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<article>
<artheader>
<title>Committer Guide</title>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<surname>The FreeBSD Documentation Project</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>
<pubdate>$FreeBSD: doc/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml,v 1.54 2001/04/04 00:52:50 kuriyama Exp $</pubdate>
<copyright>
<year>1999</year>
<year>2000</year>
<year>2001</year>
<holder>The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder>
</copyright>
<abstract>
<para>This document provides information for the FreeBSD committer
community. All new committers should read this document before they
start, and existing committers are strongly encouraged to review it
from time to time.</para>
</abstract>
</artheader>
<sect1 id="admin">
<title>Administrative Details</title>
<informaltable frame="none" orient="port">
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><emphasis>Main Repository Host</emphasis></entry>
<entry><hostid>freefall.FreeBSD.org</hostid></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><emphasis>Login Methods</emphasis></entry>
<entry>&man.ssh.1;</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><emphasis>Main CVSROOT</emphasis></entry>
<entry>/home/ncvs</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><emphasis>Main CVS Repository Meisters</emphasis></entry>
<entry>&a.jdp; and &a.peter; as well as &a.asami; for
<filename>ports/</filename></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><emphasis>Mailing List</emphasis></entry>
<entry><email>developers@FreeBSD.org</email>,
<email>cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org</email></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><emphasis>Noteworthy CVS Tags</emphasis></entry>
<entry>RELENG_3 (3.x-STABLE), RELENG_4 (4.x-STABLE), HEAD (-CURRENT)</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>It is required that you use &man.ssh.1; or &man.telnet.1;
with Kerberos 5 to connect to the repository hosts. These are
generally more secure than plain &man.telnet.1; or
&man.rlogin.1; since credential negotiation will always be
encrypted. All traffic is encrypted by default with &man.ssh.1;.
With utilities like &man.ssh-agent.1; and &man.scp.1; also
available, &man.ssh.1; is also far more convenient. If you do
not know anything about &man.ssh.1;, please see
<xref linkend="ssh.guide">.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="cvs.operations">
<title>CVS Operations</title>
<para>It is assumed that you are already familiar with the basic operation
of CVS.</para>
<para>The CVS Repository Meisters (Peter Wemm and John Polstra)
are the <quote>owners</quote> of the CVS repository and are
responsible for any and <emphasis>all</emphasis> direct
modification of it for the purposes of cleanup or fixing some
grievous abuse of CVS by a committer. No one else should
attempt to touch the repository directly. Should you cause some
repository accident, say a bad cvs import or tag operation, do
<emphasis role="bold">not</emphasis> attempt to fix it yourself!
Mail or call John or Peter immediately and report the problem to
one of them instead. The only ones allowed to directly fiddle
the repository bits are the repomeisters. Satoshi Asami is also a
repomeister for the <filename>ports/</filename> portion of the
tree.</para>
<para>CVS operations are usually done by logging into
<hostid>freefall</hostid>, making sure the
<envar>CVSROOT</envar> environment variable is set to
<filename>/home/ncvs</filename>, and then doing the appropriate
check-out/check-in operations. If you wish to add
something which is wholly new (like contrib-ified
sources, etc), a script called <quote>easy-import</quote> is
also provided for making the process easier. It automatically
adds the new module entry, does the appropriate thing with
<command>cvs import</command>, etc. – just run it without
arguments and it will prompt you for everything it needs to
know.</para>
<para>Note that when you use CVS on <hostid>freefall</hostid>, you
should set your <literal>umask</literal> to <literal>2</literal>,
as well as setting the <literal>CVSUMASK</literal> environment
variable to <literal>2</literal>. This ensures that any new
files created by <command>cvs add</command> will have the correct
permissions. If you add a file or directory and discover that the
file in the repository has incorrect permissions (specifically,
all files in the repository should be group writable by group
<literal>ncvs</literal>), contact one of the repository meisters
as described below.</para>
<para>If you are familiar with remote CVS and consider yourself
pretty studly with CVS in general, you can also do CVS
operations directly from your own machine and local working
sources. Just remember to set <envar>CVS_RSH</envar> to
<wordasword>ssh</wordasword> so that you are using a relatively
secure and reliable transport. If you have no idea what any of
the above even means, on the other hand, then please stick with
logging into <hostid>freefall</hostid> and applying your diffs
