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New Committer GuideThe FreeBSD Documentation ProjectSeptember 19991999The FreeBSD Documentation ProjectWelcome, new committer, to the FreeBSD development
team!The following docs are provided to orient you on doing CVS
operations on the FreeBSD central repository machine. A basic
familiarity with CVS is already assumed, although CVS
reference information, tutorials, and FAQs can also be found
at: http://www.cyclic.com/cyclic-pages/books.htmlGood luck, and welcome aboard!Administrative DetailsMain Repository Hostfreefall.FreeBSD.orgInternational Crypto Repository Hostinternat.FreeBSD.orgLogin Methods&man.ssh.1;Main CVSROOT/home/ncvsInternational Crypto CVSROOT/home/cvs.cryptMain CVS Repository Meisters&a.jdp; and &a.peter; as well as &a.asami; for
ports/International Crypto CVS Repository Meister&a.markm;Mailing Listcvs-committers@FreeBSD.orgNoteworthy CVS TagsRELENG_3 (3.x-STABLE), HEAD (-CURRENT)It is required that you use &man.ssh.1; or &man.telnet.1;
with Kerberos 5 to connect to the repository hosts. These are
generally more secure than plain &man.telnet.1; or
&man.rlogin.1; since credential negotiation will always be
encrypted. All traffic is encrypted by default with &man.ssh.1;.
With utilities like &man.ssh-agent.1; and &man.scp.1; also
available, &man.ssh.1; is also far more convenient. If you do
not know anything about &man.ssh.1;, please see
.CVS OperationsCVS operations are usually done by logging into
freefall, making sure the
CVSROOT environment variable is set to
/home/ncvs, and then doing the appropriate
check-out/check-in operations. If you wish to add
something which is wholly new (like new ports, contrib-ified
sources, etc), a script called easy-import is
also provided for making the process easier. It automatically
adds the new module entry, does the appropriate thing with
cvs import, etc. – just run it without
arguments and it will prompt you for everything it needs to
know.If you are familiar with remote CVS and consider yourself
pretty studly with CVS in general, you can also do CVS
operations directly from your own machine and local working
sources. Just remember to set CVS_RSH to
ssh so that you are using a relatively
secure and reliable transport. If you have no idea what any of
the above even means, on the other hand, then please stick with
logging into freefall and applying your diffs
with &man.patch.1;.If you need to use CVS add and
delete operations in a manner that is
effectively a mv operation, then a repository
copy is in order rather than your CVS add and
delete. In a repository copy, a CVS Meister will copy the file(s)
to their new name and/or location and let you know when it is
done. The purpose of a repository copy is to preserve file
change history, or logs. We in the FreeBSD Project greatly
value the change history CVS gives to the project.Conventions and TraditionsThe CVS Repository Meisters (Peter Wemm and John Polstra)
are the owners of the CVS repository and
responsible for any and all direct
modification of it for the purposes of cleanup or fixing some
grievous abuse of CVS by a committer. No one else should
attempt to touch the repository directly. Should you cause some
repository accident, say a bad cvs import or tag operation, do
not attempt to fix it yourself!
Mail or call John or Peter immediately and report the problem to
one of them instead. The only ones allowed to directly fiddle
the repository bits are the repomeisters. Satoshi Asami is also a
repomeister for the ports/ portion of the
tree. Mark Murray is the repomeister for the International
Crypto Repository in South Africa.If you are a new committer, your very first commit should be
to add yourself to the developer's section (28.2) of the
Handbook and remove yourself from the Additional Contributors section
(19.6). Figuring out how to check the handbook out and add an
entry for yourself is relatively easy but still remains a good
first test of your CVS skills. If you can handle that one,
you are probably going to be ok.Your next step should be to introduce yourself to the other
committers, otherwise no one will have any idea who you are or
what you are working on. You do not have to write a comprehensive
biography, just write a paragraph or two about who you are and
what you plan to be working on as a committer in FreeBSD. Email
this to cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org and you will be on
your way!Also, be sure to log into hub.FreeBSD.org
and create a
/var/forward/user
(where user is your username) file
containing the e-mail address where you want mail addressed
to yourusername@FreeBSD.org
- to be forwarded. This includes all of the commit messages as well as any other mail addressed to cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org. Really large mailboxes which have taken up
- permanent residence on hub often get
- accidently truncated without warning, so forward
- it or read it and you will not lose it.
+ to be forwarded. This includes all of the commit messages as
+ well as any other mail addressed to
+ cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org. Really large
+ mailboxes which have taken up permanent residence on
+ hub often get accidently
+ truncated without warning, so forward it or read it and you will
+ not lose it.
All new committers also have a mentor assigned to them for
the first few months. Your mentor is more or less responsible for
explaining anything which is confusing to you and is also
responsible for your actions during this initial period. If you
make a bogus commit, it is only going to embarrass your mentor
and you should probably make it a policy to pass at least your
first few commits by your mentor before committing it to the
repository.All commits should go to -CURRENT first
before being merged to -STABLE. No major new
features or high-risk modifications should be made to the
-STABLE branch.Developer RelationsIf you are working directly on your own code or on code
which is already well established as your responsibility, then
there is probably little need to check with other committers
before jumping in with a commit. If you see a bug in an area of
the system which is clearly orphaned (and there are a few such
areas, to our shame), the same applies. If, however, you are
about to modify something which is clearly being actively
maintained by someone else (and it is only by watching the
- cvs-committers mailing list that you can really get
- a feel for just what is and is not) then consider sending the
- change to them instead, just as you would have before becoming a
- committer. For ports, you should contact the listed
- MAINTAINER in the
+ cvs-committers mailing list that you can
+ really get a feel for just what is and is not) then consider
+ sending the change to them instead, just as you would have
+ before becoming a committer. For ports, you should contact the
+ listed MAINTAINER in the
Makefile. For other parts of the
repository, if you are unsure who the active maintainer might
be, it may help to scan the output of cvs log
- to see who has committed changes in the past. &a.fenner; has written a nice shell script that can help determine who the active maintainer might be. It lists each person who has committed to a given file along with the number of commits each person has made. It can be found on freefall at ~fenner/bin/whodid. If your queries go
+ to see who has committed changes in the past. &a.fenner; has
+ written a nice shell script that can help determine who the
+ active maintainer might be. It lists each person who has
+ committed to a given file along with the number of commits each
+ person has made. It can be found on freefall
+ at ~fenner/bin/whodid. If your queries go
unanswered or the committer otherwise indicates a lack of
proprietary interest in the area affected, go ahead and commit
it.If you are at all unsure about a commit for any reason in
general, have it reviewed by -hackers first
before committing. Better to have it flamed then and there
rather than when it is part of the CVS repository. If you do
happen to commit something which results in controversy
erupting, you may also wish to consider backing the change out
again until the matter is settled. Remember – with CVS we
can always change it back.GNATSThe FreeBSD Project utilizes
GNATS for tracking bugs and change
requests. Be sure that if you commit a fix or suggestion found
in a GNATS PR, you use
edit-pr pr-number
on freefall to close it. It is also considered
nice if you take time to close any PRs associated with your
commits, if appropriate. Your can also make use of
&man.send-pr.1; yourself for proposing any change which you feel
should probably be made, pending a more extensive peer-review
first.You can find out more about GNATS
at:http://www.cs.utah.edu/csinfo/texinfo/gnats/gnats.htmlhttp://www.FreeBSD.org/support.htmlhttp://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html&man.send-pr.1;Who's WhoBesides Peter Wemm and John Polstra, the repository
meisters, there are other FreeBSD project members whom you will
probably get to know in your new role as a committer. Briefly,
and by no means all-inclusively, these are:&a.asami;
- Satoshi is the Ports Wraith, meaning that he has ultimate
- authority over any modifications to the ports collection or
- the ports skeleton makefiles. He is also the one responsible for
- administering code freezes before the releases.
+ Satoshi is the Ports Wraith, meaning that he has
+ ultimate authority over any modifications to the ports
+ collection or the ports skeleton makefiles. He is also
+ the one responsible for administering code freezes before
+ the releases.&a.bde;
- Bruce is the Obersturmbahnfuhrer of the Style Police. When you
- do a commit that could have been done better, Bruce will
- be there to tell you. Be thankful that someone
+ Bruce is the Obersturmbahnfuhrer of the Style Police.
+ When you do a commit that could have been done better,
+ Bruce will be there to tell you. Be thankful that someone
is.&a.dg;
- David is our principal architect and overseer of the VM
- system. If you have a VM system change in mind,
+ David is our principal architect and overseer of the
+ VM system. If you have a VM system change in mind,
coordinate it with David. Should you become locked in a
bitter, intractable dispute with some other committer over
a proposed change (which does not happen very often,
thankfully) then an appeal to David to put on his P.A. hat
- and make a final decision might be
- necessary.
+ and make a final decision might be necessary.&a.jkh;Jordan is the release engineer. He is responsible for
setting release deadlines and controlling the release
process. During code freezes, he also has final authority
on all changes to the system for whichever branch is
pending release status. If there is something you want
merged from -CURRENT to
-STABLE (whatever values those may have
at any given time), he is also the one to talk to about
it.&a.markm;Mark is the CVS repository meister for the
international crypto repository kept on
internat.FreeBSD.org in South Africa.Mark also oversees most of the crypto code; if you have
any crypto updates, please ask Mark first.&a.steve;Steve is the unofficial maintainer of
src/bin. If you have something
significant you'd like to do there, you should probably
coordinate it with Steve first. He is also a Problem
Report-meister, along with &a.phk;.&a.brian;Official maintainer of
/usr/bin/ppp and LPD.&a.wollman;If you need advice on obscure network internals or
aren't sure of some potential change to the networking
subsystem you have in mind, Garrett is someone to talk
to.SSH Quick-Start GuideUpdate and install one of the SSH ports. In general,
you will probably want to get OpenSSH from the port in
/usr/ports/security/openssh. You
may also wish to check out the original ssh1 in
/usr/ports/security/ssh, but make
certain you pay attention to its license. Note that both
of these ports cannot be installed at the same time.
- If you do not wish to to type your password in every time
- you use &man.ssh.1;, and you use RSA keys to authenticate,
- &man.ssh-agent.1; is there for your convenience. If
- you want to use &man.ssh-agent.1;, make sure that you run it
- before running other applications. X users, for example,
- usually do this from their .xsession or
- .xinitrc file.
- See &man.ssh-agent.1; for details.
