Committer's Guide

1 Administrative Details

It is required that you use ssh(1) or telnet(1) with Kerberos 5 to connect to the project hosts. For ssh(1) only protocol 2 is allowed. These are generally more secure than plain telnet(1) or rlogin(1) since credential negotiation will always be encrypted. All traffic is encrypted by default with ssh(1). With utilities like ssh-agent(1) and scp(1) also available, ssh(1) is also far more convenient. If you do not know anything about ssh(1), please see Section 9.

2 Commit Bit Types

The FreeBSD CVS repository has a number of components which, when combined, support the basic operating system source, documentation, third party application ports infrastructure, and various maintained utilities. When FreeBSD commit bits are allocated, the areas of the tree where the bit may be used are specified. Generally, the areas associated with a bit reflect who authorized the allocation of the commit bit. Additional areas of authority may be added at a later date: when this occurs, the committer should follow normal commit bit allocation procedures for that area of the tree, seeking approval from the appropriate entity and possibly getting a mentor for that area for some period of time.

Commit bits allocated prior to the development of the notion of areas of authority may be appropriate for use in many parts of the tree. However, common sense dictates that a committer who has not previously worked in an area of the tree seek review prior to committing, seek approval from the appropriate responsible party, and/or work with a mentor. Since the rules regarding code maintenance differ by area of the tree, this is as much for the benefit of the committer working in an area of less familiarity as it is for others working on the tree.

Committers are encouraged to seek review for their work as part of the normal development process, regardless of the area of the tree where the work is occurring.

3 CVS Operations

It is assumed that you are already familiar with the basic operation of CVS.

The CVS Repository Meisters <cvsadm@FreeBSD.org> are the ``owners'' of the CVS repository and are responsible for direct modification of it for the purposes of cleanup or fixing some grievous abuse of CVS by a committer. Should you cause some repository accident, say a bad cvs import or cvs tag operation, mail the responsible part of CVS Repository Meisters <cvsadm@FreeBSD.org>, as stated in the table below, (or call one of them) and report the problem. For very important issues affecting the entire CVS tree--not just a specific area--you can contact the CVS Repository Meisters <cvsadm@FreeBSD.org>. Please do not contact the CVS Repository Meisters <cvsadm@FreeBSD.org> for repocopies or other things that the more specific teams can handle.

The only ones able to directly fiddle the repository bits on the repository hosts are the repomeisters. To enforce this, there are no login shells available on the repository machines, except to the repomeisters.

The CVS tree is currently split into four distinct repositories, namely doc, ports, projects and src. These are combined under a single CVSROOT when distributed via CVSup for the convenience of our users.

The CVS repositories are hosted on the repository machines. Currently, each of the repositories above reside on the same physical machine, ncvs.FreeBSD.org, but to allow for the possibility of placing each on a separate machine in the future, there is a separate hostname for each that committers should use. Additionally, each repository is stored in a separate directory. The following table summarizes the situation.

CVS operations are done remotely by setting the CVSROOT environment variable to the appropriate host and top-level directory (for example, ncvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/ncvs), the CVS_RSH variable to ssh, and then doing the appropriate check-out/check-in operations. Many committers define aliases which expand to the correct cvs invocation for the appropriate repository. For example, a tcsh(1) user may add the following to their .cshrc for this purpose:

alias dcvs env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d user@dcvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/dcvs
alias pcvs env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d user@pcvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/pcvs
alias projcvs env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d user@projcvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/projcvs
alias scvs env CVS_RSH=ssh cvs -d user@ncvs.FreeBSD.org:/home/ncvs

This way they can do all CVS operations locally and use Xcvs commit for committing to the official CVS tree. If you wish to add something which is wholly new (like contrib-ified sources, etc), cvs import should be used. Refer to the cvs(1) manual page for usage.

If you need to use CVS add and delete operations in a manner that is effectively a mv(1) operation, then a repository copy is in order rather than using CVS add and delete. In a repository copy, a CVS Meister will copy the file(s) to their new name and/or location and let you know when it is done. The purpose of a repository copy is to preserve file change history, or logs. We in the FreeBSD Project greatly value the change history that CVS gives to the project.

