Re: Contributing to a linux distribution
- From: Roger Leigh <${rleigh}@invalid.whinlatter.ukfsn.org.invalid>
- Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 13:36:05 +0000
Anthony Irwin <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
I am wanting to start getting involved with a linux distribution as a
contributor. I have been using linux as a user for almost 7 years now
and although I have compiled quite a few programs I have not tried
building my own packages into rpms or debs or make man pages and stuff
like that.
That sort of stuff is a prerequisite for getting involved as a
packager. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources for learning the
ropes. Since I'm a Debian developer, these examples are for Debian:
http://www.debian.org/doc/maint-guide/
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/
are required reading, Policy in particular. More material is
available here:
http://www.debian.org/devel/
To get started and learn how packaging works, just pick a package you
previously built from source and package it up. Then look into
lintian/linda to check it for Policy compliance.
Regarding manual pages, these are in a fairly simple markup. See
groff_man(7), and look at other people's manual pages for examples of
how to use the syntax. It's pretty easy stuff. For even more
control, you also have access to all the lower level troff
functionality; see groff(7).
I am thinking that it would be good to start as a package maintainer
and building new releases of software written by other people and
applying security patches and stuff like that.
That's one way. The other is to package software you have written
yourself.
I was wondering what the best distribution for this would be.
The one that you use daily for all your work would be the best choice.
After all, if you aren't using what you are packaging and maintaining,
you'll not be finding and fixing problems in your package as easily.
That's why the systems I use primarily run Debian unstable, as do most
Debian developers; this means bugs get found and fixed fast, which
doesn't happen if you are using e.g. the stable release.
Is there any distributions that are better then others for bringing
in new people and sort of mentoring them into improving their
skills.
Debian has a debian-mentors mailing list (and IRC channel on OFTC) for
asking packaging questions. The tools are also extensively
documented, and you can of course download any source package to see
how it was packaged.
I was thinking that maybe debian would be a good choice as they are
well established and seem to have lots of procedures in place.
I guess you will want some background in what I have done. Well I have
used gentoo, debian, ubuntu and fedora as distributions on my home pc
and use fedora on my work pc. I have also built a linux from scratch
system on a number of occasions.
Distribution maintenance isn't particularly hard once you know the
tools, but it does require long term commitment and good communication
skills. Remember that you need to coordinate your work with many
other developers and correspond with users (bug reports, help
requests, etc.).
Debian has a new maintainer process to join the project,
http://www.debian.org/devel/join/
however, you do need to have gained packaging experience prior to
starting the process; that's what the mentors list and sponsored
uploads will do for you.
I guess I am wanting to get involved with a distro and eventually
start writing my own bug fixes and software to contribute to the free
software community and figured that while I start learning C properly
I can start learning how to package existing programs and start
contributing back to the community sooner rather then later.
If anyone can point me in the right direction or give personal
experiences on the best ways to get involved then it would be good to
hear it.
Programming in a language like C and package maintenance are two
separate skills. However, if you maintain a package written in C,
then you will need to know C to be capable of maintaining it properly.
Likewise you need to know C++ and Perl to maintain packages written in
C++ and Perl, respectively, which is kind of obvious. So you will
need both the packaging skills, and the skills to maintain what you
are packaging.
Regards,
Roger
--
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