with &man.patch.1;.</para>
<para>If you need to use CVS <command>add</command> and
<command>delete</command> operations in a manner that is
effectively a <quote>mv</quote> operation, then a repository
copy is in order rather than your CVS <command>add</command> and
<command>delete</command>. In a repository copy, a <link
linkend="conventions">CVS Meister</link> 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 CVS gives to the project.</para>
<para>CVS reference information, tutorials, and FAQs can also be found at:
<ulink
url="http://www.cvshome.org/docs/index.html">http://www.cvshome.org/docs/index.html</ulink></para>
<para>&a.des; also supplied the following <quote>mini primer</quote> for
CVS.</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Check out a module with the <literal>co</literal> or
<literal>checkout</literal> command.</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs checkout shazam</userinput></screen>
<para>This checks out a copy of the <filename>shazam</filename> module. If
there is no <filename>shazam</filename> module in the modules file, looks for a
top-level directory named <filename>shazam</filename> instead.</para>
<table frame="none">
<title>Useful <command>cvs checkout</command> options</title>
<tgroup cols=2>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><option>-P</option></entry>
<entry>Don't create empty directories</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><option>-l</option></entry>
<entry>Check out a single level, no subdirectories</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><option>-r<replaceable>rev</replaceable></option></entry>
<entry>Check out revision, branch or tag
<replaceable>rev</replaceable></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><option>-D<replaceable>date</replaceable></option></entry>
<entry>Check out the sources as they were on date
<replaceable>data</replaceable></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>Practical FreeBSD examples:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the <filename>miscfs</filename> module,
which corresponds to <filename>src/sys/miscfs</filename>:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs co miscfs</userinput></screen>
<para>You now have a directory named <filename>miscfs</filename>
with subdirectories <filename>CVS</filename>,
<filename>deadfs</filename>, <filename>devfs</filename>, and so
on. One of these (<filename>linprocfs</filename>) is
empty.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the same files, but with full path:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs co src/sys/miscfs</userinput></screen>
<para>You now have a directory named <filename>src</filename>,
with subdirectories <filename>CVS</filename> and
<filename>sys</filename>. <filename>src/sys</filename> has
subdirectories <filename>CVS</filename> and
<filename>miscfs</filename>, etc.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the same files, but prunes empty
directories:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs co -P miscfs</userinput></screen>
<para>You now have a directory named
<filename>miscfs</filename> with subdirectories
<filename>CVS</filename>, <filename>deadfs</filename>,
<filename>devfs</filename>... but note that there is no
<filename>linprocfs</filename> subdirectory, because there
are no files in it.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the directory <filename>miscfs</filename>, but
none of the subdirectories:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cvs co -l miscfs</userinput></screen>
<para>You now have a directory named <filename>miscfs</filename>
with just one subdirectory named
<filename>CVS</filename>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the <filename>miscfs</filename> module as
it is in the 4.x branch:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs co -rRELENG_4 miscfs</userinput></screen>
<para>You can modify the sources and commit along this
branch.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the <filename>miscfs</filename> module as
it was in 3.4-RELEASE.</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs co -rRELENG_3_4_0_RELEASE miscfs</userinput></screen>
<para>You will not be able to commit modifications, since
RELENG_3_4_0_RELEASE is a point in time, not a branch.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the <filename>miscfs</filename> module as it was
on Jan 15 2000.</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs co -D'01/15/2000' miscfs</userinput></screen>
<para>You will not be able to commit modifications.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the <filename>miscfs</filename> module as it was
one week agao.</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs co -D'last week' miscfs</userinput></screen>
<para>You will not be able to commit modifications.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Note that cvs stores metadata in subdirectories named
<filename>CVS</filename>.</para>
<para>Arguments to <option>-D</option> and <option>-r</option>
are sticky, which means cvs will remember them later, e.g.