+ If you do not wish to to type your password in every
+ time you use &man.ssh.1;, and you use RSA keys to
+ authenticate, &man.ssh-agent.1; is there for your
+ convenience. If you want to use &man.ssh-agent.1;, make
+ sure that you run it before running other applications. X
+ users, for example, usually do this from their
+ .xsession or
+ .xinitrc file. See &man.ssh-agent.1;
+ for details.Generate a key pair using &man.ssh-keygen.1;. The key
pair will wind up in the
$HOME/.ssh
directory.Send your public key
($HOME/.ssh/identity.pub)
to the person setting you up as a committer so it can be put
into your authorized_keys file in your
home directory on freefall
(i.e.
$HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys).
Now you should be able to use &man.ssh-add.1; for
authentication once per session. This will prompt you for
your private key's pass phrase, and then store it in your
authentication agent (&man.ssh-agent.1;). If you no longer
wish to have your key stored in the agent, issuing
ssh-add -d will remove it.Test by doing something such as ssh
freefall.FreeBSD.org ls /usr.For more information, see
/usr/ports/security/openssh, &man.ssh.1;,
&man.ssh-add.1;, &man.ssh-agent.1;, &man.ssh-keygen.1;, and
&man.scp.1;.The FreeBSD Committers' Big List of RulesRespect other committers.
- Discuss any significant change before
- committing.
+ Discuss any significant change
+ before committing.Respect existing maintainers if listed in the
(MAINTAINER field in
- Makefile or in the MAINTAINER
- file in the top-level directory).
+ Makefile or in the
+ MAINTAINER file in the top-level
+ directory).
- Never touch the repository directly. Ask a Repomeister.
+ Never touch the repository directly. Ask a
+ Repomeister.
- Any disputed change must be backed out pending resolution of
- the dispute if requested by a maintainer or the Principal
- Architect. Security related changes may override a maintainer's
- wishes at the Security Officer's discretion.
+ Any disputed change must be backed out pending
+ resolution of the dispute if requested by a maintainer or
+ the Principal Architect. Security related changes may
+ override a maintainer's wishes at the Security Officer's
+ discretion.
- Changes go to -CURRENT before -STABLE unless specifically
- permitted by the release engineer or unless they're not applicable
- to -CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent change which is
- applicable should also be allowed to sit in -CURRENT for at least 3
- days before merging so that it can be given sufficient testing. The
- release engineer has the same authority over the -STABLE branch as
- outlined for the Principal Architect in rule #5.
+ Changes go to -CURRENT before
+ -STABLE unless specifically permitted by
+ the release engineer or unless they're not applicable to
+ -CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent
+ change which is applicable should also be allowed to sit in
+ -CURRENT for at least 3 days before
+ merging so that it can be given sufficient testing. The
+ release engineer has the same authority over the
+ -STABLE branch as outlined for the
+ Principal Architect in rule #5.
- Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks bad. If
- you must strongly disagree about something, do so only in
- private.
+ Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks
+ bad. If you must strongly disagree about
+ something, do so only in private.
- Respect all code freezes and read the committers mailing list on
- a timely basis so you know when a code freeze is in effect.
+ Respect all code freezes and read the
+ committers mailing list on a timely basis
+ so you know when a code freeze is in effect.When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!Test your changes before committing them.
- As noted, breaking some of these rules can be grounds for suspension
- or, upon repeated offense, permanent removal of commit privileges.
- Three or more members of core, or the Principal Architect and another
- member of core acting in unison, have the power to temporarily suspend
- commit privileges until -core as a whole has the chance to review the
- issue. In case of an emergency (a committer doing damage to the
- repository), a temporary suspension may also be done by the repository
- meisters or any other member of core who may happen to be awake at the
- time. Only core as a whole has the authority to suspend commit
- privileges for any significant length of time or to remove them
- permanently, the latter generally only being done after consultation
- with committers. This rule does not exist to set core up as a bunch of
- cruel dictators who can dispose of committers as casually as empty soda
- cans, but to give the project a kind of safety fuse. If someone is
- seriously out of control, it's important to be able to deal with this
- immediately rather than be paralyzed by debate. In all cases, a
- committer whose privileges are suspended or revoked is entitled to a
- hearing, the total duration of the suspension being
- determined at that time. A committer whose privileges are suspended may
- also request a review of the decision after 30 days and every 30 days
- thereafter (unless the total suspension period is less than 30 days). A
- committer whose privileges have been revoked entirely may request a
- review after a period of 6 months have elapsed. This review policy is
- strictly informal and, in all cases, core reserves
- the right to either act on or disregard requests for review if they feel
- their original decision to be the right one.
+ As noted, breaking some of these rules can be grounds for
+ suspension or, upon repeated offense, permanent removal of
+ commit privileges. Three or more members of core, or the
+ Principal Architect and another member of core acting in unison,
+ have the power to temporarily suspend commit privileges until
+ -core as a whole has the chance to review the
+ issue. In case of an emergency (a committer
+ doing damage to the repository), a temporary suspension may also
+ be done by the repository meisters or any other member of core
+ who may happen to be awake at the time. Only core as a whole
+ has the authority to suspend commit privileges for any
+ significant length of time or to remove them permanently, the
+ latter generally only being done after consultation with
+ committers. This rule does not exist to set core up as a bunch
+ of cruel dictators who can dispose of committers as casually as
+ empty soda cans, but to give the project a kind of safety fuse.
+ If someone is seriously out of control, it's important to be
+ able to deal with this immediately rather than be paralyzed by
+ debate. In all cases, a committer whose privileges are
+ suspended or revoked is entitled to a hearing,
+ the total duration of the suspension being determined at that
+ time. A committer whose privileges are suspended may also
+ request a review of the decision after 30 days and every 30 days
+ thereafter (unless the total suspension period is less than 30
+ days). A committer whose privileges have been revoked entirely
+ may request a review after a period of 6 months have elapsed.
+ This review policy is strictly informal
+ and, in all cases, core reserves the right to either act on or
+ disregard requests for review if they feel their original
+ decision to be the right one.
- In all other aspects of project operation, core is a subset of
- committers and is bound by the same rules. Just
- because someone is in core doesn't mean that they have special
- dispensation to step outside of any of the lines painted here; core's
- special powers only kick in when it acts as a group, not
- on an individual basis. As individuals, we are all committers first and
- core second.
+ In all other aspects of project operation, core is a subset
+ of committers and is bound by the same
+ rules. Just because someone is in core doesn't mean
+ that they have special dispensation to step outside of any of
+ the lines painted here; core's special powers
+ only kick in when it acts as a group, not on an individual
+ basis. As individuals, we are all committers first and core
+ second.DetailsRespect other committers.
- This means that you need to treat other committers as the
- peer-group developers that they are. Despite our occasional
- attempts to prove the contrary, one doesn't get into committers by
- being stupid and nothing rankles more than being treated that way
- by one of your peers. Whether we always feel respect for one
- another or not (and everyone has off days), we still have to
- treat other committers with respect at all
- times or the whole team structure rapidly breaks down.
+ This means that you need to treat other committers as
+ the peer-group developers that they are. Despite our
+ occasional attempts to prove the contrary, one doesn't get
+ into committers by being stupid and nothing rankles more
+ than being treated that way by one of your peers. Whether
+ we always feel respect for one another or not (and
+ everyone has off days), we still have to
+ treat other committers with respect
+ at all times or the whole team structure rapidly breaks
+ down.Being able to work together long term is this project's
- greatest asset, one far more important than any set of changes to
- the code, and turning arguments about code into issues that affect
- our long-term ability to work harmoniously together is just not
- worth the trade-off by any conceivable stretch of the
- imagination.
+ greatest asset, one far more important than any set of
+ changes to the code, and turning arguments about code into
+ issues that affect our long-term ability to work
+ harmoniously together is just not worth the trade-off by
+ any conceivable stretch of the imagination.
- To comply with this rule, don't send email when you're angry
- or otherwise behave in a manner which is likely to strike others
- as needlessly confrontational. First calm down, then think about
- how to communicate in the most effective fashion for convincing
- the other person(s) that your side of the argument is correct,
- don't just blow off some steam so you can feel better in the short
- term at the cost of a long-term flame war. Not only is this very
- bad energy economics, but repeated displays of
- public aggression which impair our ability to work well together
- will be dealt with severely by the project leadership and may
- result in suspension or termination of your commit privileges.
- That's never an option which the project's leadership enjoys in
- the slightest, but unity comes first. No amount of code or good
- advice is worth trading that away.
+ To comply with this rule, don't send email when you're
+ angry or otherwise behave in a manner which is likely to
+ strike others as needlessly confrontational. First calm
+ down, then think about how to communicate in the most
+ effective fashion for convincing the other person(s) that
+ your side of the argument is correct, don't just blow off
+ some steam so you can feel better in the short term at the
+ cost of a long-term flame war. Not only is this very bad
+ energy economics, but repeated displays of
+ public aggression which impair our ability to work well
+ together will be dealt with severely by the project
+ leadership and may result in suspension or termination of
+ your commit privileges. That's never an option which the
+ project's leadership enjoys in the slightest, but unity
+ comes first. No amount of code or good advice is worth
+ trading that away.
- Discuss any significant change before
- committing.
+ Discuss any significant change
+ before committing.
- The CVS repository is not where changes should be initially
- submitted for correctness or argued over, that should happen first
- in the mailing lists and then committed only once something
- resembling consensus has been reached. This doesn't mean that you
- have to ask permission before correcting every obvious syntax
- error or man page misspelling, simply that you should try to
- develop a feel for when a proposed change isn't quite such a
- no-brainer and requires some feedback first. People really don't
- mind sweeping changes if the result is something clearly better
- than what they had before, they just don't like being
- surprised by those changes. The very best
- way of making sure that you're on the right track is to have your
- code reviewed by one or more other committers.
+ The CVS repository is not where changes should be
+ initially submitted for correctness or argued over, that
+ should happen first in the mailing lists and then
+ committed only once something resembling consensus has
+ been reached. This doesn't mean that you have to ask
+ permission before correcting every obvious syntax error or
+ man page misspelling, simply that you should try to
+ develop a feel for when a proposed change isn't quite such
+ a no-brainer and requires some feedback first. People
+ really don't mind sweeping changes if the result is
+ something clearly better than what they had before, they
+ just don't like being surprised by
+ those changes. The very best way of making sure that
+ you're on the right track is to have your code reviewed by
+ one or more other committers.When in doubt, ask for review!Respect existing maintainers if listed.
- Many parts of FreeBSD aren't owned in the sense
- that any specific individual will jump up and yell if you commit a
- change to their area, but it still pays to check
- first. One convention we use is to put a maintainer line in the
- Makefile for any package or subtree which is
- being actively maintained by one or more people; see http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/policies.html
- for documentation on this. Where sections of code have several
- maintainers, commits to affected areas by one maintainer need to
- be reviewed by at least one other maintainer. In cases where the
- maintainer-ship of something isn't clear, you can also look at
- the CVS logs for the file(s) in question and see if someone has
- been working recently or predominantly in that area.
