Quoting Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org> (from Mon, 24 Sep 2007 =20
10:10:29 -0700):

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> Julian Elischer wrote:
>> Sanket Somnath Hase wrote:
>>> Hi Matt ,
>>> We are graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University. We are enrolled =
in
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>>> a course (Operating systems practicum http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~412/ ) whic=
h
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>>> involves hands-on experience with operating-system code as it is develop=
ed
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>>> and deployed in the real world. Murray Stokley referred us to you.
>>>
>>> We were thinking of contibuting to FreeBSD.We read through the  =20
>>> description of your project "Rewrite the in-kernel file system  =20
>>> syncer" and found it interesting.Could you let us know the status  =20
>>> of this project? It will be great if you could mention some  =20
>>> related readings.
>>>   We have already taken an operating system design and implementation cl=
ass
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>>> (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~410/ ) before where we developed a UNIX like
>>> kernel from scratch. We have fair experience in reading-coding-debugging
>>> kernel code. All three of us interned at core systems group at companies
>>> like Google and Oracle in the past summer.
>>>   Our team can invest 30 hours per week, for a period of 12 weeks of thi=
s
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>>> Fall semester. We are wondering if we can contribute to FreeBSD.
>>> It will be great if you could give us some pointers towards such work.
>>>   Looking forward to hear from you,
>>
>> Now that you have introduced yourself (step 1) that leaves only
>> the following steps.
>>
>> 2/ look at the source to decide what is currently done.
>>
>> 3/ find who works in that area (use the CVS logs from the CVS web  =20
>> interface) to
>> see who's been active in that area and try contact them to  =20
>> co-ordinate. (if no one answers that means you can proceed).
>
> step 4 became part of 3.. I forgot to renumber the later steps :-)

AFAIK nobody works on the syncer. And nobody contacted me so far to =20
ask about this entry on the ideas list. As I get several requests for =20
other entries from time to time (without that someone produces =20
something) I conclude (based upon my experience with the ideas list):
  - most people think this entry is too advanced for them
  - nobody is looking into it

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>> 5/ discuss your changes and keep us up to date in arch@freebsd.org  =20
>> for initial discussions on ideas and current@freebsd.org when you  =20
>> are implementing and need
>> to discuss things with people.

I would add: if there are parts which are too advanced for you, just =20
ask on the lists. There are people out there which may be able to =20
help. Don't be afraid if something looks too big. If you go closer =20
there are always things you can do yourself, and if not... just ask on =20
the lists (arch@/current@).

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>> 6/ announce calls for testers and code drops when you are near completion=
.
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>>
>> 7/ take a vacation.
>>
>> Except for politeness (not stepping on other people's work) you don't nee=
d
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>> to ask permission to do any work on this or any FreeBSD component.
>>
>> If the work is good and well documented, and passes a good review, it wil=
l
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>> be accepted back.

And to make it good and accepted, a good thing to do is to keep the =20
people up to date. Provide access to your work (e.g. posting links to =20
patches) and discuss various things on the lists. There are also =20
people which are willing to test changes (warn them if the changes are =20
in areas where a bug may result in data-loss), and there are always =20
edge-cases which you don't find yourself but broad testing will =20
reveal. Use the possibilities the lists provide (testers, reviews, =20
opinions) and you are on a good way to get an useful end-result.

Bye,
Alexander.

--=20
I can't decide which WRONG TURN to make first!!  I wonder if BOB
GUCCIONE has these problems!

http://www.Leidinger.net    Alexander @ Leidinger.net: PGP ID =3D B0063FE7
http://www.FreeBSD.org       netchild @ FreeBSD.org  : PGP ID =3D 72077137
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