| Related sites for http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200301/netbsdhelp.html |
| WekaSoft_com Create CHM (Microsoft HTML help) files using a WYSWYG interface. | | Horizons_Companies Providers of website design, multimedia authoring and video, film and sound design. | | MAlib C library for Media Analysis, Motion Analizing, Movie Architecture, and Media Authoring. [Open source, LGPL] | | Effective_Computer_Solutions Specializing in NT, Novell, VAX, and AXP system installations, upgrades, and migrations. | | WPWIN-L_Archive Archive for the WordPerfect For Windows Discussion List from 1992 to the present. | | CALT_Encyclopedia A collection of resources related to the study of Virtual Communities. Approaches, technologies, and CMC. | | Capital_PC_User_Group_(CPCUG)_Home_Page Some interesting APL links here, but they have to be found. | | Freshfolder_com Searchable software directory featuring over 15,000 shareware and freeware downloads for Windows. Accepts PAD submissions from shareware authors. | | Molyuk,_Andrew_-_@ndrew\'s_Public_Pages Information on a assortment of topics of interest to author ranging from programming languages to development process management. Delphi components, including TDistractor, TVSSExplorer, TWebForm. | | FTP_site__Germany,_U_of_Magdeburg Squeak Windows Ports. | | NexGen101 Designed for low power FMs, internet radio, broadcasting schools, and public radio. | | Amulet_Project_Home_Page User interface development environment for C++ and is portable across X11 on all kinds of Unix. Create graphical, interactive user interfaces. | | Musashi Offers multiple accounts and multi-user compatibility. OS 9 and earlier only. Includes free download. | | Quitomzilla An extension that aims to help you quit cigarettes while you surf the web or wait for new email. | | Rasmussen,_Carl_Edward Gaussian processes, non-linear Bayesian inference, evaluation and comparison of network models. | | Ashworth_Consulting Web design and hosting. Located in Eureka, Missouri. | | Internovations Offering design, e-commerce development, hosting and Internet Application development. Based in California, United States. | | Project09 Featuring tutorials for Adobe Photoshop, and PHP, as well as the latest industry news. | | HiDialer_2000 Easily establish an Internet connection, by selecting it from an icon in your system tray. It can also automatically launch one, or more applications, after an Internet connection is established. [Win | | Sesame_Street_Rocks Basic banner exchange. [Ratio: 2:1 Banner Sizes: 468x60] |
|
Daemon News '200301' : '"Getting into NetBSD - How to Help"'  Daemon News EzineBSD NewsBSD MallBSD Support ForumBSD AdvocacyBSD UpdatesGetting into NetBSD - How to HelpJason R Fink <jrf@adresearch.com>AbstractThis article discusses the different groups within the NetBSD Project and thevariety of ways virtually any user can help the project.Some of the material for this paper is taken from theNetBSD website. There is a list ofreference URLs at the bottom of this page.What Is A Developer/Hacker?When most people who use the NetBSD (or any BSD) system think of a"hacker" or developer, the first thing that comes to mind are kerneldevelopers. While kernel development is a very important part of the NetBSDsystem, the project as a whole relies on an infrastructure of groups to operate.NetBSD Work Areas (or Groups/Teams)There are many work areas within NetBSD. The following is a quick list of the ones that I know of: Accounts & Admin Announce Documentation (Not an Official Group) Kernel Programmers (Not an Official Group) Packages Release Engineering Security & The Security Officers System & Utilities Programmers (Not an Official Group) WWW & MirrorsThats a lot isn't it? Amazingly, some people even take on additional tasks ofbeing in the NetBSD Core Group and/or a member of the NetBSD FoundationBoard. The Core Group is an invite only group; their job is to help with thetechnical direction of the project while the Foundation manages the project as awhole. Now for a look at each "subgroup" and why they are important.Many readers may think, "well, I know the importance of each one" butin fact, one may not realize just how much work is involved in each group.Accounts and AdminThis particular group of Developers is important because it is their job to makesure the project machines run and account issues are solved. One may think that with an Open Source project, this job would not be too hard. Guess again. Thisgroup gets subjected to CVS problems, server moves, solving network issues, andoften works with the mirrors group to resolve mirroring issues. I am sure theydo a lot more. Anyone who has been a System Administrator knows the difficultiesof the job when they are paid for it - doing it voluntarily takes a toughcookie. It also requires experience. For example, even though I have