when you do a <command>cvs update</command>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Check the status of checked-out files with the
<literal>status</literal> command.</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs status shazam</userinput></screen>
<para>This displays the status of the
<filename>shazam</filename> file or of every file in the
<filename>shazam</filename> directory. For every file, the
status is given as one of:</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols=2>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>Up-to-date</entry>
<entry>File is up-to-date and unmodified.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Needs Patch</entry>
<entry>File is unmodified, but there's a newer revision in
the repository.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Locally Modified</entry>
<entry>File is up-to-date, but modified.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Needs Merge</entry>
<entry>File is modified, and there's a newer revision in the
repository.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>File had conflicts on merge</entry>
<entry>There were conflicts the last time this file was
updated, and they haven't been resolved yet.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>You'll also see the local revision and date,
the revision number of the newest applicable version
(<quote>newest applicable</quote> 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.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Once you've checked something out, update it with the
<literal>update</literal> command.</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs update shazam</userinput></screen>
<para>This updates the <filename>shazam</filename> file or the
contents of the <filename>shazam</filename> directory to the
latest version along the branch you checked out. If you
checked out a <quote>point in time</quote>, does nothing
unless the tags have moved in the repository or some other weird
stuff is going on.</para>
<para>Useful options, in addition to those listed above for
<literal>checkout</literal>:</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols=2>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><option>-d</option></entry>
<entry>Check out any additional missing directories.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><option>-A</option></entry>
<entry>Update to head of main branch.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><option>-j<replaceable>rev</replaceable></option></entry>
<entry>More magic (see below).</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>If you checked out a module with <option>-r</option> or
<option>-D</option>, running <command>cvs update</command>
with a different <option>-r</option> or <option>-D</option>
argument or with <option>-A</option> will select a new branch,
revision or date. The <option>-A</option> option clears all
sticky tags, dates or revisions whereas <option>-r</option>
and <option>-D</option> set new ones.</para>
<para>Theoretically, specifying <literal>HEAD</literal> as
argument to <option>-r</option> will give you the same result
as <option>-A</option>, but that's just theory.</para>
<para>The <option>-d</option> option is useful if:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>somebody has added subdirectories to the module
you've checked out after you checked it out.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>you checked out with <option>-l</option>, and later
change your mind and want to check out the subdirectories
as well.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>you deleted some subdirectories and want to check
them all back out.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para><emphasis>Watch the output of the <command>cvs
update</command> with care.</emphasis> The letter in front of
each file name indicates what was done with it:</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols=2>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><literal>U</literal></entry>
<entry>The file was updated with no trouble.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>P</literal></entry>
<entry>The file was updated with no trouble (you'll only see
this when working against a remote repo).</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>M</literal></entry>
<entry>The file had been modified, and was merged with no
conflicts.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>C</literal></entry>
<entry>The file had been modified, and was merged with
conflicts.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>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 <command>cvs update</command>. CVS notices
that you've 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 changed are to
separate portions of the file, it'll almost always work fine
(though the result might not be syntactically or semantically
correct).</para>
<para>CVS will print an 'M' in front of every locally modified
file even if there is no newer version in the repository, so
<command>cvs update</command> is handy for getting a summary
of what you've changed locally.</para>
<para>If you get a <literal>C</literal>, 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 <command>cvs</command> can't
figure out how to apply the repository's changes). You'll have
to go through the file manually and resolve the conflicts;
they'll be marked with rows of <literal><</literal>,
<literal>=</literal> and <literal>></literal> signs. For
every conflict, there'll be a marker line with seven
<literal><</literal> signs and the name of the file,
followed by a chunk of what your local file contained,
followed by a separator line with seven <literal>=</literal>
signs, followed by the corresponding chunk in the
repository version, followed by a marker line with seven
<literal>></literal> signs and the revision number you
updated to.</para>
<para>The <option>-j</option> option is slightly voodoo. It
updates the local file to the specified revision as if you
used <option>-r</option>, but it does not change the recorded
revision number or branch of the local file. It's not really
useful except when used twice, in which case it will merge the
changes between the two specified versions into the working
copy.</para>
<para>For instance, say you commit a change to
<filename>shazam/shazam.c</filename> in -CURRENT and later
want to MFC it. The change you want to MFC was revision
1.15:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Check out the -STABLE version of the