CVS reference information, tutorials, and FAQs can be found at: http://www.cvshome.org/docs/. The information in Karl Fogel's chapters from ``Open Source Development with CVS'' is also very useful.

Dag-Erling C. Smørgrav <des@FreeBSD.org> also supplied the following ``mini primer'' for CVS.

1. Check out a module with the co or checkout command.

   % cvs checkout shazam
   

   This checks out a copy of the shazam module. If there is no shazam module in the modules file, it looks for a top-level directory named shazam instead.

   Table 2. Useful cvs checkout options

   -P	Do not create empty directories
   -l	Check out a single level, no subdirectories
   -rrev	Check out revision, branch or tag rev
   -Ddate	Check out the sources as they were on date date

   Practical FreeBSD examples:

   • Check out the miscfs module, which corresponds to src/sys/miscfs:

     % cvs co miscfs
     

     You now have a directory named miscfs with subdirectories CVS, deadfs, devfs, and so on. One of these (linprocfs) is empty.

   • Check out the same files, but with full path:

     % cvs co src/sys/miscfs
     

     You now have a directory named src, with subdirectories CVS and sys. The src/sys directory has subdirectories CVS and miscfs, etc.

   • Check out the same files, but prunes empty directories:

     % cvs co -P miscfs
     

     You now have a directory named miscfs with subdirectories CVS, deadfs, devfs... but note that there is no linprocfs subdirectory, because there are no files in it.

   • Check out the directory miscfs, but none of the subdirectories:

     % cvs co -l miscfs
     

     You now have a directory named miscfs with just one subdirectory named CVS.

   • Check out the miscfs module as it is in the 4.X branch:

     % cvs co -rRELENG_4 miscfs
     

     You can modify the sources and commit along this branch.

   • Check out the miscfs module as it was in 3.4-RELEASE.

     % cvs co -rRELENG_3_4_0_RELEASE miscfs
     

     You will not be able to commit modifications, since RELENG_3_4_0_RELEASE is a point in time, not a branch.

   • Check out the miscfs module as it was on Jan 15 2000.

     % cvs co -D'01/15/2000' miscfs
     

     You will not be able to commit modifications.

   • Check out the miscfs module as it was one week ago.

     % cvs co -D'last week' miscfs
     

     You will not be able to commit modifications.

   Note that cvs stores metadata in subdirectories named CVS.

   Arguments to -D and -r are sticky, which means cvs will remember them later, e.g. when you do a cvs update.

2. Check the status of checked-out files with the status command.

   % cvs status shazam
   

   This displays the status of the file shazam or of every file in the shazam directory. For every file, the status is given as one of:

   Up-to-date	File is up-to-date and unmodified.
   Needs Patch	File is unmodified, but there is a newer revision in the repository.
   Locally Modified	File is up-to-date, but modified.
   Needs Merge	File is modified, and there is a newer revision in the repository.
   File had conflicts on merge	There were conflicts the last time this file was updated, and they have not been resolved yet.

   You will also see the local revision and date, the revision number of the newest applicable version (``newest applicable'' because if you have a sticky date, tag or branch, it may not be the actual newest revision), and any sticky tags, dates or options.

3. Once you have checked something out, you can update it with the update command.

   % cvs update shazam
   

   This updates the file shazam or the contents of the shazam directory to the latest version along the branch you checked out. If you checked out a ``point in time'', does nothing unless the tags have moved in the repository or some other weird stuff is going on.

   Useful options, in addition to those listed above for checkout:

   -d	Check out any additional missing directories.
   -A	Update to head of main branch.
   -jrev	More magic (see below).

   If you checked out a module with -r or -D, running cvs update with a different -r or -D argument or with -A will select a new branch, revision or date. The -A option clears all sticky tags, dates or revisions whereas -r and -D set new ones.

   Theoretically, specifying HEAD as the argument to -r will give you the same result as -A, but that is just theory.

   The -d option is useful if:

   • somebody has added subdirectories to the module you have checked out after you checked it out.

