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Monday 13 Apr 2015 03:27:19, Daniel Campbell wrote : |
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> On 04/12/2015 05:17 AM, Yanestra wrote: |
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> > Hi, |
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> > |
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> > I am long time user of Gentoo and I tinker with the idea of becoming |
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> > Gentoo developer. |
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> > |
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> > I am a software developer by profession, but I am not quite sure if I |
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> > should involve with Gentoo ebuild development. |
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> > |
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> > To be honest, I have not the slightest imagination what becoming a |
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> > Gentoo developer might mean. Things seem to be abhorringly complicated. |
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> > |
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> > As far as I understand, there are developers, proxy developers, then |
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> > there is something like Project Sunrise which I don't understand. |
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> > |
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> > There are apparently several different portage source repositories, |
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> > basing on different software, and furthermore, there is layman. As far |
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> > as I remember, portage is stored in cvs, where there is also git, and |
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> > somewhere subversion seems to linger. |
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> > |
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> > And there is lots of documentation that appears to be outdated or |
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> > strangely unattached to questions concerning organisation and overall |
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> > structure. |
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> > |
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> > Can someone please tell me where to start becoming a developer? Do there |
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> > exist something like quality guidelines for ebuilds? |
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> > |
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> > Why is there such a chaos? |
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> > |
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> > Thanks! |
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> > |
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> |
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> As someone who is undergoing their IRC interview soon, I think I can |
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> answer some of these questions: |
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> |
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> * There are developers, proxy-maintainers, and the Sunrise project. |
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> Developers have access to the main Gentoo repository of ebuilds and do |
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> their best to maintain a quality tree. Proxy-maintainers are regular |
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> Gentoo users who "adopt" packages and pledge to help Gentoo developers |
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> in maintaining them until either they become a developer themselves or |
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> until another developer adopts the package officially. The Sunrise |
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> project is a separate tree where developers and users collaborate in |
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> getting new or specialized packages into a semi-official repository. |
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> Developers assist users in getting ebuilds up to snuff and help them |
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> build practical skills in contributing to Gentoo in a more structured |
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> manner. |
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> |
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> * Documentation, like the rest of Gentoo, is powered by volunteers. If |
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> you find any missing, erroneous, or outdated information, please file a |
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> bug or, if you have permissions on the Wiki, edit it yourself! |
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> |
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> * The general structure of Gentoo as an organization is somewhat simple. |
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> The Council makes all the big and important decisions, while developers |
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> have their own "herds" for specific goals (say, the perl, lisp, java, |
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> and games herds), which also correspond to projects with the same goals. |
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> The Foundation exists to give Gentoo adequate monetary and legal support |
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> in carrying out its goals as a distribution. Everything else is pretty |
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> much just a bunch of developers working together. |
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> |
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> * Gentoo's official tree is in CVS for now, but there is a git migration |
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> planned. I don't know the timing or exact plans for the immediate |
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> future, but my guess is things will be switching to git over the long |
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> term once logistic problems are solved. SVN repositories are available |
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> over layman only, as far as I'm aware. |
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> |
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> * Layman itself is a way to activate other repositories. That method is |
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> partially deprecated in favor of /etc/repos.conf/ files, which allow for |
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> greater, clearer control over repositories. Current releases of layman |
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> will interface with the new way of managing, and there are tools in |
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> place to make migration (mostly) painless. |
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> |
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> * The way to begin your journey to become a developer lies mostly in |
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> just helping out Gentoo, studying the Devmanual [0], and contacting |
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> recruiters to see if there is a mentor available for you. |
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> |
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> If you're interested in becoming an ebuild developer, you should try out |
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> the ebuild quiz [1]. For the most part it just takes a cautious and |
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> attentive eye, some adequate knowledge of bash, and familiarity with |
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> common building and admin tools. Since you're a developer by trade, I'm |
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> sure it wouldn't be a big problem for you to reach developer status. It |
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> takes time and effort, but in my personal opinion it's been worth every |
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> moment. |
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> |
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> I hope this helps! |
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> |
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> ~Daniel |
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> |
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> [0] https://devmanual.gentoo.org |
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> [1] https://wwwold.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/quiz/ebuild-quiz.txt |
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> |
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Hi Yanestra |
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|
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Daniel summed it up pretty well: becoming a dev is a long and lengthy process |
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but worth it in the end cause you'll get to meet smart and passionate folks |
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along the path. |
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|
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However, I'd like to point out yet another URL nobody has mentioned so far: |
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bugzilla [2] aka the Gentoo bug tracking system. There are always tons of bugs |
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waiting to get picked up. You're a software developer by profession so I would |
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advise you to look for bugs that lie in your field of interest. Gentoo isn't |
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one "big" aggregate of developers. We're broken down into small teams of people |
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working on a specific topic. You can check out the list of "Projects" here [3]. |
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For instance do you like Perl? Help out the Perl team package Perl packages. Or |
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maybe you're a Pythonista? Give the Python team a hand. And so on and so forth. |
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|
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Pick something you like and get involved. :) |
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|
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Patrice |
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|
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[2] https://bugs.gentoo.org/ |
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[3] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Gentoo |