<filename>shazam</filename> module:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs co -rRELENG_4 shazam</userinput></screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Apply the changes between rev 1.14 and 1.15:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs update -j1.14 -j1.15 shazam/shazam.c</userinput></screen>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>You'll almost certainly get a conflict because
of the <literal>$Id: article.sgml,v 1.55 2001-04-04 08:31:49 nik Exp $</literal> (or in FreeBSD's case,
<literal>$FreeBSD<!-- stop expansion -->$</literal>) lines, so you'll have to edit
the file to resolve the conflict (remove the marker lines and
the second <literal>$Id: article.sgml,v 1.55 2001-04-04 08:31:49 nik Exp $</literal> line, leaving the original
<literal>$Id: article.sgml,v 1.55 2001-04-04 08:31:49 nik Exp $</literal> line intact).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>View differences between the local version and the
repository version with the <literal>diff</literal>
command.</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs diff shazam</userinput></screen>
<para>shows you every modification you've made to the
<filename>shazam</filename> file or module.</para>
<table frame="none">
<title>Useful <command>cvs diff</command> options</title>
<tgroup cols=2>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><option>-u</option></entry>
<entry>Uses the unified diff format.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><option>-N</option></entry>
<entry>Shows missing or added files.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>You always want to use <option>-u</option>, since
unified diffs are much easier to read than almost any other
diff format (in some circumstances, context diffs may be
better, but they're much bulkier). A unified diff consists of
a series of hunks. Each hunk begins with a line that starts
with two <literal>@</literal> 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 <literal>-</literal> sign)
are outtakes and some (preceded by a <literal>+</literal>) are
additions.</para>
<para>You can also diff against a different version
than the one you checked out by specifying a version
with <option>-r</option> or <option>-D</option> as in
<literal>checkout</literal> or <literal>update</literal>,
or even view the diffs between two arbitrary versions
(with no regard for what you have locally) by specifying
<emphasis>two</emphasis> versions with <option>-r</option> or
<option>-D</option>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>View log entries with the <literal>log</literal>
command.</para>
<!-- XXX needs more details -->
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs log shazam</userinput></screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>See who did what with the <literal>annotate</literal> command.
This command shows you each line of the specified file or
files, along with which user most recently changed that
line.</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs annotate shazam</userinput></screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Add new files with the <literal>add</literal> command.</para>
<para>Create the file, <command>cvs add</command> it, then
<command>cvs commit</command> it.</para>
<para>Similarly, you can add new directories by creating them
and then <command>cvs add</command>ing them. Note that you
don't need to commit directories.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Remove obsolete files with the <literal>remove</literal> command.</para>
<para>Remove the file, then <command>cvs rm</command> it, then
<command>cvs commit</command> it.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Commit with the <literal>commit</literal> or
<literal>checkin</literal> command.</para>
<table frame="none">
<title>Useful <command>cvs commit</command> options</title>
<tgroup cols=2>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><option>-f</option></entry>
<entry>Force a commit of an unmodified file.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><option>-m<replaceable>msg</replaceable></option></entry>
<entry>Specify a commit message on the command line rather
than invoking an editor.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>Use the <option>-f</option> option if you realize that
you left out important information from the commit message.</para>
<para>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's also an invaluable aid to deciding
which changes to MFC and which not to MFC.</para>
<para>Don't waste space in the commit messages explaining
<emphasis>what</emphasis> you did. That's what
<command>cvs diff</command> is for. Instead, tell us
<emphasis>why</emphasis> you did it.</para>
<para>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.</para>
<para>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.</para>
<para>Avoid committing changes to multiple files in one go
with a generic, vague message. Instead, commit each file (or
small groups of files) with tailored commit messages.</para>
<para>Before committing, <emphasis>always</emphasis>:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>verify which branch you're committing to, using
<command>cvs status</command>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>review your diffs, using
<command>cvs diff</command></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Also, ALWAYS specify which files to commit explicitly on
the command line, so you don't accidentally commit other files
than the ones you intended - <command>cvs commit</command>
with no arguments will commit every modification in your
current working directory and every subdirectory.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>Additional tips and tricks:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>You can place commonly used options in your
<filename>~/.cvsrc</filename>, like this:</para>
<programlisting>cvs -z3
diff -Nu
update -Pd
checkout -P</programlisting>
<para>This example says:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>always use compression level 3 when talking to a
remote server. This is a life-saver when working over a
slow connection.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>always use the <option>-N</option> (show added or
removed files) and <option>-u</option> (unified diff
format) options to &man.diff.1;.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>always use the <option>-P</option> (prune empty
directories) and <option>-d</option> (check out new
directories) options when updating.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>always use the <option>-P</option> (prune empty
directories) option when checking out.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Use Eivind Eklund's <command>cdiff</command> script to
view unidiffs. It's a wrapper for &man.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).</para>
<para><ulink url="http://people.FreeBSD.org/~eivind/cdiff">http://people.FreeBSD.org/~eivind/cdiff</ulink></para>
<para>Simply use instead of &man.more.1; or &man.less.1;:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs diff -Nu shazam | cdiff</userinput></screen>
<para>Alternatively some editors like &man.vim.1;
(ports/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. </para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput> echo "syn on" >> ~/.vimrc </userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput> cvs diff -Nu shazam | vim -</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput> cvs log shazam | vim -</userinput> </screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>CVS is old, arcane, crufty and buggy, and sometimes
exhibits non-deterministic behavior which some claim as proof
that it's actually merely the Newtonian manifestation of a
sentient transdimensional entity. It's not humanly possible
to know its every quirk inside out, so don't be afraid to ask
the resident AI (<email>cvs@FreeBSD.org</email>) for help when
you screw up.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Don't leave the <command>cvs commit</command> 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
<command>cvs commit</command>, and insert it into the commit
message.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="conventions">
<title>Conventions and Traditions</title>
<para>As a new committer there are a number of things you should do
first.</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Add yourself to the <quote>Developers</quote> section of the
Handbook and remove yourself from the <quote>Additional
Contributors</quote> section.</para>
<para>This is a relatively easy task, but remains a good first test of
your CVS skills.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Add an entry for yourself to
<filename>www/en/news/newsflash.sgml</filename>. Look for the other
entries that look like <quote>A new committer</quote> and follow the
format.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>If you have a PGP or GnuPG key, you may want to add it to
<filename>doc/en_US.ISO_8859-1/books/handbook/pgpkeys</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Some people also add an entry for themselves to
<filename>ports/astro/xearth/files/freebsd.committers.markers</filename>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>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
<email>developers@FreeBSD.org</email> and you will be on your
way!</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Log into <hostid>hub.FreeBSD.org</hostid> and create a
<filename>/var/forward/<replaceable>user</replaceable></filename>
(where <replaceable>user</replaceable> is your username) file
containing the e-mail address where you want mail addressed to
<replaceable>yourusername</replaceable>@FreeBSD.org to be forwarded.
This includes all of the commit messages as well as any other mail
addressed to <email>cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org</email> and
<email>developers@FreeBSD.org</email>. Really
large mailboxes which have taken up permanent residence on
<hostid>hub</hostid> often get <quote>accidently</quote> truncated
without warning, so forward it or read it and you will not lose
it.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>All new committers also have a mentor assigned to them for
the first few months. Your mentor is more or less responsible for
explaining anything which is confusing to you and is also
responsible for your actions during this initial period. If you
make a bogus commit, it is only going to embarrass your mentor
and you should probably make it a policy to pass at least your
first few commits by your mentor before committing it to the
repository.</para>
<para>All commits should go to <literal>-CURRENT</literal> first
before being merged to <literal>-STABLE</literal>. No major new
features or high-risk modifications should be made to the
<literal>-STABLE</literal> branch.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="developer.relations">
<title>Developer Relations</title>
<para>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
<literal>cvs-committers</literal> 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 <makevar>MAINTAINER</makevar> in the
<filename>Makefile</filename>. For other parts of the
repository, if you are unsure who the active maintainer might
be, it may help to scan the output of <command>cvs log</command>
to see who has committed changes in the past. &a.fenner; 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 <hostid>freefall</hostid>
at <filename>~fenner/bin/whodid</filename>. If your queries go
unanswered or the committer otherwise indicates a lack of
proprietary interest in the area affected, go ahead and commit
it.</para>
<para>If you are unsure about a commit for any reason at
all, have it reviewed by <literal>-hackers</literal>
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.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="gnats">
<title>GNATS</title>
<para>The FreeBSD Project utilizes
<application>GNATS</application> for tracking bugs and change
requests. Be sure that if you commit a fix or suggestion found
in a <application>GNATS</application> PR, you use
<command>edit-pr <replaceable>pr-number</replaceable></command>
on <hostid>freefall</hostid> to close it. It is also considered
nice if you take time to close any PRs associated with your
commits, if appropriate. Your can also make use of
&man.send-pr.1; yourself for proposing any change which you feel
should probably be made, pending a more extensive peer-review
first.</para>
<para>You can find out more about <application>GNATS</application>
at:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><ulink url="http://www.cs.utah.edu/csinfo/texinfo/gnats/gnats.html">http://www.cs.utah.edu/csinfo/texinfo/gnats/gnats.html</ulink></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html</ulink></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>&man.send-pr.1;</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>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 <command>tkgnats</command>.