beenmanaging systems for over ten years, I would not qualify because of my lackof experience with administering NetBSD (only a few years now), and I am not as experienced with a lot of the software that project uses as the current admins are.AnnounceThe public announce group has the tricky job of making public statements. I donot know how many people have done this for a project, but it is a lot harderthan one would think. I have worked on public statement reviews and take my wordfor it, it is a pain. It is not just, say, writing a quick HOWTO where if youmake a mistake - oh well, just fix it. In public statements you are saying"This is really really a big deal" and so the implication is "thewording and facts have to be perfect". This extra emphasis is true in anyorganization. Many companies make statements about products, how things aredoing, and other news items off the cuff all of the time; however, when theymake Public Announcements - well those are a completely different matter.Announcements also sometimes cross into the www group to be put up as newsitems, or sometimes the www group initiates Announcements.Documentation (not officially listed)The docs group works on system documentation (correcting man pages, on systemdocumentation etc.) and many also work in the www group. There is also a"subgroup" that corrects comments in source code - these are mostlygrammar errors and technical corrections as code is changed. The importance ofthis group is pretty obvious: the correctness and readability of manual pages isincredibly important to users. Proper grammar, especially in some of the veryheavily commented code, can make the difference between understanding what isgoing on and being completely lost.Kernel Programmers (not officially listed)The kernel programmers have an important job, of course. They fix bugs, makeimprovements to, and enhance the NetBSD Kernel. Many kernel programmers, infact, work in other groups. For example, if a kernel developer makes a changethat affects a utility then they normally just go ahead and make the change tothe utility as well. They often make first drafts of announcements concerningmajor changes and many help with documentation. System & Utilities ProgrammersThis group works on everything outside of the Kernel. Again, many of the folksin this group work with the kernel, do documentation or work in some other groupinside the project. This group has to face a lot of tough work since there areso many different parts of the NetBSD system to deal with. There is everythingfrom handling bugs in /bin to mdoc issues. Actually, for novice programmers,this is a good area to get into by browsing the PR database. I guarantee that onewill eventually find something to work on or at least test. This group also hasto work hard around release time to make sure "all of the parts are inworking order".PackagesThe third party package system is handled by a group of developers who importnew packages, upgrade current ones, remove or mark broken packages, andconstantly strive to make the pkgsrc system work better. While NetBSD alone cando a great deal of work, there is no doubt as to the importance of the pkgsrcsystem. Without the NetBSD package system, the work of adding third partyapplications would be quite difficult. The package team even goes as far aspatching third party source (when it can) to make sure it runs correctly and isconfigured to run out of /usr/pkg. Not unlike Kernel and System programmers, thepackage team is always working, always handling problem reports, and alwaysadding/removing packages.Release EngineeringThe release engineering (or releng) group is responsible for creating releases,managing release policy, and "pulling up" any changes into a release.Although I do not know much about this particular job, I have certainly heard itis tough. Not only does this group handle releases, they also teamed up with theAdmin group to create build machines where periodic snapshots of -current can befound. Now, that has to be a tough job. Anyone who has tracked -current can justimagine how tough troubleshooting builds can be - all of the time! Part of therelease engineering process many people never think about is getting volunteersto do builds and help shakeout problems before a release. Testing releases takesup a great deal of time and requires an immense amount of patience.Security & Security OfficersThe security group (in general) has to handle all security issues that arise onthe NetBSD system. This means monitoring other general security lists, writingup Security Announcements, and testing/implementing security patches. TheSecurity Announcements themselves are quite challenging to write. Theannouncement must be somewhat terse, completely technically correct, and provideadequate documentation on how to fix the issue. Almost every time anannouncement comes out, typically, the