|
12 | 12 | <H1>Developer's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for |
13 | 13 | PostgreSQL</H1> |
14 | 14 |
|
15 | | -<P>Last updated:Fri Jun 9 21:54:54 EDT 2000</P> |
| 15 | +<P>Last updated:Mon Nov 26 21:36:56 EST 2001</P> |
16 | 16 |
|
| 17 | + |
17 | 18 | <P>Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (<Ahref= |
18 | 19 | "mailto:pgman@candle.pha.pa.us">pgman@candle.pha.pa.us</A>)<BR> |
19 | 20 | </P> |
@@ -53,6 +54,8 @@ <H2>Questions</H2> |
53 | 54 | <Ahref="#14">14</A>) Why don't we use threads in the backend?<BR> |
54 | 55 | <Ahref="#15">15</A>) How are RPM's packaged?<BR> |
55 | 56 | <Ahref="#16">16</A>) How are CVS branches handled?<BR> |
| 57 | +<Ahref="#17">17</A>) How do I get involved in PostgreSQL |
| 58 | + development?<BR> |
56 | 59 | <BR> |
57 | 60 |
|
58 | 61 | <HR> |
@@ -735,6 +738,74 @@ <H3><A name="16">16</A>) How are CVS branches managed?</H3> |
735 | 738 |
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736 | 739 | <P>Also, Ian Lance Taylor points out that branches and tags can be |
737 | 740 | distiguished by using "cvs status -v".</P> |
| 741 | + |
| 742 | +<H3><Aname="17">17</A>) How go I get involved in PostgreSQL |
| 743 | + development?</H3> |
| 744 | +<P>This was written by Lamar Owen:</P> |
| 745 | +<PRE> |
| 746 | +> If someone was interested in joining the development team, where would |
| 747 | +> they... |
| 748 | +> - Find a description of the open source development process used by the |
| 749 | +> PostgreSQL team. |
| 750 | + |
| 751 | +Read HACKERS for six months (or a full release cycle, whichever is longer). |
| 752 | +Really. HACKERS _is_the process. The process is not well documented (AFAIK |
| 753 | +-- it may be somewhere that I am not aware of) -- and it changes continually. |
| 754 | + |
| 755 | +> - Find the development environment (OS, system, compilers, etc) |
| 756 | +> required to develop code. |
| 757 | + |
| 758 | +Developers Corner on the website has links to this information. The |
| 759 | +distribution tarball itself includes all the extra tools and documents that |
| 760 | +go beyond a good Unix-like development environment. In general, a modern |
| 761 | +unix with a modern gcc, GNU make or equivalent, autoconf (of a particular |
| 762 | +version), and good working knowledge of those tools are required. |
| 763 | + |
| 764 | +> - Find an area or two that needs some support. |
| 765 | + |
| 766 | +The TODO list. |
| 767 | + |
| 768 | +You've made the first step, by finding and subscribing to HACKERS. Once you |
| 769 | +find an area to look at in the TODO, and have read the documentation on the |
| 770 | +internals, etc, then you check out a current CVS,write what you are going to |
| 771 | +write (keeping your CVS checkout up to date in the process), and make up a |
| 772 | +patch (as a context diff only) and send to the PATCHES list, prefereably. |
| 773 | + |
| 774 | +Discussion on the patch typically happens here. If the patch adds a major |
| 775 | +feature, it would be a good idea to talk about it first on the HACKERS list, |
| 776 | +in order to increase the chances of it being accepted, as well as toavoid |
| 777 | +duplication of effort. Note that experienced developers with a proven track |
| 778 | +record usually get the big jobs -- for more than one reason. Also note that |
| 779 | +PostgreSQL is highly portable -- nonportable code will likely be dismissed |
| 780 | +out of hand. |
| 781 | + |
| 782 | +Once your contributions get accepted, things move from there. Typically, you |
| 783 | +would be added as a developer on the list on the website when one of the |
| 784 | +other developers recommends it. Membership on the steering committee is by |
| 785 | +invitation only, by the other steering committee members, from what I have |
| 786 | +gathered watching froma distance. |
| 787 | + |
| 788 | +I make these statements from having watched the process for over two years. |
| 789 | + |
| 790 | +To see a good example of how one goes about this, search the archives for the |
| 791 | +name 'Tom Lane' and see what his first post consisted of, and where he took |
| 792 | +things. In particular, note that this hasn't been _that_ long ago -- and his |
| 793 | +bugfixing and general deep knowledge with this codebase is legendary. Take a |
| 794 | +few days to read after him. And pay special attention to both the sheer |
| 795 | +quantity as well as the painstaking quality of his work. Both are in high |
| 796 | +demand. |
| 797 | + |
| 798 | +Hope that helps! |
| 799 | +-- |
| 800 | +Lamar Owen |
| 801 | +WGCR Internet Radio |
| 802 | +1 Peter 4:11 |
| 803 | + |
| 804 | +---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- |
| 805 | +TIP 1: subscribe and unsubscribe commands go to majordomo@postgresql.org |
| 806 | + |
| 807 | + |
| 808 | +</PRE> |
| 809 | + |
738 | 810 | </BODY> |
739 | 811 | </HTML> |
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