   • you checked out with -l, and later change your mind and want to check out the subdirectories as well.

   • you deleted some subdirectories and want to check them all back out.

   Watch the output of the cvs update with care. The letter in front of each filename indicates what was done with it:

   U	The file was updated without trouble.
   P	The file was updated without trouble (you will only see this when working against a remote repository).
   M	The file had been modified, and was merged without conflicts.
   C	The file had been modified, and was merged with conflicts.

   Merging is what happens if you check out a copy of some source code, modify it, then someone else commits a change, and you run cvs update. CVS notices that you have made local changes, and tries to merge your changes with the changes between the version you originally checked out and the one you updated to. If the changes are to separate portions of the file, it will almost always work fine (though the result might not be syntactically or semantically correct).

   CVS will print an M in front of every locally modified file even if there is no newer version in the repository, so cvs update is handy for getting a summary of what you have changed locally.

   If you get a C, then your changes conflicted with the changes in the repository (the changes were to the same lines, or neighboring lines, or you changed the local file so much that cvs can not figure out how to apply the repository's changes). You will have to go through the file manually and resolve the conflicts; they will be marked with rows of <, = and > signs. For every conflict, there will be a marker line with seven < signs and the name of the file, followed by a chunk of what your local file contained, followed by a separator line with seven = signs, followed by the corresponding chunk in the repository version, followed by a marker line with seven > signs and the revision number you updated to.

   The -j option is slightly voodoo. It updates the local file to the specified revision as if you used -r, but it does not change the recorded revision number or branch of the local file. It is not really useful except when used twice, in which case it will merge the changes between the two specified versions into the working copy.

   For instance, say you commit a change to shazam/shazam.c in FreeBSD-CURRENT and later want to MFC it. The change you want to MFC was revision 1.15:

   • Check out the FreeBSD-STABLE version of the shazam module:

     % cvs co -rRELENG_5 shazam
     

   • Apply the changes between rev 1.14 and 1.15:

     % cvs update -j1.14 -j1.15 shazam/shazam.c
     

   You will almost certainly get a conflict because of the $Id$ (or in FreeBSD's case, $FreeBSD$) lines, so you will have to edit the file to resolve the conflict (remove the marker lines and the second $Id$ line, leaving the original $Id$ line intact).

4. View differences between the local version and the repository version with the diff command.

   % cvs diff shazam
   

   shows you every modification you have made to the shazam file or module.

   Table 3. Useful cvs diff options

   -u	Uses the unified diff format.
   -c	Uses the context diff format.
   -N	Shows missing or added files.

   You always want to use -u, since unified diffs are much easier to read than almost any other diff format (in some circumstances, context diffs generated with the -c option may be better, but they are much bulkier). A unified diff consists of a series of hunks. Each hunk begins with a line that starts with two @ signs and specifies where in the file the differences are and how many lines they span. This is followed by a number of lines; some (preceded by a blank) are context; some (preceded by a - sign) are outtakes and some (preceded by a +) are additions.

   You can also diff against a different version than the one you checked out by specifying a version with -r or -D as in checkout or update, or even view the diffs between two arbitrary versions (without regard for what you have locally) by specifying two versions with -r or -D.

5. View log entries with the log command.

   % cvs log shazam
   

   If shazam is a file, this will print a header with information about this file, such as where in the repository this file is stored, which revision is the HEAD for this file, what branches this file is in, and any tags that are valid for this file. Then, for each revision of this file, a log message is printed. This includes the date and time of the commit, who did the commit, how many lines were added and/or deleted, and finally the log message that the committer who did the change wrote.

   If shazam is a directory, then the log information described above is printed for each file in the directory in turn. Unless you give the -l to log, the log for all subdirectories of shazam is printed too, in a recursive manner.

   Use the log command to view the history of one or more files, as it is stored in the CVS repository. You can even use it to view the log message of a specific revision, if you add the -rrev to the log command:

   % cvs log -r1.2 shazam
   

   This will print only the log message for revision 1.2 of file shazam if it is a file, or the log message for revision 1.2 of each file under shazam if it is a directory.

6. See who did what with the annotate command. This command shows you each line of the specified file or files, along with which user most recently changed that line.

   % cvs annotate shazam
   

7. Add new files with the add command.

   Create the file, cvs add it, then cvs commit it.

   Similarly, you can add new directories by creating them and then cvs adding them. Note that you do not need to commit directories.

8. Remove obsolete files with the remove command.

   Remove the file, then cvs rm it, then cvs commit it.

9. Commit with the commit or checkin command.

   Table 4. Useful cvs commit options

   -f	Force a commit of an unmodified file.
   -mmsg	Specify a commit message on the command line rather than invoking an editor.

   Use the -f option if you realize that you left out important information from the commit message.

   Good commit messages are important. They tell others why you did the changes you did, not just right here and now, but months or years from now when someone wonders why some seemingly illogical or inefficient piece of code snuck into your source file. It is also an invaluable aid to deciding which changes to MFC and which not to MFC.

   Commit messages should be clear, concise and provide a reasonable summary to give an indication of what was changed and why.

   Commit messages should provide enough information to enable a third party to decide if the change is relevant to them and if they need to read the change itself.

   Avoid committing several unrelated changes in one go. It makes merging difficult, and also makes it harder to determine which change is the culprit if a bug crops up.

   Avoid committing style or whitespace fixes and functionality fixes in one go. It makes merging difficult, and also makes it harder to understand just what functional changes were made. In the case of documentation files, it can make the job of the translation teams more complicated, as it becomes difficult for them to determine exactly what content changes need to be translated.

   Avoid committing changes to multiple files in one go with a generic, vague message. Instead, commit each file (or small, related groups of files) with tailored commit messages.

   Before committing, always:

   • verify which branch you are committing to, using cvs status.

   • review your diffs, using cvs diff

   Also, ALWAYS specify which files to commit explicitly on the command line, so you do not accidentally commit other files than the ones you intended - cvs commit without any arguments will commit every modification in your current working directory and every subdirectory.

Additional tips and tricks:

1. You can place commonly used options in your ~/.cvsrc, like this:

   cvs -z3
   diff -Nu
   update -Pd
   checkout -P
   

   This example says:

   • always use compression level 3 when talking to a remote server. This is a life-saver when working over a slow connection.

   • always use the -N (show added or removed files) and -u (unified diff format) options to diff(1).

   • always use the -P (prune empty directories) and -d (check out new directories) options when updating.

   • always use the -P (prune empty directories) option when checking out.

2. Use Eivind Eklund's cdiff script to view unidiffs. It is a wrapper for less(1) that adds ANSI color codes to make hunk headers, outtakes and additions stand out; context and garbage are unmodified. It also expands tabs properly (tabs often look wrong in diffs because of the extra character in front of each line).

   textproc/cdiff

   Simply use it instead of more(1) or less(1):

   % cvs diff -Nu shazam | cdiff
   

   Alternatively some editors like vim(1) (editors/vim5) have color support and when used as a pager with color syntax highlighting switched on will highlight many types of file, including diffs, patches, and CVS/RCS logs.

   % echo "syn on" >> ~/.vimrc 
   % cvs diff -Nu shazam | vim -
   % cvs log shazam | vim -
   

3. CVS is old, arcane, crufty and buggy, and sometimes exhibits non-deterministic behavior which some claim as proof that it is actually merely the Newtonian manifestation of a sentient transdimensional entity. It is not humanly possible to know its every quirk inside out, so do not be afraid to ask the resident AI (CVS Repository Meisters <cvsadm@FreeBSD.org>) for help.

4. Do not leave the cvs commit command in commit message editing mode for too long (more than 2-3 minutes). It locks the directory you are working with and will prevent other developers from committing into the same directory. If you have to type a long commit message, type it before executing cvs commit and insert it into the commit message or save it in a file before committing and use the -F option of CVS to read the commit message from that file, i.e.

   % vi logmsg
   % cvs ci -F logmsg shazam
   

   This is the fastest way of passing a commit message to CVS but you should be careful when editing the logmsg file before the commit, because CVS will not give you a chance to edit the message when you do the actual commit.

4 Conventions and Traditions

As a new committer there are a number of things you should do first.

• Add your author entity to doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/share/sgml/authors.ent; this should be done first since an omission of this commit will cause the next commits to break the doc/ build.

  This is a relatively easy task, but remains a good first test of your CVS skills.

• Add yourself to the ``Developers'' section of the Contributors List and remove yourself from the ``Additional Contributors'' section.

• Add an entry for yourself to www/en/news/news.xml. Look for the other entries that look like ``A new committer'' and follow the format.

• You should add your PGP or GnuPG key to doc/share/pgpkeys (and if you do not have a key, you should create one). Do not forget to commit the updated doc/share/pgpkeys/pgpkeys.ent.

  Dag-Erling C. Smørgrav <des@FreeBSD.org> has written a shell script to make this extremely simple. See the README file for more information.

  Note: It is important to have an up-to-date PGP/GnuPG key in the Handbook, since the key may be required for positive identification of a committer, e.g. by the FreeBSD Administrators <admins@FreeBSD.org> for account recovery. A complete keyring of FreeBSD.org users is available for download from http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/pgpkeyring.txt.

• Some people add an entry for themselves to ports/astro/xearth/files/freebsd.committers.markers.

• Some people add an entry for themselves to src/usr.bin/calendar/calendars/calendar.freebsd.

• Introduce yourself to the other committers, otherwise no one will have any idea who you are or what you are working on. You do not have to write a comprehensive biography, just write a paragraph or two about who you are and what you plan to be working on as a committer in FreeBSD. Email this to the FreeBSD developers mailing list and you will be on your way!

• Log into hub.FreeBSD.org and create a /var/forward/user (where user is your username) file containing the e-mail address where you want mail addressed to yourusername@FreeBSD.org to be forwarded. This includes all of the commit messages as well as any other mail addressed to the FreeBSD committer's mailing list and the FreeBSD developers mailing list. Really large mailboxes which have taken up permanent residence on hub often get ``accidentally'' truncated without warning, so forward it or read it and you will not lose it.

  Due to the severe load dealing with SPAM places on the central mail servers that do the mailing list processing the front-end server does do some basic checks and will drop some messages based on these checks. At the moment proper DNS information for the connecting host is the only check in place but that may change. Some people blame these checks for bouncing valid email. If you want these checks turned off for your email you can place a file named ~/.spam_lover in your home directory on freefall.FreeBSD.org to disable the checks for your email.

• If you are subscribed to the FreeBSD CVS commit message mailing list, you will probably want to unsubscribe to avoid receiving duplicate copies of commit messages and their followups.

All new committers also have a mentor assigned to them for the first few months. Your mentor is responsible for teaching you the rules and conventions of the project and guiding your first steps in the committer community. He or she is also personally responsible for your actions during this initial period. Until your mentor decides (and announces with a forced commit to access) that you have learned the ropes and are ready to commit on your own, you should not commit anything without first getting your mentor's review and approval, and you should document that approval with an Approved by: line in the commit message.

All src commits should go to FreeBSD-CURRENT first before being merged to FreeBSD-STABLE. No major new features or high-risk modifications should be made to the FreeBSD-STABLE branch.

5 Preferred License for New Files

Currently the FreeBSD Project suggests and uses the following text as the preferred license scheme:

Copyright © <Year> <Author>. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.

The FreeBSD project strongly discourages the so called advertising clause in new code. Due to the large number of contributors to the FreeBSD project, complying with this clause for many commercial vendors has become difficult. If you have code in the tree with the advertising clause, please consider removing it. In fact, please consider using the above license for your code.

The FreeBSD project discourages completely new licenses and variations on the standard licenses. New licenses require the approval of <core@FreeBSD.org> to reside in the main repository. The more different licenses that are used in the tree, the more problems that this causes to those wishing to utilize this code, typically from unintended consequences from a poorly worded license.

6 Developer Relations

If you are working directly on your own code or on code which is already well established as your responsibility, then there is probably little need to check with other committers before jumping in with a commit. If you see a bug in an area of the system which is clearly orphaned (and there are a few such areas, to our shame), the same applies. If, however, you are about to modify something which is clearly being actively maintained by someone else (and it is only by watching the cvs-committers mailing list that you can really get a feel for just what is and is not) then consider sending the change to them instead, just as you would have before becoming a committer. For ports, you should contact the listed MAINTAINER in the Makefile. For other parts of the repository, if you are unsure who the active maintainer might be, it may help to scan the output of cvs log to see who has committed changes in the past. Bill Fenner <fenner@FreeBSD.org> has written a nice shell script that can help determine who the active maintainer might be. It lists each person who has committed to a given file along with the number of commits each person has made. It can be found on freefall at ~fenner/bin/whodid. If your queries go unanswered or the committer otherwise indicates a lack of proprietary interest in the area affected, go ahead and commit it.

If you are unsure about a commit for any reason at all, have it reviewed by -hackers before committing. Better to have it flamed then and there rather than when it is part of the CVS repository. If you do happen to commit something which results in controversy erupting, you may also wish to consider backing the change out again until the matter is settled. Remember - with CVS we can always change it back.

Do not impugn the intentions of someone you disagree with. If they see a different solution to a problem than you, or even a different problem, it is not because they are stupid, because they have questionable parentage, or because they are trying to destroy your hard work, personal image, or FreeBSD, but simply because they have a different outlook on the world. Different is good.

Disagree honestly. Argue your position from its merits, be honest about any shortcomings it may have, and be open to seeing their solution, or even their vision of the problem, with an open mind.

Accept correction. We are all fallible. When you have made a mistake, apologize and get on with life. Do not beat up yourself, and certainly do not beat up others for your mistake. Do not waste time on embarrassment or recrimination, just fix the problem and move on.

Ask for help. Seek out (and give) peer reviews. One of the ways open source software is supposed to excel is in the number of eyeballs applied to it; this does not apply if nobody will review code.

7 GNATS

The FreeBSD Project utilizes GNATS for tracking bugs and change requests. Be sure that if you commit a fix or suggestion found in a GNATS PR, you use edit-pr pr-number on freefall to close it. It is also considered nice if you take time to close any PRs associated with your commits, if appropriate. You can also make use of send-pr(1) yourself for proposing any change which you feel should probably be made, pending a more extensive peer-review first.

You can find out more about GNATS at:

• http://www.cs.utah.edu/csinfo/texinfo/gnats/gnats.html

• http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html

• send-pr(1)

You can run a local copy of GNATS, and then integrate the FreeBSD GNATS tree in to it using CVSup. Then you can run GNATS commands locally, or use other interfaces, such as tkgnats. This lets you query the PR database without needing to be connected to the Internet.

8 Who's Who

Besides the repository meisters, there are other FreeBSD project members and teams whom you will probably get to know in your role as a committer. Briefly, and by no means all-inclusively, these are:

9 SSH Quick-Start Guide

Now you should be able to use ssh-add(1) for authentication once per session. This will prompt you for your private key's pass phrase, and then store it in your authentication agent ( ssh-agent(1)). If you no longer wish to have your key stored in the agent, issuing ssh-add -d will remove it.

Test by doing something such as ssh freefall.FreeBSD.org ls /usr.

For more information, see security/openssh, ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), and scp(1).

10 The FreeBSD Committers' Big List of Rules

1. Respect other committers.

2. Respect other contributors.

3. Discuss any significant change before committing.

4. Respect existing maintainers (if listed in the MAINTAINER field in Makefile or in the MAINTAINER file in the top-level directory).

5. Any disputed change must be backed out pending resolution of the dispute if requested by a maintainer. Security related changes may override a maintainer's wishes at the Security Officer's discretion.

6. Changes go to FreeBSD-CURRENT before FreeBSD-STABLE unless specifically permitted by the release engineer or unless they are not applicable to FreeBSD-CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent change which is applicable should also be allowed to sit in FreeBSD-CURRENT for at least 3 days before merging so that it can be given sufficient testing. The release engineer has the same authority over the FreeBSD-STABLE branch as outlined for the maintainer in rule #5.