-
- Other areas of FreeBSD fall under the control of someone who
- manages an overall category of FreeBSD evolution, such as
- internationalization or networking. See
- http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/staff-who.html for more information on this.
+ Many parts of FreeBSD aren't owned in
+ the sense that any specific individual will jump up and
+ yell if you commit a change to their area,
+ but it still pays to check first. One convention we use
+ is to put a maintainer line in the
+ Makefile for any package or subtree
+ which is being actively maintained by one or more people;
+ see http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/policies.html
+ for documentation on this. Where sections of code have
+ several maintainers, commits to affected areas by one
+ maintainer need to be reviewed by at least one other
+ maintainer. In cases where the
+ maintainer-ship of something isn't clear,
+ you can also look at the CVS logs for the file(s) in
+ question and see if someone has been working recently or
+ predominantly in that area.
+
+ Other areas of FreeBSD fall under the control of
+ someone who manages an overall category of FreeBSD
+ evolution, such as internationalization or networking.
+ See http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/staff-who.html
+ for more information on this.Never touch the repository directly. Ask a
Repomeister.
- This is pretty clear - you're not allowed to make direct
- modifications to the CVS repository, period. In case of
- difficulty, ask one of the repository meisters by sending mail to
- cvs@FreeBSD.org and simply wait for them to fix the
- problem and get back to you. Do not attempt to fix the problem
- yourself!
+ This is pretty clear - you're not allowed to make
+ direct modifications to the CVS repository, period. In
+ case of difficulty, ask one of the repository meisters by
+ sending mail to cvs@FreeBSD.org and simply
+ wait for them to fix the problem and get back to you. Do
+ not attempt to fix the problem yourself!
- If you're thinking about putting down a tag or doing a new
- import of code on a vendor branch, you might also find it useful
- to ask for advice first. A lot of people get this wrong the first
- few times and the consequences are expensive in terms of files
- touched and angry CVSup/CTM folks who are suddenly getting a lot
- of changes sent over unnecessarily.
+ If you're thinking about putting down a tag or doing a
+ new import of code on a vendor branch, you might also find
+ it useful to ask for advice first. A lot of people get
+ this wrong the first few times and the consequences are
+ expensive in terms of files touched and angry CVSup/CTM
+ folks who are suddenly getting a lot of changes sent over
+ unnecessarily.
- Any disputed change must be backed out pending resolution of
- the dispute if requested by a maintainer or the Principal
- Architect. Security related changes may override a maintainer's
- wishes at the Security Officer's discretion.
+ Any disputed change must be backed out pending
+ resolution of the dispute if requested by a maintainer or
+ the Principal Architect. Security related changes may
+ override a maintainer's wishes at the Security Officer's
+ discretion.
- This may be hard to swallow in times of conflict (when each
- side is convinced that they're in the right, of course) but CVS
- makes it unnecessary to have an ongoing dispute raging when it's
- far easier to simply reverse the disputed change, get everyone
- calmed down again and then try and figure out how best to proceed.
- If the change turns out to be the best thing after all, it can be
- easily brought back. If it turns out not to be, then the users
- didn't have to live with the bogus change in the tree while
- everyone was busily debating its merits. People very very rarely
- call for back-outs in the repository since discussion generally
- exposes bad or controversial changes before the commit even
- happens, but on such rare occasions the back-out should be done
- without argument so that we can get immediately on to the topic of
- figuring out whether it was bogus or not.
+ This may be hard to swallow in times of conflict (when
+ each side is convinced that they're in the right, of
+ course) but CVS makes it unnecessary to have an ongoing
+ dispute raging when it's far easier to simply reverse the
+ disputed change, get everyone calmed down again and then
+ try and figure out how best to proceed. If the change
+ turns out to be the best thing after all, it can be easily
+ brought back. If it turns out not to be, then the users
+ didn't have to live with the bogus change in the tree
+ while everyone was busily debating its merits. People
+ very very rarely call for back-outs in the repository
+ since discussion generally exposes bad or controversial
+ changes before the commit even happens, but on such rare
+ occasions the back-out should be done without argument so
+ that we can get immediately on to the topic of figuring
+ out whether it was bogus or not.
- Changes go to -CURRENT before -STABLE unless specifically
- permitted by the release engineer or unless they're not applicable
- to -CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent change which is
- applicable should also be allowed to sit in -CURRENT for at least
- 3 days before merging so that it can be given sufficient testing.
- The release engineer has the same authority over the -STABLE
- branch as outlined in rule #5.
+ Changes go to -CURRENT before
+ -STABLE unless specifically permitted
+ by the release engineer or unless they're not applicable
+ to -CURRENT. Any non-trivial or
+ non-urgent change which is applicable should also be
+ allowed to sit in -CURRENT for at least
+ 3 days before merging so that it can be given sufficient
+ testing. The release engineer has the same authority over
+ the -STABLE branch as outlined in rule
+ #5.
- This is another don't argue about it issue since it's the
- release engineer who is ultimately responsible (and gets beaten
- up) if a change turns out to be bad. Please respect this and give
- the release engineer your full cooperation when it comes to the
- -STABLE branch. The management of -STABLE may frequently seem to
- be overly conservative to the casual observer, but also bear in
- mind the fact that conservatism is supposed to be the hallmark of
- -STABLE and different rules apply there than in -CURRENT. There's
- also really no point in having -CURRENT be a testing ground if
- changes are merged over to -STABLE immediately. Changes need
- a chance to be tested by the -CURRENT developers, so allow some
- time to elapse before merging unless the -STABLE fix is critical,
+ This is another don't argue about it
+ issue since it's the release engineer who is ultimately
+ responsible (and gets beaten up) if a change turns out to
+ be bad. Please respect this and give the release engineer
+ your full cooperation when it comes to the
+ -STABLE branch. The management of
+ -STABLE may frequently seem to be
+ overly conservative to the casual observer, but also bear
+ in mind the fact that conservatism is supposed to be the
+ hallmark of -STABLE and different rules
+ apply there than in -CURRENT. There's
+ also really no point in having -CURRENT
+ be a testing ground if changes are merged over to
+ -STABLE immediately. Changes need a
+ chance to be tested by the -CURRENT
+ developers, so allow some time to elapse before merging
+ unless the -STABLE fix is critical,
time sensitive or so obvious as to make further testing
- unnecessary (spelling fixes to manpages, obvious bug/typo fixes,
- etc.) In other words, apply common sense.
+ unnecessary (spelling fixes to manpages, obvious bug/typo
+ fixes, etc.) In other words, apply common sense.
- Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks bad. If
- you must strongly disagree about something, do so
- only in private.
+ Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks
+ bad. If you must strongly disagree about
+ something, do so only in private.
- This project has a public image to uphold and that image is
- very important to all of us, especially if we are to continue to
- attract new members. There will be occasions when, despite
- everyone's very best attempts at self-control, tempers are lost
- and angry words are exchanged, and the best we can do is try and
- minimize the effects of this until everyone has cooled back down.
- That means that you should not air your angry words in public and
- you should not forward private correspondence to public mailing
- lists or aliases. What people say one-to-one is often much less
- sugar-coated than what they would say in public, and such
- communications therefore have no place there - they only serve to
- inflame an already bad situation. If the person sending you a
- flame-o-gram at least had the grace to send it privately, then
- have the grace to keep it private yourself. If you feel you are
- being unfairly treated by another developer, and it is causing you
- anguish, bring the matter up with core rather than taking it
- public. We will do our best to play peace makers and get things
- back to sanity. In cases where the dispute involves a change to
- the codebase and the participants do not appear to be reaching an
- amicable agreement, core may appoint a mutually-agreeable 3rd
- party to resolve the dispute. All parties involved must then
+ This project has a public image to uphold and that
+ image is very important to all of us, especially if we are
+ to continue to attract new members. There will be
+ occasions when, despite everyone's very best attempts at
+ self-control, tempers are lost and angry words are
+ exchanged, and the best we can do is try and minimize the
+ effects of this until everyone has cooled back down. That
+ means that you should not air your angry words in public
+ and you should not forward private correspondence to
+ public mailing lists or aliases. What people say
+ one-to-one is often much less sugar-coated than what they
+ would say in public, and such communications therefore
+ have no place there - they only serve to inflame an
+ already bad situation. If the person sending you a
+ flame-o-gram at least had the grace to send it privately,
+ then have the grace to keep it private yourself. If you
+ feel you are being unfairly treated by another developer,
+ and it is causing you anguish, bring the matter up with
+ core rather than taking it public. We will do our best to
+ play peace makers and get things back to sanity. In cases
+ where the dispute involves a change to the codebase and
+ the participants do not appear to be reaching an amicable
+ agreement, core may appoint a mutually-agreeable 3rd party
+ to resolve the dispute. All parties involved must then
agree to be bound by the decision reached by this 3rd
party.
- Respect all code freezes and read the committers mailing list
- on a timely basis so you know when they are.
+ Respect all code freezes and read the
+ committers mailing list on a timely
+ basis so you know when they are.
- Committing changes during a code freeze is a really big
- mistake and committers are expected to keep up-to-date on what's
- going on before jumping in after a long absence and committing 10
- megabytes worth of accumulated stuff. People who abuse this on a
- regular basis will have their commit privileges suspended until
- they get back from the FreeBSD Happy Reeducation Camp we run in
- Greenland.
+ Committing changes during a code freeze is a really
+ big mistake and committers are expected to keep up-to-date
+ on what's going on before jumping in after a long absence
+ and committing 10 megabytes worth of accumulated stuff.
+ People who abuse this on a regular basis will have their
+ commit privileges suspended until they get back from the
+ FreeBSD Happy Reeducation Camp we run in Greenland.When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!
- Many mistakes are made because someone is in a hurry and
- just assumes they know the right way of doing something. If
- you have not done it before, chances are good that you do not
- actually know the way we do things and really need to ask first or
- you are going to completely embarrass yourself in public. There's
- no shame in asking how in the heck do I do this?
- We already know you are an intelligent person; otherwise, you would not be a
- committer.
+ Many mistakes are made because someone is in a hurry
+ and just assumes they know the right way of doing
+ something. If you have not done it before, chances are
+ good that you do not actually know the way we do things
+ and really need to ask first or you are going to
+ completely embarrass yourself in public. There's no shame
+ in asking how in the heck do I do this? We
+ already know you are an intelligent person; otherwise, you
+ would not be a committer.Test your changes before committing them.
