Re: Joining the team - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Friday 22 June 2001 11:55, P. Dwayne Miller wrote:
> If someone was interested in joining the development team, where would
> they...
> -  Find a description of the open source development process used by the
> PostgreSQL team.

Read HACKERS for six months (or a full release cycle, whichever is longer).  
Really.  HACKERS _is_the process.  The process is not well documented (AFAIK 
-- it may be somewhere that I am not aware of) -- and it changes continually.

> -  Find the development environment (OS, system, compilers, etc)
> required to develop code.

Developers Corner on the website has links to this information.  The 
distribution tarball itself includes all the extra tools and documents that 
go beyond a good Unix-like development environment.  In general, a modern 
unix with a modern gcc, GNU make or equivalent, autoconf (of a particular 
version), and good working knowledge of those tools are required.

> -  Find an area or two that needs some support.

The TODO list.

You've made the first step, by finding and subscribing to HACKERS.  Once you 
find an area to look at in the TODO, and have read the documentation on the 
internals, etc, then you check out a current CVS,write what you are going to 
write (keeping your CVS checkout up to date in the process), and make up a 
patch (as a context diff only) and send to the PATCHES list, prefereably.  

Discussion on the patch typically happens here.  If the patch adds a major 
feature, it would be a good idea to talk about it first on the HACKERS list, 
in order to increase the chances of it being accepted, as well as toavoid 
duplication of effort.  Note that experienced developers with a proven track 
record usually get the big jobs -- for more than one reason.  Also note that 
PostgreSQL is highly portable -- nonportable code will likely be dismissed 
out of  hand. 

Once your contributions get accepted, things move from there. Typically, you 
would be added as a developer on the list on the website when one of the 
other developers recommends it.  Membership on the steering committee is by 
invitation only, by the other steering committee members, from what I have 
gathered watching froma distance.

I make these statements from having watched the process for over two years.

To see a good example of how one goes about this, search the archives for the 
name 'Tom Lane' and see what his first post consisted of, and where he took 
things.  In particular, note that this hasn't been _that_ long ago -- and his 
bugfixing and general deep knowledge with this codebase is legendary.  Take a 
few days to read after him.  And pay special attention to both the sheer 
quantity as well as the painstaking quality of his work.  Both are in high 
demand.

Hope that helps!
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11