Thread: Oft Ask: How to contribute to PostgreSQL?
Due to a recent thread started on pgsql-hackers, I'm posting this to the lists. Vince is planning on putting in appropriate links for some of this, and, Bruce, can we maybe put it into the FAQ? I'm not an English major, so this is more techinese then anything else...or, a rambling of an un-ordered mind, however you want to classify it :) ============ There are several ways that people can contribute to the PostgreSQL project, and, below, I'm going to try and list them... 1. Code. We have a TODO list available at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/todo.html, which lists enhancements that have been picked out as needed. Some of them take time to learn the intricacies of the code, some require no more then time. Contributing code, altho not the only way to contribute, is always one of the more valuable ways of improving any Open Source Project. 2. Web Site. http://www.postgresql.org is mirrored on many sites around the world, as is ftp://ftp.postgresql.org. By increasing the number of mirrors available around the world, you help reduce the load on any one site, as well as improve the accessibility to the code. If you have the resources to provide a mirror, both hardware and bandwidth, this is another means of contributing to the project. All our mirrors are required to use rsync, in order to be listed, with details on this found at http://www.postgresql.org/howtomirror.html 3. Mailing Lists. We use software that allows us to use remote sites for 'mail relaying'. Basically, instead of our central server having to service *all* remote addresses, it offloads email onto remote servers to do the distribution. For intance, by dumping all email destined for a subscribers in France to a server residing in France, the central server has to send one email mesage "Across the pond", and let the server in France handle the other servers. If you are interested in providing a relay point, email scrappy@hub.org (me) for details on how to get setup for this. 4. Financial. In June of 1999, PostgreSQL, Inc was formed as the "Commercial Arm" of the PostgreSQL Project. Although it was originally formed to provide Commercial Support for PostgreSQL, it has expanded to include Consulting services, PostgreSQL Merchandise (ElephantWear) and, most recently, Database Hosting services. As our mission statement (http://www.pgsql.com/mission.html) states, our purpose (among several) is to provide funding for various project, whether they be Advertising or Programming. Although not currently available, but will be when the new site is up, there will be a set of pages off of http://www.pgsql.com that will provide a cleaner means of contribute financially towards having features implemented, as well as showing funds available for various projects. For instance, 25% of the revenue from Support Contracts will be ear-marked for stuff like Advertising and a General Pool that we can use to fund projects that we feel is important from a "commercial deployment" standpoint. Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy Systems Administrator @ hub.org primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
hi, Is PG done in C or C++? -- ............. ......... Jason C. Leach ...... University College of the Cariboo ... jcl@mail.ocis.net. .. http://www.ocis.net/~jcl . Debian!Linux!
On Sun, 5 Dec 1999, Jason C. Leach wrote:
> hi,
>
> Is PG done in C or C++?
C
Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy
Systems Administrator @ hub.org
primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
At 08:56 PM 05-12-1999 -0400, The Hermit Hacker wrote: > pages off of http://www.pgsql.com that will provide a cleaner means of > contribute financially towards having features implemented, as well as How about a website where the public can stick in their credit card number and donate directly to 1) Postgres Inc/Org (which then could pay out "salaries") 2) A particular Postgres project (if necessary). 3) A particular developer (if it won't be detrimental to team spirit). And everyone knows how much is going where- logs of total donations, donations per month, per project etc. Developers could even donate to each other if they feel that someone is not being compensated enough for whatever reason (not enough visibility). Could also have a Thank you page for things like "Keep up the good work", "Mucho gracias!", etc (criticism and bug reports should be kept to mailing lists). I suggested something like this to GNU org some time back, dunno if they like it at all. Open Destination Donation for Open Source Software. The main problem is getting the money into bank accounts. But I figure Postgres Inc could accept the donations, handle the financial details (card problems etc), and then distribute money/thanks to the projects/developers accordingly, via cheques, money orders or whatever. Good idea? Link.
I'm glad we are all thinking alike :) 1. don't like that one...that's what we do the support contracts, consulting and database hosting for...and the merchandise. the merchandise has the added benefit of providing advertising for the project too, so everyone wins. we are looking into expanding the product line also, currently talking with our supplier on this... IMHO, I'd rather have ppl sign up for support contracts and use them, then just having "donations" flow in...its what we formed PostgreSQL, Inc to do... 2. see http://www.pgsql.com/features ... its a start, we will expand on it over the next few days, add a cgi backend, etc etc... 3. I feel that this one ties directly into 2...pick a feature taht that developer has taken on according to the TODO list... On Tue, 7 Dec 1999, Lincoln Yeoh wrote: > At 08:56 PM 05-12-1999 -0400, The Hermit Hacker wrote: > > pages off of http://www.pgsql.com that will provide a cleaner means of > > contribute financially towards having features implemented, as well as > > How about a website where the public can stick in their credit card number > and donate directly to > 1) Postgres Inc/Org (which then could pay out "salaries") > 2) A particular Postgres project (if necessary). > 3) A particular developer (if it won't be detrimental to team spirit). > > And everyone knows how much is going where- logs of total donations, > donations per month, per project etc. > > Developers could even donate to each other if they feel that someone is not > being compensated enough for whatever reason (not enough visibility). > > Could also have a Thank you page for things like "Keep up the good work", > "Mucho gracias!", etc (criticism and bug reports should be kept to mailing > lists). A comments page? Lincoln Yech <lylyech@mecomb.com> says this about PostreSQL...? Doable, let me play with it... Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy Systems Administrator @ hub.org primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
At 11:12 PM 06-12-1999 -0400, The Hermit Hacker wrote: > >I'm glad we are all thinking alike :) Yep. I really would like a credit card thingy tho, coz it's more convenient than trying to do international bank transfers, money orders and all that. There's a bit of pain interfacing with the bank/card clearinghouse though. >On Tue, 7 Dec 1999, Lincoln Yeoh wrote: > >> At 08:56 PM 05-12-1999 -0400, The Hermit Hacker wrote: >> > pages off of http://www.pgsql.com that will provide a cleaner means of >> > contribute financially towards having features implemented, as well as >> >> How about a website where the public can stick in their credit card number >> and donate directly to >> 1) Postgres Inc/Org (which then could pay out "salaries") >> 2) A particular Postgres project (if necessary). >> 3) A particular developer (if it won't be detrimental to team spirit). >> >1. don't like that one...that's what we do the support contracts, OK. Was just an idea for general funding. >2. see http://www.pgsql.com/features ... its a start, we will expand on it > over the next few days, add a cgi backend, etc etc... Looks ok, heh maybe some bright spark will put a pledge for negative bucks for stuff they don't like :). I still would like support for credit card payments.. >3. I feel that this one ties directly into 2...pick a feature taht that > developer has taken on according to the TODO list... Yeah, probably better for teamwork/teamspirit.. >> Could also have a Thank you page for things like "Keep up the good work", >> "Mucho gracias!", etc (criticism and bug reports should be kept to mailing >> lists). > >A comments page? Lincoln Yech <lylyech@mecomb.com> says this about >PostreSQL...? Doable, let me play with it... More like a way of saying "Thanks" to the developers. I figure many times a sincere word of thanks/encouragement at the right moment is priceless. Problem is there could be abuses by nasty people. The comments could actually be added to your existing projects page perhaps. BTW the Postgres elephant doesn't look quite as attractive as the Linux penguin. That said, it could still make a decent stuffed toy. Give it big eyes and a PostgreSQL t-shirt around a roly-poly body. Thing is at current exchange rates, I can get cute stuffed toys for only USD2 here. USD20 is like 20 lunches... Got to save up... Cheerio, Link.
On Tue, 7 Dec 1999, Lincoln Yeoh wrote: > At 11:12 PM 06-12-1999 -0400, The Hermit Hacker wrote: > > > >I'm glad we are all thinking alike :) > > Yep. I really would like a credit card thingy tho, coz it's more > convenient than trying to do international bank transfers, money > orders and all that. > > There's a bit of pain interfacing with the bank/card clearinghouse > though. We do do credit cards...let me build the backend for that page first...it will include the ability to do credit cards. Our products page currently does handle credit cards, but i haven't had a chance to build up the cgi yet for the 'pledge' page... > >1. don't like that one...that's what we do the support contracts, > > OK. Was just an idea for general funding. There is a 'General Pool' option under the Contribute item in the products page...I'm going to end up throwing in an 'Advertising' option also, for magazine ads and such... > >2. see http://www.pgsql.com/features ... its a start, we will expand on it > > over the next few days, add a cgi backend, etc etc... > > Looks ok, heh maybe some bright spark will put a pledge for negative bucks > for stuff they don't like :). > > I still would like support for credit card payments.. Go make an order on he products page...ti will ask you for your credit card number...the pledge page will have it too...i'll try hard to get it in place tomorrow... > >> Could also have a Thank you page for things like "Keep up the good work", > >> "Mucho gracias!", etc (criticism and bug reports should be kept to mailing > >> lists). > > > >A comments page? Lincoln Yech <lylyech@mecomb.com> says this about > >PostreSQL...? Doable, let me play with it... > > More like a way of saying "Thanks" to the developers. I figure many times a > sincere word of thanks/encouragement at the right moment is priceless. > Problem is there could be abuses by nasty people. > > The comments could actually be added to your existing projects page perhaps. > > BTW the Postgres elephant doesn't look quite as attractive as the Linux > penguin. > > That said, it could still make a decent stuffed toy. Give it big eyes and a > PostgreSQL t-shirt around a roly-poly body. Jeff? :) Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy Systems Administrator @ hub.org primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
> BTW the Postgres elephant doesn't look quite as attractive as the Linux > penguin. that being said, the linun penguin isn't nearly as attractive as the freebsd deemon , but don't get us started :) > > That said, it could still make a decent stuffed toy. Give it big eyes and a > PostgreSQL t-shirt around a roly-poly body. 20usd is 30+cdn : for a stuffed toy ? we'll look into it. on a side note we are looking into cofee mugs, keychains(alredy ordered) and possibly mouse pads jeff > >
Not sure this belongs in the FAQ. Seems more of a web page thing. > > Due to a recent thread started on pgsql-hackers, I'm posting this to the > lists. Vince is planning on putting in appropriate links for some of > this, and, Bruce, can we maybe put it into the FAQ? > > I'm not an English major, so this is more techinese then anything > else...or, a rambling of an un-ordered mind, however you want to classify > it :) > > ============ > > There are several ways that people can contribute to the PostgreSQL > project, and, below, I'm going to try and list them... > > 1. Code. We have a TODO list available at > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/todo.html, which lists enhancements that > have been picked out as needed. Some of them take time to learn the > intricacies of the code, some require no more then time. Contributing > code, altho not the only way to contribute, is always one of the more > valuable ways of improving any Open Source Project. > > 2. Web Site. http://www.postgresql.org is mirrored on many sites around > the world, as is ftp://ftp.postgresql.org. By increasing the number of > mirrors available around the world, you help reduce the load on any one > site, as well as improve the accessibility to the code. If you have > the resources to provide a mirror, both hardware and bandwidth, this is > another means of contributing to the project. All our mirrors are > required to use rsync, in order to be listed, with details on this > found at http://www.postgresql.org/howtomirror.html > > 3. Mailing Lists. We use software that allows us to use remote sites for > 'mail relaying'. Basically, instead of our central server having to > service *all* remote addresses, it offloads email onto remote servers > to do the distribution. For intance, by dumping all email destined for > a subscribers in France to a server residing in France, the central > server has to send one email mesage "Across the pond", and let the > server in France handle the other servers. If you are interested in > providing a relay point, email scrappy@hub.org (me) for details on how > to get setup for this. > > 4. Financial. In June of 1999, PostgreSQL, Inc was formed as the > "Commercial Arm" of the PostgreSQL Project. Although it was originally > formed to provide Commercial Support for PostgreSQL, it has expanded to > include Consulting services, PostgreSQL Merchandise (ElephantWear) and, > most recently, Database Hosting services. > > As our mission statement (http://www.pgsql.com/mission.html) states, > our purpose (among several) is to provide funding for various project, > whether they be Advertising or Programming. Although not currently > available, but will be when the new site is up, there will be a set of > pages off of http://www.pgsql.com that will provide a cleaner means of > contribute financially towards having features implemented, as well as > showing funds available for various projects. For instance, 25% of the > revenue from Support Contracts will be ear-marked for stuff like > Advertising and a General Pool that we can use to fund projects that we > feel is important from a "commercial deployment" standpoint. > > > Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy > Systems Administrator @ hub.org > primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org > > > > > > ************ > -- Bruce Momjian | http://www.op.net/~candle pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000 + If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue + Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
On Wed, May 31, 2000 at 09:23:27PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > 3. Mailing Lists. We use software that allows us to use remote sites for
> > 'mail relaying'. Basically, instead of our central server having to
> > service *all* remote addresses, it offloads email onto remote servers
> > to do the distribution. For intance, by dumping all email destined for
> > a subscribers in France to a server residing in France, the central
> > server has to send one email mesage "Across the pond", and let the
> > server in France handle the other servers. If you are interested in
> > providing a relay point, email scrappy@hub.org (me) for details on how
> > to get setup for this.
FWIW this not as good an idea as it seems. I know of many .fr domains
that are hosted in the US. My own .ch is in St-Louis (MI), whereas some
clients' .com are hosted right here in Paris.
This setup is the reason I was unable to get {-hackers,-general} list
traffic for a week because of a faulty "relay" for my Swiss .ch domain,
which apparently refused to relay back to the US where this domain
lives.
Domains are diconnected from geography nowadays, and increasingly as
we go.
--
Louis-David Mitterrand - ldm@apartia.org - http://www.apartia.fr
I don't build computers, I'm a cooling engineer.
-- Seymour Cray, founder of Cray Inc.
Louis-David Mitterrand wrote:
> On Wed, May 31, 2000 at 09:23:27PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > > 3. Mailing Lists. We use software that allows us to use remote sites for
> > > 'mail relaying'. Basically, instead of our central server having to
> > > service *all* remote addresses, it offloads email onto remote servers
> > > to do the distribution. For intance, by dumping all email destined for
> > > a subscribers in France to a server residing in France, the central
> > > server has to send one email mesage "Across the pond", and let the
> > > server in France handle the other servers. If you are interested in
> > > providing a relay point, email scrappy@hub.org (me) for details on how
> > > to get setup for this.
> FWIW this not as good an idea as it seems. I know of many .fr domains
> that are hosted in the US. My own .ch is in St-Louis (MI), whereas some
> clients' .com are hosted right here in Paris.
.COM is not US dependant. Those servers in the USA really would be best served
in the .COM, .EDU, .NET, .ORG, .INT, or .US domain. The entire *point* of
geographically based names was to allow management the dns tree in a
geographic manner, so france could divide their own local tree as *they* chose,
and so domains which were following geographic practice would get reasonably
optimized DNS management. Servers which are *international* servers would
be best serviced if they used an international domain (all of the above
except for .us). This wasn't set up out of cultural ignorance or arrogance,
it was designed this way to facilitate management and DNS resolution.
That way, some .fr server in the us wouldn't be tying up international
lines every time a dns reload/refresh occurred, and a .us server wouldn't
be in france, doing the same thing...
Hmm...An intelligent algorythm for this mail could batch based on the
netblock of the MX, using the same logic systems as CIDR, and relay
messges into a mail relay server on that *provider* netblock, but
this might require more machines for relaying than we currently have
available, no?
> This setup is the reason I was unable to get {-hackers,-general} list
> traffic for a week because of a faulty "relay" for my Swiss .ch domain,
> which apparently refused to relay back to the US where this domain
> lives.
A faulty relay caused a mail failure. That's standard mail routing. If you
had a faulty relay for your mail delivery in the .com domain (US), which
refused to relay go to your .ch domain, it would have been a problem
as well. Might I suggest to those who are setting up the reigonal/national
relays that they use multiple MX systems, so relay failures are managed
on the fly?
> Domains are diconnected from geography nowadays, and increasingly as
> we go.
Well, those who ignore the domain name system rfc's, and choose to try
to do it their *own* way, well, I guess they will be subjecting themselves
to more problems. Some domains never *were* geographic, some have been
the same since 1994.
Please read:
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1591.txt
For a clearer understanding of proper international dns domain usage
and TLD assignment.
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1480.txt
Details how this is used in the USA, I assume the CCIT or somesuch
has similar guidelines for proper usage of .fr, and I am unaware
of the prober body to handle .ch server management.
-Ronabop
--
Brought to you from iBop the iMac, a MacOS, Win95, Win98, LinuxPPC machine,
which is currently in MacOS land. Your bopping may vary.
On Wed, 31 May 2000, Bruce Momjian wrote: > Not sure this belongs in the FAQ. Seems more of a web page thing. It's been on the website for a long time. Click on "Helping Us" from any page. Vince. > > > > > > Due to a recent thread started on pgsql-hackers, I'm posting this to the > > lists. Vince is planning on putting in appropriate links for some of > > this, and, Bruce, can we maybe put it into the FAQ? > > > > I'm not an English major, so this is more techinese then anything > > else...or, a rambling of an un-ordered mind, however you want to classify > > it :) > > > > ============ > > > > There are several ways that people can contribute to the PostgreSQL > > project, and, below, I'm going to try and list them... > > > > 1. Code. We have a TODO list available at > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/todo.html, which lists enhancements that > > have been picked out as needed. Some of them take time to learn the > > intricacies of the code, some require no more then time. Contributing > > code, altho not the only way to contribute, is always one of the more > > valuable ways of improving any Open Source Project. > > > > 2. Web Site. http://www.postgresql.org is mirrored on many sites around > > the world, as is ftp://ftp.postgresql.org. By increasing the number of > > mirrors available around the world, you help reduce the load on any one > > site, as well as improve the accessibility to the code. If you have > > the resources to provide a mirror, both hardware and bandwidth, this is > > another means of contributing to the project. All our mirrors are > > required to use rsync, in order to be listed, with details on this > > found at http://www.postgresql.org/howtomirror.html > > > > 3. Mailing Lists. We use software that allows us to use remote sites for > > 'mail relaying'. Basically, instead of our central server having to > > service *all* remote addresses, it offloads email onto remote servers > > to do the distribution. For intance, by dumping all email destined for > > a subscribers in France to a server residing in France, the central > > server has to send one email mesage "Across the pond", and let the > > server in France handle the other servers. If you are interested in > > providing a relay point, email scrappy@hub.org (me) for details on how > > to get setup for this. > > > > 4. Financial. In June of 1999, PostgreSQL, Inc was formed as the > > "Commercial Arm" of the PostgreSQL Project. Although it was originally > > formed to provide Commercial Support for PostgreSQL, it has expanded to > > include Consulting services, PostgreSQL Merchandise (ElephantWear) and, > > most recently, Database Hosting services. > > > > As our mission statement (http://www.pgsql.com/mission.html) states, > > our purpose (among several) is to provide funding for various project, > > whether they be Advertising or Programming. Although not currently > > available, but will be when the new site is up, there will be a set of > > pages off of http://www.pgsql.com that will provide a cleaner means of > > contribute financially towards having features implemented, as well as > > showing funds available for various projects. For instance, 25% of the > > revenue from Support Contracts will be ear-marked for stuff like > > Advertising and a General Pool that we can use to fund projects that we > > feel is important from a "commercial deployment" standpoint. > > > > > > Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy > > Systems Administrator @ hub.org > > primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org > > > > > > > > > > > > ************ > > > > > -- ========================================================================== Vince Vielhaber -- KA8CSH email: vev@michvhf.com http://www.pop4.net 128K ISDN from $22.00/mo - 56K Dialup from $16.00/mo at Pop4 Networking Online Campground Directory http://www.camping-usa.com Online Giftshop Superstore http://www.cloudninegifts.com ==========================================================================
On Thu, 1 Jun 2000, Louis-David Mitterrand wrote:
> On Wed, May 31, 2000 at 09:23:27PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > > 3. Mailing Lists. We use software that allows us to use remote sites for
> > > 'mail relaying'. Basically, instead of our central server having to
> > > service *all* remote addresses, it offloads email onto remote servers
> > > to do the distribution. For intance, by dumping all email destined for
> > > a subscribers in France to a server residing in France, the central
> > > server has to send one email mesage "Across the pond", and let the
> > > server in France handle the other servers. If you are interested in
> > > providing a relay point, email scrappy@hub.org (me) for details on how
> > > to get setup for this.
>
> FWIW this not as good an idea as it seems. I know of many .fr domains
> that are hosted in the US. My own .ch is in St-Louis (MI), whereas some
> clients' .com are hosted right here in Paris.
>
> This setup is the reason I was unable to get {-hackers,-general} list
> traffic for a week because of a faulty "relay" for my Swiss .ch domain,
> which apparently refused to relay back to the US where this domain
> lives.
no, actually, the problem was on my part ... the .ch domain admin had sent
me an email about changing the machine it went through and it got lost in
my mailbox ...
I'd like to add 1 1/2: Writing documentation. More, better, and clearer documentation is always welcome and takes little special skill to make. If you find that the documentation is not clear about a topic or you just figured out something that is not documented at all, please write up something and contribute it. Submissions are not required to be in DocBook format -- plain text is enough. The mailing list for documentation work is pgsql-docs@postgresql.org. Bruce Momjian writes: > > There are several ways that people can contribute to the PostgreSQL > > project, and, below, I'm going to try and list them... > > > > 1. Code. We have a TODO list available at > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/todo.html, which lists enhancements that > > have been picked out as needed. Some of them take time to learn the > > intricacies of the code, some require no more then time. Contributing > > code, altho not the only way to contribute, is always one of the more > > valuable ways of improving any Open Source Project. -- Peter Eisentraut Sernanders väg 10:115 peter_e@gmx.net 75262 Uppsala http://yi.org/peter-e/ Sweden