administrator just rebuilds and reinstallsthe affected software. The announcement is required to show these steps foreach covered release plus -current.WWW & Mirrors Group(s)This group has the arduous task of maintaining the NetBSD.org website andkeeping Mirror information up to date. The www group also has a lot of back-endprograms in a few different languages that they use to make the site work. Lastbut not least, the htdocs system uses a make+perl system (to make list orientedpages) for most of the site. In a nutshell, the htdocs group has a lot of workon their hands. They also have a volunteer rotation who handles questions sentto NetBSD.org. Someone who joins the www group can quickly find themselves kneedeep in work. When I joined I was (still am) part of www and the documentationgroups. I was very surprised just how much my workload increased.Translation GroupThe translation group is sort of a subgroup of the www group. These stalwartfolks translate the website and the NetBSD Guide into a variety of differentlanguages. This helps the NetBSD system reach more and more users - literally -everyday.Helping the ProjectNow that all of the groups (both official and unofficial) have been discussed,it is time to look at how anyone can help. In a nutshell, there are actuallygroups one can make direct contributions to with diffs of source code ordocumentation. In addition to direct contributions, there are several other waysvirtually anyone can help the project out, many of which do not require too muchwork.Contributions to Specific GroupsContributions to groups come in several forms: Code fixes in kernel and the system Documentation enhancements/corrections on the site and the system Adding new packages, reporting and fixing problems with currently supported packagesThe one common thread here is to make sure you send the fix, enhancement ordocumentation to the correct group. The easiest way to make sure yourcontribution is correctly routed is to use the send-pr utility or the onlinesend-pr form.Other ContributionsOutside of sending code fixes, package work, and documentation fixes, there area number of other ways anyone can help the NetBSD Project.MoneyMoney always helps. Even the most insignificant amount may be enough for theproject to purchase new test hardware, acquire documentation, or add newmachines to the project.TestingTesting -current, kernels, and developer test patches can help out a lot. Justsending feedback that is nothing more than "it works great on mysystem" tells the developer that their code works. Tracking -current orjust testing snapshots can go a long way in letting the project know where theystand with the system, especially close to release time.Public Relations HelpOne way anyone can help the project out that many people do not think about isPublic Relations. Surprisingly, the Public Relations area has a wide array ofthings people can do to help the project get more attention. Following is just aquick list of ideas I tossed together, I am sure there are more: Spread the word by mouth (definitely the cheapest way) If you are good with art, make logos, posters, and other promotional art (and let the project know!) Offer to help at events at the booth and other logistical chores associated with events Write articles and papers that explain the usefulness of NetBSD at your site Write articles and papers about the systemOther DonationsWhen people ask for drivers, it is difficult to write them when the developersdo not have the hardware readily available. If possible, consider sendinghardware to the project to have a driver written for it.Use the SystemLast but not least, just using NetBSD helps out. In its own way it speaks foritself.SummaryThe NetBSD Project is organized into several very focused groups. Anyone cancontribute to most of the groups directly and do a great deal more to helpadvance the project.Reference URLsThe following is a list of URLs at the NetBSD website(http://www.netbsd.org/) that are relatedto sections of this document: The main page for making contributions to NetBSD: http://www.netbsd.org/contrib/ The main page for NetBSD's Problem Reports database: http://www.netbsd.org/Misc/send-pr.html Groups within the NetBSD Project: http://www.netbsd.org/People/groups/  Webdaemonnews.org  More ArticlesInterview with Jan SchaumannInterview with Theo de RaadtBook Review: Virtualization with VMware ESX ServerEditorial: Not Quite Dead YetThe Design of OpenBGPdInterview with der MouseLetter to Steve JobsInterview with Manuel Bouyer on XenApple and Open SourceBSDCan 2006BSD Certification Survey ResultsLab in a BoxIke Notes on BSDCan 2005BSDCan 2005 PhotosFreeBSD Developer Summit Pictures Advertisements Author maintains all copyrights on this article.Images and layout Copyright © 1998-2006 Dæmon News. All Rights Reserved._uacct = "UA-253675-1";urchinTracker(); |
|