- This may sound obvious, but if it really were so obvious then
- we probably wouldn't see so many cases of people clearly not doing
- this. If your changes are to the kernel, make sure you can still
- compile both GENERIC and LINT. If your changes are anywhere else,
- make sure you can still make world. If your changes are to a
- branch, make sure your testing occurs with a machine which is
- running that code. If you have a change which also may break
- another architecture, be sure and test on all supported
- architectures. Currently, this is only the x86 and the alpha so
- it's pretty easy to do. If you need to test on the AXP, your
- account on beast.FreeBSD.org will let
- you compile and test alpha binaries/kernels/etc. As other
- architectures are added to the FreeBSD supported platforms list,
- the appropriate shared testing resources will be made
- available.
+ This may sound obvious, but if it really were so
+ obvious then we probably wouldn't see so many cases of
+ people clearly not doing this. If your changes are to the
+ kernel, make sure you can still compile both GENERIC and
+ LINT. If your changes are anywhere else, make sure you
+ can still make world. If your changes are to a branch,
+ make sure your testing occurs with a machine which is
+ running that code. If you have a change which also may
+ break another architecture, be sure and test on all
+ supported architectures. Currently, this is only the x86
+ and the alpha so it's pretty easy to do. If you need to
+ test on the AXP, your account on beast.FreeBSD.org will let you
+ compile and test alpha binaries/kernels/etc. As other
+ architectures are added to the FreeBSD supported platforms
+ list, the appropriate shared testing resources will be
+ made available.Other Suggestions
- When committing documentation changes, use a
- spell checker before committing. :) For all SGML docs, you should
- also verify that your formatting directives are correct by running
+ When committing documentation changes, use a spell checker
+ before committing. :) For all SGML docs, you should also
+ verify that your formatting directives are correct by running
make lint.
- For all on-line manual pages, run manck (from ports) over the
- man page to verify the all of the cross references and file references
- are correct and that the man page has all of the appropriate
- MLINKs installed.
+ For all on-line manual pages, run manck
+ (from ports) over the man page to verify the all of the cross
+ references and file references are correct and that the man
+ page has all of the appropriate MLINKs
+ installed.Do not mix style fixes with new functionality. A style
fix is any change which does not modify the functionality of
the code. Mixing the changes ofucsates the functionality
change when using cvs diff, which can hide
- any new bugs. Do not
- include whitespace changes with content changes in commits to
- doc/ or www/. The extra clutter in the diffs
- makes the translators' job much more difficult. Instead, make any
- style or whitespace changes in seperate commits that are clearly
- labeled as such in the commit message.
+ any new bugs. Do not include whitespace changes with content
+ changes in commits to doc/ or
+ www/. The extra clutter in the diffs
+ makes the translators' job much more difficult. Instead, make
+ any style or whitespace changes in seperate commits that are
+ clearly labeled as such in the commit message.Ports Specific FAQImporting a New PortHow do I import a new port?First, please read the section about repository
copy.The easiest way to import a new port is to use the
easy-import script on
freefall. It will ask you some
questions and import the port in the directory you
- specify. It will also add an entry to the CVSROOT/modules
- file. It was written by &a.joerg; so please send mail
- to him if you have questions about
+ specify. It will also add an entry to the
+ CVSROOT/modules file. It was
+ written by &a.joerg; so please send mail to him if you
+ have questions about
easy-import.One thing it will not do for you is add the port to
the parent (category) Makefile.
You have to do that yourself.Any other things I need to know when I import a new
port?Check the port, preferably to make sure it compiles
and packages correctly. This is the recommended
sequence:&prompt.user; make install
&prompt.user; make package
&prompt.user; make deinstall
&prompt.user; pkg_add package you built above
&prompt.user; make deinstall
&prompt.user; make reinstall
&prompt.user; make packageThe Handbook's
porting
section contains more detailed
instructions.Use &man.portlint.1; to check the syntax of the port.
You don't necessarily have to eliminate all warnings but
make sure you have fixed the simple ones.If the port came from a submitter who has not
contributed to the project before, add that person's
- name to the Handbook's
- Additional Contributors
+ name to the Handbook's Additional Contributors
section.Close the PR if the port came in as a PR. To close
a PR, just do
edit-pr PR#
on freefall and change the
state from open
to closed. You will be asked to
enter a log message and then you are done.Repository CopiesWhen do we need a repository copy?When you want to import a port that is related to
any port that is already in the tree in a separate
directory, please send mail to the ports manager asking
about it. Here related means
it is a different version or a slightly modified
version. Examples are
print/ghostscript* (different
versions) and x11-wm/windowmaker*
(English-only and internationalized version).Another example is when a port is moved from one
subdirectory to another, or when you want to change the
name of a directory because the author(s) renamed their
software even though it is a
descendant of a port already in a tree.When do we not need a
repository copy?When there is no history to preserve. If a port is
imported into a wrong category and is moved immediately,
it suffices to simply cvs remove the
old one and cvs import the new
one.What do I need to do?Send mail to the ports manager, who will do a copy
from the old location/name to the new location/name.
You will then get a notice, at which point you are
expected to perform the following:cvs remove the old port (if
necessary)Adjust the parent (category)
MakefileUpdate CVSROOT/modulesIf other ports depend on the updated port,
change their Makefiles'
dependency linesIf the port changed categories, modify the
CATEGORIES line of the port's
Makefile accordinglyPorts FreezeWhat is a ports freeze?Before a release, it is necessary to restrict
commits to the ports tree for a short period of time
while the packages and the release itself are being
built. This is to ensure consistency among the various
parts of the release, and is called the ports
freeze.How long is a ports freeze?Usually two to three days.What does it mean to me?During the ports freeze, you are not allowed to
commit anything to the tree without explicit approval
from the ports manager. Explicit
approval here means either of the
following:You asked the ports manager and got a reply
saying, Go ahead and commit
it.The ports manager sent a mail to you or the
mailing lists during the ports freeze pointing out
that the port is broken and has to be fixed.Note that you do not have implicit permission to fix
a port during the freeze just because it is
broken.How do I know when the ports freeze starts?The ports manager will send out warning messages to
the freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org and
- cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org mailing lists announcing
- the start of the impending release, usually two or three
- weeks in advance. The exact starting time will not be
- determined until a few days before the actual release.
- This is because the ports freeze has to be synchronized
- with the release, and it is usually not known until then
- when exactly the release will be rolled.
+ cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org mailing lists
+ announcing the start of the impending release, usually
+ two or three weeks in advance. The exact starting time
+ will not be determined until a few days before the
+ actual release. This is because the ports freeze has to
+ be synchronized with the release, and it is usually not
+ known until then when exactly the release will be
+ rolled.
When the freeze starts, there will be another
- announcement to the cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org
- list, of course.
+ announcement to the
+ cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org list, of
+ course.
How do I know when the ports freeze ends?A few hours after the release, the ports manager
will send out a mail to the
- freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org and
- cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org mailing lists
+ freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org and
+ cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org mailing lists
announcing the end of the ports freeze. Note that the
release being cut does not automatically end the freeze.
We have to make sure there will not be any last minute
snafus that result in an immediate re-rolling of the
release.Miscellaneous QuestionsHow do I know if my port is building correctly or
not?First, go check
http://bento.FreeBSD.org/~asami/errorlogs/.
There you will find error logs from the latest package
building runs on 3-stable and 4-current.However, just because the port doesn't show up there
doesn't mean it's building correctly. (One of the
dependencies may have failed, for instance.) Here are
the relevant directories on bento, so feel free to dig
around. /a/asami/portbuild/3/errors error logs from latest 3-stable run
/logs all logs from latest 3-stable run
/packages packages from latest 3-stable run
/bak/errors error logs from last complete 3-stable run
/bak/logs all logs from last complete 3-stable run
/bak/packages packages from last complete 3-stable run
/4/errors error logs from latest 4-current run
/logs all logs from latest 4-current run
/packages packages from latest 4-current run
/bak/errors error logs from last complete 4-current run
/bak/logs all logs from last complete 4-current run
/bak/packages packages from last complete 4-current run
Basically, if the port shows up in
packages, or it is in
logs but not in
errors, it built fine. (The
errors directories are what you get
from the web page.)I added a new port. Do I need to add it to the
INDEX?No. The ports manager will regenerate the
INDEX and commit it every few
days.Are there any other files I'm not allowed to
touch?Any file directly under ports/, or
any file under a subdirectory that starts with an
uppercase letter (Mk/,
Tools/, etc.). In particular, the
ports manager is very protective of
ports/Mk/bsd.port*.mk so don't
commit changes to those files unless you want to face his
wra(i)th.Miscellaneous questionsWhy are trivial or cosmetic changes to files on a vendor
branch a bad idea?
- The RCS file format is quite braindead and certain operations
- to achieve things for CVS are hideously expensive for the
- repository. Making changes to files on a vendor branch, thereby
- pulling the file off that branch, is one example of this.
+ The RCS file format is quite braindead and certain
+ operations to achieve things for CVS are hideously
+ expensive for the repository. Making changes to files on
+ a vendor branch, thereby pulling the file off that branch,
+ is one example of this.
- Suppose you have a file which was first imported on a vendor
- branch, and was then re-imported three times (still on the vendor
- branch) as the vendor makes updates to the file.
+ Suppose you have a file which was first imported on a
+ vendor branch, and was then re-imported three times (still
+ on the vendor branch) as the vendor makes updates to the
+ file.1.1.1.1vendor import1.1.1.2vendor import, +1000, -500 lines1.1.1.3vendor import, +2000, -500 lines1.1.1.4vendor import, +1000, -1000 lines
- Now suppose that one of the FreeBSD committers makes a one
- line change to this file, causing it to go to version 1.2. This
- causes it to leave the branch, resulting in 4,001 lines being added
- to the file's history, and 2,001 lines being deleted.
-
- This is because the 1.2 delta is stored relative to 1.1.1.1,
- not 1.1.1.4, and so the entire vendor history
- is duplicated in the 1.2 delta. Now, repeat this for 2000 files
- in a large directory, it adds up a lot.
-
- This is why we have such hands
- off policies for src/contrib and other things that track
- the vendor releases. This is why typo fixes in man
- pages and spelling corrections are so strongly
- discouraged for vendor code.
+ Now suppose that one of the FreeBSD committers makes a
+ one line change to this file, causing it to go to version
+ 1.2. This causes it to leave the branch, resulting in
+ 4,001 lines being added to the file's history, and 2,001
+ lines being deleted.
+
+ This is because the 1.2 delta is stored relative to
+ 1.1.1.1, not 1.1.1.4, and so the
+ entire vendor history is duplicated in the 1.2 delta.
+ Now, repeat this for 2000 files in a large directory, it
+ adds up a lot.
