
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> found out that I have some spare time and I like to prepare myself to |
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> become a package maintainer. |
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> |
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> Are there any links that provide volunteers with the neccessary know how |
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> of how to maintain a project? I have some money to buy a dedicated |
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> machine, preferrably an AMD 64. Projects could be something in C++ |
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> combined with networking or PHP/Perl stuff. |
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> |
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> Just in case I decide not to volunteer for private reasons these papers |
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> may be beneficial for others, too. |
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|
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http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml |
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|
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That's the Gentoo developer handbook, which is a good place to get a feel |
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for what's involved at that level. Note that there's both the formal |
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Gentoo dev political process documented and Gentoo technology (ebuilds, |
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eclasses, metadata, common mistakes, etc) guides. |
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|
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Generally, the idea is to start on something small and work with the |
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current devs. Once they know you, the rest more or less comes naturally |
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over time. Know that there are many who ultimately don't make /that/ big |
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a commitment, but who have time to help with the smaller stuff that's the |
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first steps toward full developership anyway. |
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|
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The bug-day Saturdays are a great way to get started. Or choose an area |
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(Gentoo project) you're interested in, hang out here and/or on the IRC |
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dev channel and/or the the individual project lists and/or channels, |
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follow the bugs for that project, help comeup with and test patches, etc. |
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|
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Many of the projects have testing overlays where stuff that's not ready |
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for the main tree is worked on. Java has a big one, as does KDE, both |
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with a lot of help from non-(gentoo-)dev project testers, many of which |
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have commit rights to they project overlays. There's also the |
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experimental projects, or projects that started that way, that are headed |
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toward merging into the Gentoo mainstream now. Gentoo-prefix, devoted to |
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making it possible to install Gentoo packages in a user's home dir or the |
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like, on Linux or other platforms, is a big one that's headed toward |
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merge at this point. |
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|
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Another way to start if you have specific applications you are interested |
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in is with proxy maintainership if a package is in the tree, or the |
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Sunrise overlay, for packages not yet in the tree. A proxy maintained |
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package has a non-(gentoo-)dev doing much or all of the real work, bug |
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fixing, etc, working closely with a full Gentoo dev (or project/herd if |
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it's herd maintained) doing the final commits to the tree but often |
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little else, at least once the relationship has been established. The |
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Sunrise overlay is for packages not yet in the tree, but that have |
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various Gentoo community users maintaining them. There's a few Gentoo |
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devs that work with them, helping them get the packages into full Gentoo |
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shape, so ultimately, if a dev finds the package useful, they can bring |
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it into the main Gentoo tree where it may continue to be proxy maintained |
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by the same community user. Of course, there's more packages than devs |
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to maintain them, so not all packages ultimately make it into the tree, |
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but Sunrise is there for them as long as there's someone in the community |
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interested in doing the maintaining at that level. |
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|
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The various arch teams have arch-testers (ATs) as well. These guys help |
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the devs on the arch teams test packages for keyword stabilization, etc. |
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|
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Don't forget the Gentoo Documentation Documentation project as well. |
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They could certainly use some help from someone willing to learn the way |
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Gentoo handles its docs and get their hands dirty helping to maintain |
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them. There's always documentation updates that could be done! =:^) |
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|
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Many, probably most Gentoo devs come in thru one of these paths, starting |
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out working with a project in an overlay or with a proxy maintained or |
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sunrise package, or as an AT. Other quite active users at that level are |
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content to stay active at that level without ever becoming full Gentoo |
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devs for whatever reason (time, politics, whatever). Either way, they |
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can rest well, knowing they're filling a vital role in the Gentoo |
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community, and thru it, the larger free/libre and open source software |
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community. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |