Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262697AbUCSLWy (ORCPT ); Fri, 19 Mar 2004 06:22:54 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262750AbUCSLWy (ORCPT ); Fri, 19 Mar 2004 06:22:54 -0500 Received: from e33.co.us.ibm.com ([32.97.110.131]:57056 "EHLO e33.co.us.ibm.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262697AbUCSLWq (ORCPT ); Fri, 19 Mar 2004 06:22:46 -0500 Message-ID: <405AD755.7060705@us.ibm.com> Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 03:19:49 -0800 From: Nivedita Singhvi User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.2.1) Gecko/20021130 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andrew Morton CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: [PATCH Documentation] "SuccessfulProjects.txt" References: <4054E77E.3090206@us.ibm.com> <20040317205159.6bad1ca2.akpm@osdl.org> In-Reply-To: <20040317205159.6bad1ca2.akpm@osdl.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 8327 Lines: 214 Andrew Morton wrote in an earlier thread: > Apart from that, heck, why not? Please run up a diff. Here is the new version of the file, incorporating feedback. Thanks! Nivedita --- File: SuccessfulProjects.txt Date: 3/14/04 Title: How To Run A Successful Linux Project " How to improve your chances of launching and sustaining a successful Linux project, get your code or technology accepted into the Linux kernel and adopted by the community, earn fame (or employment, or at least continued employment, or well, at least not completely waste your spare time), all without losing your hair and your sanity. " Goal ==== - Increase the success rate of Linux development projects - Reduce the burden on the kernel maintainers and the community - Decrease the angst and conflict experienced by project developers - Make software development faster and more efficient - Make users, consumers of those software projects happier - Use the kernel's review processes and testing base to increase the quality of your software Introduction ============ Most of the information here is very basic, obvious and covered frequently in a multitude of places, at length. However, it is also difficult to locate in one convenient place, and ignored frequently enough to warrant the presence of this file in the Documentation subdirectory of the kernel source. Tips ==== 1]. Become familiar with Linux kernel development! -------------------------------------------------- 1.1 Read Documentation/CodingStyle! If the code doesn't look like kernel code, you've just made things much harder for yourself. Read Documentation/SubmittingPatches. Read Documentation/SubmittingDrivers, if applicable. 1.2 Who are the maintainers affected? Learn who the maintainers are for the subsystems affected by your project, and for the various releases, especially for the releases you intend to provide code to. 2.4 -> Marcelo Tosatti 2.6 -> Andrew Morton development -> Linus ./Maintainers file -> current list of maintainers 1.3 Which Linux source tree? Linux kernel versions are of the form: major.minor.merry_go_round The major number is only incremented when a new epoch is warranted, and they come very few and far between. Only one so far since 1.0. The minor number is the key here. Even numbered minor versions are "stable" kernel releases, and odd numbered ones are "development" releases. Typically, new development (especially major new features, subsystem overhauls, API breakages) is done in the development tree. The latest (3/18/04) stable kernel version is 2.6, and the next development version, 2.7, will be forked off 2.6 once it is deemed ready. Earlier stable versions - 2.2 and 2.4 - continue to be updated. The "merry_go_round" number is incremented rapidly enough to render most followers dizzy, a good thing, since it allows for the rapid delivery of changes and bug fixes. Read the Linux FAQ http://en.tldp.org/FAQ/Linux-FAQ/index.html This is, admittedly, already slightly out of date. Also discover the various other source trees (-mm, -mjb, -osdl, ...) Read the Linux Kernel Newbies FAQ http://kernelnewbies.org/faq/ Get advice from the community and your users on which kernel tree would be best to target for inclusion. Understand that kernel updates occur in parallel in various source trees, and you might need to provide support in multiple versions. 1.4 Which are the mailing lists you need? Learn which mailing lists cover development in the areas affected by your project. It is always a good idea to involve the kernel community or sub-community as the case may be - which involves posting to the right mailing lists. Solicit advice on which lists are appropriate. You can start by checking the MARC archives to find the right lists. http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/ 1.5 Learn Linux Kernel Mailing List (lkml) etiquette Read the Linux Kernel Mailing List FAQ http://www.tux.org/lkml/ 2. Interact early, interact often --------------------------------- 2.1 Don't work in isolation It is not a good idea to spend several person-years working behind closed doors, or even within your own project environment. Keep not only the project community involved, but also the maintainers concerned and the Linux kernel community, if appropriate, in the loop. In Andrew Morton's words: "But beware of being *too* disconnected from the lists@vger.kernel.org. We don't want to get in the situation where you pop up with a couple of person-years' worth of work and other kernel developers have major issues with it. Please find a balance - some way of regularly checkpointing." http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=107922697510704&w=2 Even if you are in design/planning stages, it is worth a note to the community to say, "Hey, this is how we're going to go about it..." i.e. remain visible, and ensure that people know your project is alive and in good hands. 2.2 Avoid large code dumps Don't throw a massive, complex tarball of your final implementation at the kernel community and maintainers once you are done. Break down your project into smaller pieces. Submit easily digestible chunks at regular intervals. If you're making some ghastly, widespread mistake, catch it early. Get agreement from the community and the maintainers on your approach. Again, to quote Andrew from the link above: "That way everyone else can see the code evolving, and can help, and can understand. And other people will fix your bugs for you, and update your code as kernel-wide changes are implemented. And we all avoid nasty surprises and extensive rework." 2.3 Be responsive to input from the community Good open source project maintainers earn the trust of the larger community and kernel maintainers by demonstrating they are willing to work in tandem with the community. See Greg Kroah-Hartman's slides on dealing with the community. http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/cgl_talk_2002_10_16/ 3]. Where to start? ------------------- 3.1 Join an existing community If there already exists a project developing functionality foo that you are interested in, work with it. Join the people who have already spent time and effort solving the problem. Sometimes, this is easier said than done because projects might be open source in name, but far from it in reality. A good open source project, however, will have a public web site, a public mailing list that invites discussion and source code available to play with. If you cannot convince this community of the value of your ideas, the going will only get tougher when taken to the Linux kernel community. Not always true, but true often enough. This is particularly true when APIs have to be designed and there are no mandated standards controlling what you should be implementing. Having multiple conflicting implementations brought to the Linux kernel mailing list puts the burden of sorting out basic issues related to your project on kernel maintainers, hardly a group with spare time on their hands. 3.2 Create an open source community if there is none If there is no existing project that meets your needs, create one. Maintain the public infrastructure that should ideally accompany a large project - a public website, mailing list, source code development infrastructure (SourceForge is a good place to start). Described well in the link below. Read the Software Release Practices Howto. http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-Release-Practice-HOWTO/index.html Do not take any of the above as gospel, confirm with the maintainers in question. There are exceptions to every rule!. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/