+
+ This is why we have such
+ hands off policies for
+ src/contrib and other things that
+ track the vendor releases. This is why typo
+ fixes in man pages and spelling
+ corrections are so strongly discouraged for
+ vendor code.
diff --git a/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml b/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml
index 99dc4dad8b..281c38d645 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml
@@ -1,1200 +1,1260 @@
%man;
%authors;
]>
New Committer GuideThe FreeBSD Documentation ProjectSeptember 19991999The FreeBSD Documentation ProjectWelcome, new committer, to the FreeBSD development
team!The following docs are provided to orient you on doing CVS
operations on the FreeBSD central repository machine. A basic
familiarity with CVS is already assumed, although CVS
reference information, tutorials, and FAQs can also be found
at: http://www.cyclic.com/cyclic-pages/books.htmlGood luck, and welcome aboard!Administrative DetailsMain Repository Hostfreefall.FreeBSD.orgInternational Crypto Repository Hostinternat.FreeBSD.orgLogin Methods&man.ssh.1;Main CVSROOT/home/ncvsInternational Crypto CVSROOT/home/cvs.cryptMain CVS Repository Meisters&a.jdp; and &a.peter; as well as &a.asami; for
ports/International Crypto CVS Repository Meister&a.markm;Mailing Listcvs-committers@FreeBSD.orgNoteworthy CVS TagsRELENG_3 (3.x-STABLE), HEAD (-CURRENT)It is required that you use &man.ssh.1; or &man.telnet.1;
with Kerberos 5 to connect to the repository hosts. These are
generally more secure than plain &man.telnet.1; or
&man.rlogin.1; since credential negotiation will always be
encrypted. All traffic is encrypted by default with &man.ssh.1;.
With utilities like &man.ssh-agent.1; and &man.scp.1; also
available, &man.ssh.1; is also far more convenient. If you do
not know anything about &man.ssh.1;, please see
.CVS OperationsCVS operations are usually done by logging into
freefall, making sure the
CVSROOT environment variable is set to
/home/ncvs, and then doing the appropriate
check-out/check-in operations. If you wish to add
something which is wholly new (like new ports, contrib-ified
sources, etc), a script called easy-import is
also provided for making the process easier. It automatically
adds the new module entry, does the appropriate thing with
cvs import, etc. – just run it without
arguments and it will prompt you for everything it needs to
know.If you are familiar with remote CVS and consider yourself
pretty studly with CVS in general, you can also do CVS
operations directly from your own machine and local working
sources. Just remember to set CVS_RSH to
ssh so that you are using a relatively
secure and reliable transport. If you have no idea what any of
the above even means, on the other hand, then please stick with
logging into freefall and applying your diffs
with &man.patch.1;.If you need to use CVS add and
delete operations in a manner that is
effectively a mv operation, then a repository
copy is in order rather than your CVS add and
delete. In a repository copy, a CVS Meister will copy the file(s)
to their new name and/or location and let you know when it is
done. The purpose of a repository copy is to preserve file
change history, or logs. We in the FreeBSD Project greatly
value the change history CVS gives to the project.Conventions and TraditionsThe CVS Repository Meisters (Peter Wemm and John Polstra)
are the owners of the CVS repository and
responsible for any and all direct
modification of it for the purposes of cleanup or fixing some
grievous abuse of CVS by a committer. No one else should
attempt to touch the repository directly. Should you cause some
repository accident, say a bad cvs import or tag operation, do
not attempt to fix it yourself!
Mail or call John or Peter immediately and report the problem to
one of them instead. The only ones allowed to directly fiddle
the repository bits are the repomeisters. Satoshi Asami is also a
repomeister for the ports/ portion of the
tree. Mark Murray is the repomeister for the International
Crypto Repository in South Africa.If you are a new committer, your very first commit should be
to add yourself to the developer's section (28.2) of the
Handbook and remove yourself from the Additional Contributors section
(19.6). Figuring out how to check the handbook out and add an
entry for yourself is relatively easy but still remains a good
first test of your CVS skills. If you can handle that one,
you are probably going to be ok.Your next step should be to introduce yourself to the other
committers, otherwise no one will have any idea who you are or
what you are working on. You do not have to write a comprehensive
biography, just write a paragraph or two about who you are and
what you plan to be working on as a committer in FreeBSD. Email
this to cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org and you will be on
your way!Also, be sure to log into hub.FreeBSD.org
and create a
/var/forward/user
(where user is your username) file
containing the e-mail address where you want mail addressed
to yourusername@FreeBSD.org
- to be forwarded. This includes all of the commit messages as well as any other mail addressed to cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org. Really large mailboxes which have taken up
- permanent residence on hub often get
- accidently truncated without warning, so forward
- it or read it and you will not lose it.
+ to be forwarded. This includes all of the commit messages as
+ well as any other mail addressed to
+ cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org. Really large
+ mailboxes which have taken up permanent residence on
+ hub often get accidently
+ truncated without warning, so forward it or read it and you will
+ not lose it.
All new committers also have a mentor assigned to them for
the first few months. Your mentor is more or less responsible for
explaining anything which is confusing to you and is also
responsible for your actions during this initial period. If you
make a bogus commit, it is only going to embarrass your mentor
and you should probably make it a policy to pass at least your
first few commits by your mentor before committing it to the
repository.All commits should go to -CURRENT first
before being merged to -STABLE. No major new
features or high-risk modifications should be made to the
-STABLE branch.Developer RelationsIf you are working directly on your own code or on code
which is already well established as your responsibility, then
there is probably little need to check with other committers
before jumping in with a commit. If you see a bug in an area of
the system which is clearly orphaned (and there are a few such
areas, to our shame), the same applies. If, however, you are
about to modify something which is clearly being actively
maintained by someone else (and it is only by watching the
- cvs-committers mailing list that you can really get
- a feel for just what is and is not) then consider sending the
- change to them instead, just as you would have before becoming a
- committer. For ports, you should contact the listed
- MAINTAINER in the
+ cvs-committers mailing list that you can
+ really get a feel for just what is and is not) then consider
+ sending the change to them instead, just as you would have
+ before becoming a committer. For ports, you should contact the
+ listed MAINTAINER in the
Makefile. For other parts of the
repository, if you are unsure who the active maintainer might
be, it may help to scan the output of cvs log
- to see who has committed changes in the past. &a.fenner; has written a nice shell script that can help determine who the active maintainer might be. It lists each person who has committed to a given file along with the number of commits each person has made. It can be found on freefall at ~fenner/bin/whodid. If your queries go
+ to see who has committed changes in the past. &a.fenner; has
+ written a nice shell script that can help determine who the
+ active maintainer might be. It lists each person who has
+ committed to a given file along with the number of commits each
+ person has made. It can be found on freefall
+ at ~fenner/bin/whodid. If your queries go
unanswered or the committer otherwise indicates a lack of
proprietary interest in the area affected, go ahead and commit
it.If you are at all unsure about a commit for any reason in
general, have it reviewed by -hackers first
before committing. Better to have it flamed then and there
rather than when it is part of the CVS repository. If you do
happen to commit something which results in controversy
erupting, you may also wish to consider backing the change out
again until the matter is settled. Remember – with CVS we
can always change it back.GNATSThe FreeBSD Project utilizes
GNATS for tracking bugs and change
requests. Be sure that if you commit a fix or suggestion found
in a GNATS PR, you use
edit-pr pr-number
on freefall to close it. It is also considered
nice if you take time to close any PRs associated with your
commits, if appropriate. Your can also make use of
&man.send-pr.1; yourself for proposing any change which you feel
should probably be made, pending a more extensive peer-review
first.You can find out more about GNATS
at:http://www.cs.utah.edu/csinfo/texinfo/gnats/gnats.htmlhttp://www.FreeBSD.org/support.htmlhttp://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html&man.send-pr.1;Who's WhoBesides Peter Wemm and John Polstra, the repository
meisters, there are other FreeBSD project members whom you will
probably get to know in your new role as a committer. Briefly,
and by no means all-inclusively, these are:&a.asami;
- Satoshi is the Ports Wraith, meaning that he has ultimate
- authority over any modifications to the ports collection or
- the ports skeleton makefiles. He is also the one responsible for
- administering code freezes before the releases.
+ Satoshi is the Ports Wraith, meaning that he has
+ ultimate authority over any modifications to the ports
+ collection or the ports skeleton makefiles. He is also
+ the one responsible for administering code freezes before
+ the releases.&a.bde;
- Bruce is the Obersturmbahnfuhrer of the Style Police. When you
- do a commit that could have been done better, Bruce will
- be there to tell you. Be thankful that someone
+ Bruce is the Obersturmbahnfuhrer of the Style Police.
+ When you do a commit that could have been done better,
+ Bruce will be there to tell you. Be thankful that someone
is.&a.dg;
- David is our principal architect and overseer of the VM
- system. If you have a VM system change in mind,
+ David is our principal architect and overseer of the
+ VM system. If you have a VM system change in mind,
coordinate it with David. Should you become locked in a
bitter, intractable dispute with some other committer over
a proposed change (which does not happen very often,
thankfully) then an appeal to David to put on his P.A. hat
- and make a final decision might be
- necessary.
+ and make a final decision might be necessary.&a.jkh;Jordan is the release engineer. He is responsible for
setting release deadlines and controlling the release
process. During code freezes, he also has final authority
on all changes to the system for whichever branch is
pending release status. If there is something you want
merged from -CURRENT to
-STABLE (whatever values those may have
at any given time), he is also the one to talk to about
it.&a.markm;Mark is the CVS repository meister for the
international crypto repository kept on
internat.FreeBSD.org in South Africa.Mark also oversees most of the crypto code; if you have
any crypto updates, please ask Mark first.&a.steve;Steve is the unofficial maintainer of
src/bin. If you have something
significant you'd like to do there, you should probably
coordinate it with Steve first. He is also a Problem
Report-meister, along with &a.phk;.&a.brian;Official maintainer of
/usr/bin/ppp and LPD.&a.wollman;If you need advice on obscure network internals or
aren't sure of some potential change to the networking
subsystem you have in mind, Garrett is someone to talk
to.SSH Quick-Start GuideUpdate and install one of the SSH ports. In general,
you will probably want to get OpenSSH from the port in
/usr/ports/security/openssh. You
may also wish to check out the original ssh1 in
/usr/ports/security/ssh, but make
certain you pay attention to its license. Note that both
of these ports cannot be installed at the same time.
- If you do not wish to to type your password in every time
- you use &man.ssh.1;, and you use RSA keys to authenticate,
- &man.ssh-agent.1; is there for your convenience. If
- you want to use &man.ssh-agent.1;, make sure that you run it
- before running other applications. X users, for example,
- usually do this from their .xsession or
- .xinitrc file.
- See &man.ssh-agent.1; for details.
+ If you do not wish to to type your password in every
+ time you use &man.ssh.1;, and you use RSA keys to
+ authenticate, &man.ssh-agent.1; is there for your
+ convenience. If you want to use &man.ssh-agent.1;, make
+ sure that you run it before running other applications. X
+ users, for example, usually do this from their
+ .xsession or
+ .xinitrc file. See &man.ssh-agent.1;
+ for details.Generate a key pair using &man.ssh-keygen.1;. The key
pair will wind up in the
$HOME/.ssh
directory.Send your public key
($HOME/.ssh/identity.pub)
to the person setting you up as a committer so it can be put
into your authorized_keys file in your
home directory on freefall
(i.e.
$HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys).
Now you should be able to use &man.ssh-add.1; for
authentication once per session. This will prompt you for
your private key's pass phrase, and then store it in your
authentication agent (&man.ssh-agent.1;). If you no longer
wish to have your key stored in the agent, issuing
ssh-add -d will remove it.Test by doing something such as ssh
freefall.FreeBSD.org ls /usr.For more information, see
/usr/ports/security/openssh, &man.ssh.1;,
&man.ssh-add.1;, &man.ssh-agent.1;, &man.ssh-keygen.1;, and
&man.scp.1;.The FreeBSD Committers' Big List of RulesRespect other committers.
- Discuss any significant change before
- committing.
+ Discuss any significant change
+ before committing.Respect existing maintainers if listed in the
(MAINTAINER field in
- Makefile or in the MAINTAINER
- file in the top-level directory).
+ Makefile or in the
+ MAINTAINER file in the top-level
+ directory).
- Never touch the repository directly. Ask a Repomeister.
+ Never touch the repository directly. Ask a
+ Repomeister.
- Any disputed change must be backed out pending resolution of
- the dispute if requested by a maintainer or the Principal
- Architect. Security related changes may override a maintainer's
- wishes at the Security Officer's discretion.
+ Any disputed change must be backed out pending
+ resolution of the dispute if requested by a maintainer or
+ the Principal Architect. Security related changes may
+ override a maintainer's wishes at the Security Officer's
+ discretion.
- Changes go to -CURRENT before -STABLE unless specifically
- permitted by the release engineer or unless they're not applicable
- to -CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent change which is
- applicable should also be allowed to sit in -CURRENT for at least 3
- days before merging so that it can be given sufficient testing. The
- release engineer has the same authority over the -STABLE branch as
- outlined for the Principal Architect in rule #5.
+ Changes go to -CURRENT before
+ -STABLE unless specifically permitted by
+ the release engineer or unless they're not applicable to
+ -CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent
+ change which is applicable should also be allowed to sit in
+ -CURRENT for at least 3 days before
+ merging so that it can be given sufficient testing. The
+ release engineer has the same authority over the
+ -STABLE branch as outlined for the
+ Principal Architect in rule #5.
- Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks bad. If
- you must strongly disagree about something, do so only in
- private.
+ Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks
+ bad. If you must strongly disagree about
+ something, do so only in private.
- Respect all code freezes and read the committers mailing list on
- a timely basis so you know when a code freeze is in effect.
+ Respect all code freezes and read the
+ committers mailing list on a timely basis
+ so you know when a code freeze is in effect.When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!Test your changes before committing them.
- As noted, breaking some of these rules can be grounds for suspension
- or, upon repeated offense, permanent removal of commit privileges.
- Three or more members of core, or the Principal Architect and another
- member of core acting in unison, have the power to temporarily suspend
- commit privileges until -core as a whole has the chance to review the
- issue. In case of an emergency (a committer doing damage to the
- repository), a temporary suspension may also be done by the repository
- meisters or any other member of core who may happen to be awake at the
- time. Only core as a whole has the authority to suspend commit
- privileges for any significant length of time or to remove them
- permanently, the latter generally only being done after consultation
- with committers. This rule does not exist to set core up as a bunch of
- cruel dictators who can dispose of committers as casually as empty soda
- cans, but to give the project a kind of safety fuse. If someone is
- seriously out of control, it's important to be able to deal with this
- immediately rather than be paralyzed by debate. In all cases, a
- committer whose privileges are suspended or revoked is entitled to a
- hearing, the total duration of the suspension being
- determined at that time. A committer whose privileges are suspended may
- also request a review of the decision after 30 days and every 30 days
- thereafter (unless the total suspension period is less than 30 days). A
- committer whose privileges have been revoked entirely may request a
- review after a period of 6 months have elapsed. This review policy is
- strictly informal and, in all cases, core reserves
- the right to either act on or disregard requests for review if they feel
- their original decision to be the right one.
+ As noted, breaking some of these rules can be grounds for
+ suspension or, upon repeated offense, permanent removal of
+ commit privileges. Three or more members of core, or the
+ Principal Architect and another member of core acting in unison,
+ have the power to temporarily suspend commit privileges until
+ -core as a whole has the chance to review the
+ issue. In case of an emergency (a committer
+ doing damage to the repository), a temporary suspension may also
+ be done by the repository meisters or any other member of core
+ who may happen to be awake at the time. Only core as a whole
+ has the authority to suspend commit privileges for any
+ significant length of time or to remove them permanently, the
+ latter generally only being done after consultation with
+ committers. This rule does not exist to set core up as a bunch
+ of cruel dictators who can dispose of committers as casually as
+ empty soda cans, but to give the project a kind of safety fuse.
+ If someone is seriously out of control, it's important to be
+ able to deal with this immediately rather than be paralyzed by
+ debate. In all cases, a committer whose privileges are
+ suspended or revoked is entitled to a hearing,
+ the total duration of the suspension being determined at that
+ time. A committer whose privileges are suspended may also
+ request a review of the decision after 30 days and every 30 days
+ thereafter (unless the total suspension period is less than 30
+ days). A committer whose privileges have been revoked entirely
+ may request a review after a period of 6 months have elapsed.
+ This review policy is strictly informal
+ and, in all cases, core reserves the right to either act on or
+ disregard requests for review if they feel their original
+ decision to be the right one.
- In all other aspects of project operation, core is a subset of
- committers and is bound by the same rules. Just
- because someone is in core doesn't mean that they have special
- dispensation to step outside of any of the lines painted here; core's
- special powers only kick in when it acts as a group, not
- on an individual basis. As individuals, we are all committers first and
- core second.
+ In all other aspects of project operation, core is a subset
+ of committers and is bound by the same
+ rules. Just because someone is in core doesn't mean
+ that they have special dispensation to step outside of any of
+ the lines painted here; core's special powers
+ only kick in when it acts as a group, not on an individual
+ basis. As individuals, we are all committers first and core
+ second.DetailsRespect other committers.
- This means that you need to treat other committers as the
- peer-group developers that they are. Despite our occasional
- attempts to prove the contrary, one doesn't get into committers by
- being stupid and nothing rankles more than being treated that way
- by one of your peers. Whether we always feel respect for one
- another or not (and everyone has off days), we still have to
- treat other committers with respect at all
- times or the whole team structure rapidly breaks down.
+ This means that you need to treat other committers as
+ the peer-group developers that they are. Despite our
+ occasional attempts to prove the contrary, one doesn't get
+ into committers by being stupid and nothing rankles more
+ than being treated that way by one of your peers. Whether
+ we always feel respect for one another or not (and
+ everyone has off days), we still have to
+ treat other committers with respect
+ at all times or the whole team structure rapidly breaks
+ down.Being able to work together long term is this project's
- greatest asset, one far more important than any set of changes to
- the code, and turning arguments about code into issues that affect
- our long-term ability to work harmoniously together is just not
- worth the trade-off by any conceivable stretch of the
- imagination.
+ greatest asset, one far more important than any set of
+ changes to the code, and turning arguments about code into
+ issues that affect our long-term ability to work
+ harmoniously together is just not worth the trade-off by
+ any conceivable stretch of the imagination.
- To comply with this rule, don't send email when you're angry
- or otherwise behave in a manner which is likely to strike others
- as needlessly confrontational. First calm down, then think about
- how to communicate in the most effective fashion for convincing
- the other person(s) that your side of the argument is correct,
- don't just blow off some steam so you can feel better in the short
- term at the cost of a long-term flame war. Not only is this very
- bad energy economics, but repeated displays of
- public aggression which impair our ability to work well together
- will be dealt with severely by the project leadership and may
- result in suspension or termination of your commit privileges.
- That's never an option which the project's leadership enjoys in
- the slightest, but unity comes first. No amount of code or good
- advice is worth trading that away.
+ To comply with this rule, don't send email when you're
+ angry or otherwise behave in a manner which is likely to
+ strike others as needlessly confrontational. First calm
+ down, then think about how to communicate in the most
+ effective fashion for convincing the other person(s) that
+ your side of the argument is correct, don't just blow off
+ some steam so you can feel better in the short term at the
+ cost of a long-term flame war. Not only is this very bad
+ energy economics, but repeated displays of
+ public aggression which impair our ability to work well
+ together will be dealt with severely by the project
+ leadership and may result in suspension or termination of
+ your commit privileges. That's never an option which the
+ project's leadership enjoys in the slightest, but unity
+ comes first. No amount of code or good advice is worth
+ trading that away.
- Discuss any significant change before
- committing.
+ Discuss any significant change
+ before committing.
- The CVS repository is not where changes should be initially
- submitted for correctness or argued over, that should happen first
- in the mailing lists and then committed only once something
- resembling consensus has been reached. This doesn't mean that you
- have to ask permission before correcting every obvious syntax
- error or man page misspelling, simply that you should try to
- develop a feel for when a proposed change isn't quite such a
- no-brainer and requires some feedback first. People really don't
- mind sweeping changes if the result is something clearly better
- than what they had before, they just don't like being
- surprised by those changes. The very best
- way of making sure that you're on the right track is to have your
- code reviewed by one or more other committers.
+ The CVS repository is not where changes should be
+ initially submitted for correctness or argued over, that
+ should happen first in the mailing lists and then
+ committed only once something resembling consensus has
+ been reached. This doesn't mean that you have to ask
+ permission before correcting every obvious syntax error or
+ man page misspelling, simply that you should try to
+ develop a feel for when a proposed change isn't quite such
+ a no-brainer and requires some feedback first. People
+ really don't mind sweeping changes if the result is
+ something clearly better than what they had before, they
+ just don't like being surprised by
+ those changes. The very best way of making sure that
+ you're on the right track is to have your code reviewed by
+ one or more other committers.When in doubt, ask for review!Respect existing maintainers if listed.
- Many parts of FreeBSD aren't owned in the sense
- that any specific individual will jump up and yell if you commit a
- change to their area, but it still pays to check
- first. One convention we use is to put a maintainer line in the
- Makefile for any package or subtree which is
- being actively maintained by one or more people; see http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/policies.html
- for documentation on this. Where sections of code have several
- maintainers, commits to affected areas by one maintainer need to
- be reviewed by at least one other maintainer. In cases where the
- maintainer-ship of something isn't clear, you can also look at
- the CVS logs for the file(s) in question and see if someone has
- been working recently or predominantly in that area.
-
- Other areas of FreeBSD fall under the control of someone who
- manages an overall category of FreeBSD evolution, such as
- internationalization or networking. See
- http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/staff-who.html for more information on this.
+ Many parts of FreeBSD aren't owned in
+ the sense that any specific individual will jump up and
+ yell if you commit a change to their area,
+ but it still pays to check first. One convention we use
+ is to put a maintainer line in the
+ Makefile for any package or subtree
+ which is being actively maintained by one or more people;
+ see http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/policies.html
+ for documentation on this. Where sections of code have
+ several maintainers, commits to affected areas by one
+ maintainer need to be reviewed by at least one other
+ maintainer. In cases where the
+ maintainer-ship of something isn't clear,
+ you can also look at the CVS logs for the file(s) in
+ question and see if someone has been working recently or
+ predominantly in that area.
+
+ Other areas of FreeBSD fall under the control of
+ someone who manages an overall category of FreeBSD
+ evolution, such as internationalization or networking.
+ See http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/staff-who.html
+ for more information on this.Never touch the repository directly. Ask a
Repomeister.
- This is pretty clear - you're not allowed to make direct
- modifications to the CVS repository, period. In case of
- difficulty, ask one of the repository meisters by sending mail to
- cvs@FreeBSD.org and simply wait for them to fix the
- problem and get back to you. Do not attempt to fix the problem
- yourself!
+ This is pretty clear - you're not allowed to make
+ direct modifications to the CVS repository, period. In
+ case of difficulty, ask one of the repository meisters by
+ sending mail to cvs@FreeBSD.org and simply
+ wait for them to fix the problem and get back to you. Do
+ not attempt to fix the problem yourself!
- If you're thinking about putting down a tag or doing a new
- import of code on a vendor branch, you might also find it useful
- to ask for advice first. A lot of people get this wrong the first
- few times and the consequences are expensive in terms of files
- touched and angry CVSup/CTM folks who are suddenly getting a lot
- of changes sent over unnecessarily.
+ If you're thinking about putting down a tag or doing a
+ new import of code on a vendor branch, you might also find
+ it useful to ask for advice first. A lot of people get
+ this wrong the first few times and the consequences are
+ expensive in terms of files touched and angry CVSup/CTM
+ folks who are suddenly getting a lot of changes sent over
+ unnecessarily.
- Any disputed change must be backed out pending resolution of
- the dispute if requested by a maintainer or the Principal
- Architect. Security related changes may override a maintainer's
- wishes at the Security Officer's discretion.
+ Any disputed change must be backed out pending
+ resolution of the dispute if requested by a maintainer or
+ the Principal Architect. Security related changes may
+ override a maintainer's wishes at the Security Officer's
+ discretion.
- This may be hard to swallow in times of conflict (when each
- side is convinced that they're in the right, of course) but CVS
- makes it unnecessary to have an ongoing dispute raging when it's
- far easier to simply reverse the disputed change, get everyone
- calmed down again and then try and figure out how best to proceed.
- If the change turns out to be the best thing after all, it can be
- easily brought back. If it turns out not to be, then the users
- didn't have to live with the bogus change in the tree while
- everyone was busily debating its merits. People very very rarely
- call for back-outs in the repository since discussion generally
- exposes bad or controversial changes before the commit even
- happens, but on such rare occasions the back-out should be done
- without argument so that we can get immediately on to the topic of
- figuring out whether it was bogus or not.
+ This may be hard to swallow in times of conflict (when
+ each side is convinced that they're in the right, of
+ course) but CVS makes it unnecessary to have an ongoing
+ dispute raging when it's far easier to simply reverse the
+ disputed change, get everyone calmed down again and then
+ try and figure out how best to proceed. If the change
+ turns out to be the best thing after all, it can be easily
+ brought back. If it turns out not to be, then the users
+ didn't have to live with the bogus change in the tree
+ while everyone was busily debating its merits. People
+ very very rarely call for back-outs in the repository
+ since discussion generally exposes bad or controversial
+ changes before the commit even happens, but on such rare
+ occasions the back-out should be done without argument so
+ that we can get immediately on to the topic of figuring
+ out whether it was bogus or not.
- Changes go to -CURRENT before -STABLE unless specifically
- permitted by the release engineer or unless they're not applicable
- to -CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent change which is
- applicable should also be allowed to sit in -CURRENT for at least
- 3 days before merging so that it can be given sufficient testing.
- The release engineer has the same authority over the -STABLE
- branch as outlined in rule #5.
+ Changes go to -CURRENT before
+ -STABLE unless specifically permitted
+ by the release engineer or unless they're not applicable
+ to -CURRENT. Any non-trivial or
+ non-urgent change which is applicable should also be
+ allowed to sit in -CURRENT for at least
+ 3 days before merging so that it can be given sufficient
+ testing. The release engineer has the same authority over
+ the -STABLE branch as outlined in rule
+ #5.
- This is another don't argue about it issue since it's the
- release engineer who is ultimately responsible (and gets beaten
- up) if a change turns out to be bad. Please respect this and give
- the release engineer your full cooperation when it comes to the
- -STABLE branch. The management of -STABLE may frequently seem to
- be overly conservative to the casual observer, but also bear in
- mind the fact that conservatism is supposed to be the hallmark of
- -STABLE and different rules apply there than in -CURRENT. There's
- also really no point in having -CURRENT be a testing ground if
- changes are merged over to -STABLE immediately. Changes need
- a chance to be tested by the -CURRENT developers, so allow some
- time to elapse before merging unless the -STABLE fix is critical,
+ This is another don't argue about it
+ issue since it's the release engineer who is ultimately
+ responsible (and gets beaten up) if a change turns out to
+ be bad. Please respect this and give the release engineer
+ your full cooperation when it comes to the
+ -STABLE branch. The management of
+ -STABLE may frequently seem to be
+ overly conservative to the casual observer, but also bear
+ in mind the fact that conservatism is supposed to be the
+ hallmark of -STABLE and different rules
+ apply there than in -CURRENT. There's
+ also really no point in having -CURRENT
+ be a testing ground if changes are merged over to
+ -STABLE immediately. Changes need a
+ chance to be tested by the -CURRENT
+ developers, so allow some time to elapse before merging
+ unless the -STABLE fix is critical,
time sensitive or so obvious as to make further testing
- unnecessary (spelling fixes to manpages, obvious bug/typo fixes,
- etc.) In other words, apply common sense.
+ unnecessary (spelling fixes to manpages, obvious bug/typo
+ fixes, etc.) In other words, apply common sense.
- Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks bad. If
- you must strongly disagree about something, do so
- only in private.
+ Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks
+ bad. If you must strongly disagree about
+ something, do so only in private.
- This project has a public image to uphold and that image is
- very important to all of us, especially if we are to continue to
- attract new members. There will be occasions when, despite
- everyone's very best attempts at self-control, tempers are lost
- and angry words are exchanged, and the best we can do is try and
- minimize the effects of this until everyone has cooled back down.
- That means that you should not air your angry words in public and
- you should not forward private correspondence to public mailing
- lists or aliases. What people say one-to-one is often much less
- sugar-coated than what they would say in public, and such
- communications therefore have no place there - they only serve to
- inflame an already bad situation. If the person sending you a
- flame-o-gram at least had the grace to send it privately, then
- have the grace to keep it private yourself. If you feel you are
- being unfairly treated by another developer, and it is causing you
- anguish, bring the matter up with core rather than taking it
- public. We will do our best to play peace makers and get things
- back to sanity. In cases where the dispute involves a change to
- the codebase and the participants do not appear to be reaching an
- amicable agreement, core may appoint a mutually-agreeable 3rd
- party to resolve the dispute. All parties involved must then
+ This project has a public image to uphold and that
+ image is very important to all of us, especially if we are
+ to continue to attract new members. There will be
+ occasions when, despite everyone's very best attempts at
+ self-control, tempers are lost and angry words are
+ exchanged, and the best we can do is try and minimize the
+ effects of this until everyone has cooled back down. That
+ means that you should not air your angry words in public
+ and you should not forward private correspondence to
+ public mailing lists or aliases. What people say
+ one-to-one is often much less sugar-coated than what they
+ would say in public, and such communications therefore
+ have no place there - they only serve to inflame an
+ already bad situation. If the person sending you a
+ flame-o-gram at least had the grace to send it privately,
+ then have the grace to keep it private yourself. If you
+ feel you are being unfairly treated by another developer,
+ and it is causing you anguish, bring the matter up with
+ core rather than taking it public. We will do our best to
+ play peace makers and get things back to sanity. In cases
+ where the dispute involves a change to the codebase and
+ the participants do not appear to be reaching an amicable
+ agreement, core may appoint a mutually-agreeable 3rd party
+ to resolve the dispute. All parties involved must then
agree to be bound by the decision reached by this 3rd
party.
- Respect all code freezes and read the committers mailing list
- on a timely basis so you know when they are.
+ Respect all code freezes and read the
+ committers mailing list on a timely
+ basis so you know when they are.
- Committing changes during a code freeze is a really big
- mistake and committers are expected to keep up-to-date on what's
- going on before jumping in after a long absence and committing 10
- megabytes worth of accumulated stuff. People who abuse this on a
- regular basis will have their commit privileges suspended until
- they get back from the FreeBSD Happy Reeducation Camp we run in
- Greenland.
+ Committing changes during a code freeze is a really
+ big mistake and committers are expected to keep up-to-date
+ on what's going on before jumping in after a long absence
+ and committing 10 megabytes worth of accumulated stuff.
+ People who abuse this on a regular basis will have their
+ commit privileges suspended until they get back from the
+ FreeBSD Happy Reeducation Camp we run in Greenland.When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!
- Many mistakes are made because someone is in a hurry and
- just assumes they know the right way of doing something. If
- you have not done it before, chances are good that you do not
- actually know the way we do things and really need to ask first or
- you are going to completely embarrass yourself in public. There's
- no shame in asking how in the heck do I do this?
- We already know you are an intelligent person; otherwise, you would not be a
- committer.
+ Many mistakes are made because someone is in a hurry
+ and just assumes they know the right way of doing
+ something. If you have not done it before, chances are
+ good that you do not actually know the way we do things
+ and really need to ask first or you are going to
+ completely embarrass yourself in public. There's no shame
+ in asking how in the heck do I do this? We
+ already know you are an intelligent person; otherwise, you
+ would not be a committer.Test your changes before committing them.
- This may sound obvious, but if it really were so obvious then
- we probably wouldn't see so many cases of people clearly not doing
- this. If your changes are to the kernel, make sure you can still
- compile both GENERIC and LINT. If your changes are anywhere else,
- make sure you can still make world. If your changes are to a
- branch, make sure your testing occurs with a machine which is
- running that code. If you have a change which also may break
- another architecture, be sure and test on all supported
- architectures. Currently, this is only the x86 and the alpha so
- it's pretty easy to do. If you need to test on the AXP, your
- account on beast.FreeBSD.org will let
- you compile and test alpha binaries/kernels/etc. As other
- architectures are added to the FreeBSD supported platforms list,
- the appropriate shared testing resources will be made
- available.
+ This may sound obvious, but if it really were so
+ obvious then we probably wouldn't see so many cases of
+ people clearly not doing this. If your changes are to the
+ kernel, make sure you can still compile both GENERIC and
+ LINT. If your changes are anywhere else, make sure you
+ can still make world. If your changes are to a branch,
+ make sure your testing occurs with a machine which is
+ running that code. If you have a change which also may
+ break another architecture, be sure and test on all
+ supported architectures. Currently, this is only the x86
+ and the alpha so it's pretty easy to do. If you need to
+ test on the AXP, your account on beast.FreeBSD.org will let you
+ compile and test alpha binaries/kernels/etc. As other
+ architectures are added to the FreeBSD supported platforms
+ list, the appropriate shared testing resources will be
+ made available.Other Suggestions
- When committing documentation changes, use a
- spell checker before committing. :) For all SGML docs, you should
- also verify that your formatting directives are correct by running
+ When committing documentation changes, use a spell checker
+ before committing. :) For all SGML docs, you should also
+ verify that your formatting directives are correct by running
make lint.
- For all on-line manual pages, run manck (from ports) over the
- man page to verify the all of the cross references and file references
- are correct and that the man page has all of the appropriate
- MLINKs installed.
+ For all on-line manual pages, run manck
+ (from ports) over the man page to verify the all of the cross
+ references and file references are correct and that the man
+ page has all of the appropriate MLINKs
+ installed.Do not mix style fixes with new functionality. A style
fix is any change which does not modify the functionality of
the code. Mixing the changes ofucsates the functionality
change when using cvs diff, which can hide
- any new bugs. Do not
- include whitespace changes with content changes in commits to
- doc/ or www/. The extra clutter in the diffs
- makes the translators' job much more difficult. Instead, make any
- style or whitespace changes in seperate commits that are clearly
- labeled as such in the commit message.
+ any new bugs. Do not include whitespace changes with content
+ changes in commits to doc/ or
+ www/. The extra clutter in the diffs
+ makes the translators' job much more difficult. Instead, make
+ any style or whitespace changes in seperate commits that are
+ clearly labeled as such in the commit message.Ports Specific FAQImporting a New PortHow do I import a new port?First, please read the section about repository
copy.The easiest way to import a new port is to use the
easy-import script on
freefall. It will ask you some
questions and import the port in the directory you
- specify. It will also add an entry to the CVSROOT/modules
- file. It was written by &a.joerg; so please send mail
- to him if you have questions about
+ specify. It will also add an entry to the
+ CVSROOT/modules file. It was
+ written by &a.joerg; so please send mail to him if you
+ have questions about
easy-import.One thing it will not do for you is add the port to
the parent (category) Makefile.
You have to do that yourself.Any other things I need to know when I import a new
port?Check the port, preferably to make sure it compiles
and packages correctly. This is the recommended
sequence:&prompt.user; make install
&prompt.user; make package
&prompt.user; make deinstall
&prompt.user; pkg_add package you built above
&prompt.user; make deinstall
&prompt.user; make reinstall
&prompt.user; make packageThe Handbook's
porting
section contains more detailed
instructions.Use &man.portlint.1; to check the syntax of the port.
You don't necessarily have to eliminate all warnings but
make sure you have fixed the simple ones.If the port came from a submitter who has not
contributed to the project before, add that person's
- name to the Handbook's
- Additional Contributors
+ name to the Handbook's Additional Contributors
section.Close the PR if the port came in as a PR. To close
a PR, just do
edit-pr PR#
on freefall and change the
state from open
to closed. You will be asked to
enter a log message and then you are done.Repository CopiesWhen do we need a repository copy?When you want to import a port that is related to
any port that is already in the tree in a separate
directory, please send mail to the ports manager asking
about it. Here related means
it is a different version or a slightly modified
version. Examples are
print/ghostscript* (different
versions) and x11-wm/windowmaker*
(English-only and internationalized version).Another example is when a port is moved from one
subdirectory to another, or when you want to change the
name of a directory because the author(s) renamed their
software even though it is a
descendant of a port already in a tree.When do we not need a
repository copy?When there is no history to preserve. If a port is
imported into a wrong category and is moved immediately,
it suffices to simply cvs remove the
old one and cvs import the new
one.What do I need to do?Send mail to the ports manager, who will do a copy
from the old location/name to the new location/name.
You will then get a notice, at which point you are
expected to perform the following:cvs remove the old port (if
necessary)Adjust the parent (category)
MakefileUpdate CVSROOT/modulesIf other ports depend on the updated port,
change their Makefiles'
dependency linesIf the port changed categories, modify the
CATEGORIES line of the port's
Makefile accordinglyPorts FreezeWhat is a ports freeze?Before a release, it is necessary to restrict
commits to the ports tree for a short period of time
while the packages and the release itself are being
built. This is to ensure consistency among the various
parts of the release, and is called the ports
freeze.How long is a ports freeze?Usually two to three days.What does it mean to me?During the ports freeze, you are not allowed to
commit anything to the tree without explicit approval
from the ports manager. Explicit
approval here means either of the
following:You asked the ports manager and got a reply
saying, Go ahead and commit
it.The ports manager sent a mail to you or the
mailing lists during the ports freeze pointing out
that the port is broken and has to be fixed.Note that you do not have implicit permission to fix
a port during the freeze just because it is
broken.How do I know when the ports freeze starts?The ports manager will send out warning messages to
the freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org and
- cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org mailing lists announcing
- the start of the impending release, usually two or three
- weeks in advance. The exact starting time will not be
- determined until a few days before the actual release.
- This is because the ports freeze has to be synchronized
- with the release, and it is usually not known until then
- when exactly the release will be rolled.
+ cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org mailing lists
+ announcing the start of the impending release, usually
+ two or three weeks in advance. The exact starting time
+ will not be determined until a few days before the
+ actual release. This is because the ports freeze has to
+ be synchronized with the release, and it is usually not
+ known until then when exactly the release will be
+ rolled.
When the freeze starts, there will be another
- announcement to the cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org
- list, of course.
+ announcement to the
+ cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org list, of
+ course.
How do I know when the ports freeze ends?A few hours after the release, the ports manager
will send out a mail to the
- freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org and
- cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org mailing lists
+ freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org and
+ cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org mailing lists
announcing the end of the ports freeze. Note that the
release being cut does not automatically end the freeze.
We have to make sure there will not be any last minute
snafus that result in an immediate re-rolling of the
release.Miscellaneous QuestionsHow do I know if my port is building correctly or
not?First, go check
http://bento.FreeBSD.org/~asami/errorlogs/.
There you will find error logs from the latest package
building runs on 3-stable and 4-current.However, just because the port doesn't show up there
doesn't mean it's building correctly. (One of the
dependencies may have failed, for instance.) Here are
the relevant directories on bento, so feel free to dig
around. /a/asami/portbuild/3/errors error logs from latest 3-stable run
/logs all logs from latest 3-stable run
/packages packages from latest 3-stable run
/bak/errors error logs from last complete 3-stable run
/bak/logs all logs from last complete 3-stable run
/bak/packages packages from last complete 3-stable run
/4/errors error logs from latest 4-current run
/logs all logs from latest 4-current run
/packages packages from latest 4-current run
/bak/errors error logs from last complete 4-current run
/bak/logs all logs from last complete 4-current run
/bak/packages packages from last complete 4-current run
Basically, if the port shows up in
packages, or it is in
logs but not in
errors, it built fine. (The
errors directories are what you get
from the web page.)I added a new port. Do I need to add it to the
INDEX?No. The ports manager will regenerate the
INDEX and commit it every few
days.Are there any other files I'm not allowed to
touch?Any file directly under ports/, or
any file under a subdirectory that starts with an
uppercase letter (Mk/,
Tools/, etc.). In particular, the
ports manager is very protective of
ports/Mk/bsd.port*.mk so don't
commit changes to those files unless you want to face his
wra(i)th.Miscellaneous questionsWhy are trivial or cosmetic changes to files on a vendor
branch a bad idea?
- The RCS file format is quite braindead and certain operations
- to achieve things for CVS are hideously expensive for the
- repository. Making changes to files on a vendor branch, thereby
- pulling the file off that branch, is one example of this.
+ The RCS file format is quite braindead and certain
+ operations to achieve things for CVS are hideously
+ expensive for the repository. Making changes to files on
+ a vendor branch, thereby pulling the file off that branch,
+ is one example of this.
- Suppose you have a file which was first imported on a vendor
- branch, and was then re-imported three times (still on the vendor
- branch) as the vendor makes updates to the file.
+ Suppose you have a file which was first imported on a
+ vendor branch, and was then re-imported three times (still
+ on the vendor branch) as the vendor makes updates to the
+ file.1.1.1.1vendor import1.1.1.2vendor import, +1000, -500 lines1.1.1.3vendor import, +2000, -500 lines1.1.1.4vendor import, +1000, -1000 lines
- Now suppose that one of the FreeBSD committers makes a one
- line change to this file, causing it to go to version 1.2. This
- causes it to leave the branch, resulting in 4,001 lines being added
- to the file's history, and 2,001 lines being deleted.
-
- This is because the 1.2 delta is stored relative to 1.1.1.1,
- not 1.1.1.4, and so the entire vendor history
- is duplicated in the 1.2 delta. Now, repeat this for 2000 files
- in a large directory, it adds up a lot.
-
- This is why we have such hands
- off policies for src/contrib and other things that track
- the vendor releases. This is why typo fixes in man
- pages and spelling corrections are so strongly
- discouraged for vendor code.
+ Now suppose that one of the FreeBSD committers makes a
+ one line change to this file, causing it to go to version
+ 1.2. This causes it to leave the branch, resulting in
+ 4,001 lines being added to the file's history, and 2,001
+ lines being deleted.
+
+ This is because the 1.2 delta is stored relative to
+ 1.1.1.1, not 1.1.1.4, and so the
+ entire vendor history is duplicated in the 1.2 delta.
+ Now, repeat this for 2000 files in a large directory, it
+ adds up a lot.
+
+ This is why we have such
+ hands off policies for
+ src/contrib and other things that
+ track the vendor releases. This is why typo
+ fixes in man pages and spelling
+ corrections are so strongly discouraged for
+ vendor code.