Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 01:08:09 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: "Kory Hamzeh" <kory@avatar.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Contributing to FreeBSD (was: userland firewall ?) Message-ID: <15252.28617.61423.224978@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <57196262@toto.iv>
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Kory Hamzeh <kory@avatar.com> types: > > On Sun, Sep 02, 2001 at 12:12:15PM -0700, Kory Hamzeh wrote: > > If you never report these bugs, you can't reasonably expect them to > > get fixed, and so complaining about them would not be fair. > I was planning on not only reporting these problems, but I was going to come > up with patches for them and send them in to be included. I ran into these > problems in the last week or so and I've been under a deadline to get the > servers setup. I would like to contribute to the FreeBSD project. I've been > programming professionally for over 20 years, and the last 16 years have > been on BSD systems, from kernel hacking & drivers to X windows software > development (although I must say its been 10 years since I did any driver > work on BSD). > > 1. What is the easiest way to do this? I was going to dedicate one machine > for this. Now let's say I want to fix the problem to apache core dumping. Is > there an easy way to grab just the source for apache so that I can compile > it with -g and run gdb? Is there some FAQ for FBSD developers? There's a Developer's Handbook, a Porter's Handbook and some other goodies at <URL: http://www.freebsd.org/docs.html >. Unfortunately, this page is the only link to most of these things, so finding them can be a bit of a pain. The FreeBSD Handbook proper includes a chapter on how to contribute. Generally, send-pr is the right way to report bugs or enhancements. If you've actually got a patch, put [PATCH] at the beginning of the synopsis so the committers will know this is an apply & test situation, and doesn't require new code For fixes to ports, do "make -V MAINTAINER" in the port directory, and send a note to the address that drops out. Do not that just because you think something is a bug doesn't mean that everyone will. For instance, the behavior that created this thread - the default mode for ipfw being "deny all" - clearly causes problems, but it's the only correct choice from a security perspective, so it's not likely to change. > 2. Not meaning to start a Linux vs. FreeBSD war, but why is the Linux > install base growing so much faster than FreeBSD, when in my opinion (and > many others I have spoken to), FreeBSD seems to be a faster, more stable OS? I'd cite two causes, but others will certainly disagree. First, the AT&T lawsuit that could potentially have prevented BSD from becoming an open source system, which slowed the initial acceptance of BSD. Second, that Linux has many different distributions, meaning that you can probably find one that is exactly what you want (I even found one that looked like a Unix system). In particular, there are lots of distributions that install a system that to me feels like Windows. That makes it a popular option on the desktop, which influences the choice on the server. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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