7. Do not fight in public with other committers; it looks bad. If you must ``strongly disagree'' about something, do so only in private.

8. Respect all code freezes and read the committers and developers mailing lists in a timely manner so you know when a code freeze is in effect.

9. When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!

10. Test your changes before committing them.

11. Do not commit to anything under the src/contrib, src/crypto, and src/sys/contrib trees without explicit approval from the respective maintainer(s).

As noted, breaking some of these rules can be grounds for suspension or, upon repeated offense, permanent removal of commit privileges. Individual members of core have the power to temporarily suspend commit privileges until core as a whole has the chance to review the issue. In case of an ``emergency'' (a committer doing damage to the repository), a temporary suspension may also be done by the repository meisters. Only a 2/3 majority of core has the authority to suspend commit privileges for longer than a week or to remove them permanently. This rule does not exist to set core up as a bunch of cruel dictators who can dispose of committers as casually as empty soda cans, but to give the project a kind of safety fuse. If someone is out of control, it is important to be able to deal with this immediately rather than be paralyzed by debate. In all cases, a committer whose privileges are suspended or revoked is entitled to a ``hearing'' by core, the total duration of the suspension being determined at that time. A committer whose privileges are suspended may also request a review of the decision after 30 days and every 30 days thereafter (unless the total suspension period is less than 30 days). A committer whose privileges have been revoked entirely may request a review after a period of 6 months has elapsed. This review policy is strictly informal and, in all cases, core reserves the right to either act on or disregard requests for review if they feel their original decision to be the right one.

In all other aspects of project operation, core is a subset of committers and is bound by the same rules. Just because someone is in core this does not mean that they have special dispensation to step outside any of the lines painted here; core's ``special powers'' only kick in when it acts as a group, not on an individual basis. As individuals, the core team members are all committers first and core second.

11 Support for Multiple Architectures

FreeBSD is a highly portable operating system intended to function on many different types of hardware architectures. Maintaining clean separation of Machine Dependent (MD) and Machine Independent (MI) code, as well as minimizing MD code, is an important part of our strategy to remain agile with regards to current hardware trends. Each new hardware architecture supported by FreeBSD adds substantially to the cost of code maintenance, toolchain support, and release engineering. It also dramatically increases the cost of effective testing of kernel changes. As such, there is strong motivation to differentiate between classes of support for various architectures while remaining strong in a few key architectures that are seen as the FreeBSD "target audience".

12 Ports Specific FAQ

# make install
# make package
# make deinstall
# pkg_add package you built above
# make deinstall
# make reinstall
# make package
       

errors        error logs from latest <major_version> run on <arch>
logs          all logs from latest <major_version> run on <arch>
packages      packages from latest <major_version> run on <arch>
bak/errors    error logs from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>
bak/logs      all logs from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>
bak/packages  packages from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>

13 Perks of the Job

Unfortunately, there are not many perks involved with being a committer. Recognition as a competent software engineer is probably the only thing that will be of benefit in the long run. However, there are at least some perks:

14 Miscellaneous Questions

% cd sys/alpha/include
% cvs update -rRELENG_4
cvs update: Updating .
U clockvar.h
U console.h
...
% cvs update -kk -Ap smp.h > smp.h
===================================================================
Checking out smp.h
RCS:  /usr/cvs/src/sys/alpha/include/smp.h,v
VERS: 1.1
***************
% cvs add smp.h
cvs add: scheduling file `smp.h' for addition on branch `RELENG_4'
cvs add: use 'cvs commit' to add this file permanently
% cvs commit
       

...

PR:                foo/12345
Submitted by:      John Smith <John.Smith@example.com>

...

Reviewed by:       -arch

...

Approved by:        abc

...

Obtained from:      OpenBSD

...

MFC after:      2 weeks

PR:                 foo/54321
Submitted by:       John Smith <John.Smith@example.com>
Reviewed by:        -arch
Obtained from:      NetBSD
MFC after:          1 month