This lets you query the PR database without needing to be connected to
the Internet.</para>
<procedure>
<title>Using a local GNATS tree</title>
<step>
<para>If you are not already downloading the GNATS tree, add this line
to your <filename>supfile</filename>, and re-sup. Note that since
GNATS is not under CVS control it has no tag, so if you are adding
it to your existing <filename>supfile</filename> it should appear
before any <quote>tag=</quote> entry as these remain active once set.
</para>
<programlisting>gnats release=current prefix=/usr</programlisting>
<para>This will place the FreeBSD GNATS tree in
<filename>/usr/gnats</filename>. You can use a
<emphasis>refuse</emphasis> file to control which categories to
receive. For example, to only receive <literal>docs</literal> PRs,
put this line in
<filename>/usr/local/etc/cvsup/sup/refuse</filename><footnote>
<para>The precise path depends on the <literal>*default
base</literal> setting in your
<filename>supfile</filename>.</para>
</footnote>.</para>
<programlisting>gnats/[a-ce-z]*</programlisting>
<para>The rest of these examples assume you have only supped the
<literal>docs</literal> category. Adjust them as necessary,
depending on the categories you are synching.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Install the GNATS port from
<filename>ports/databases/gnats</filename>. This will place the
various GNATS directories under
<filename>$PREFIX/share/gnats</filename>.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Symlink the GNATS directories you are supping under the version
of GNATS you have installed.</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/local/share/gnats/gnats-db</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>ln -s /usr/gnats/docs</userinput></screen>
<para>Repeat as necessary, depending on how many GNATS categories you
are synching.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Update the GNATS <filename>categories</filename> file with these
categories. The file is
<filename>$PREFIX/share/gnats/gnats-db/gnats-adm/categories</filename>.</para>
<programlisting># This category is mandatory
pending:Category for faulty PRs:gnats-admin:
#
# FreeBSD categories
#
docs:Documentation Bug:nik:</programlisting>
</step>
<step>
<para>Run <filename>$PREFIX/libexec/gnats/gen-index</filename> to
recreate the GNATS index. The output has to be redirected to
<filename>$PREFIX/share/gnats/gnats-db/gnats-adm/index</filename>.
You can do this periodically from &man.cron.8;, or run &man.cvsup.1;
from a shell script that does this as well.</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>/usr/local/libexec/gnats/gen-index \
> /usr/local/share/gnats/gnats-db/gnats-adm/index</userinput></screen>
</step>
<step>
<para>Test the configuration by querying the PR database. This
command shows open <literal>docs</literal> PRs.</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>query-pr -c docs -s open</userinput></screen>
<para>Other interfaces, like
<filename>ports/databases/tkgnats</filename> should also work
nicely.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Pick a PR and close it.</para>
</step>
</procedure>
<note>
<para>This procedure only works to allow you to view and query the PRs
locally. To edit or close them you will still have to log in to
<hostid>freefall</hostid> and do it from there.</para>
</note>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="people">
<title>Who's Who</title>
<para>Besides Peter Wemm and John Polstra, the repository
meisters, there are other FreeBSD project members whom you will
probably get to know in your role as a committer. Briefly,
and by no means all-inclusively, these are:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.asami;</term>
<listitem>
<para>Satoshi is the Ports Wraith, meaning that he has
ultimate authority over any modifications to the ports
collection or the ports skeleton makefiles. He is also
the one responsible for administering ports freezes before
the releases.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.bde;</term>
<listitem>
<para>Bruce is the Obersturmbahnfuhrer of the Style Police.
When you do a commit that could have been done better,
Bruce will be there to tell you. Be thankful that someone
is. Bruce is also very knowledgeable on the various
standards applicable to FreeBSD.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.gallatin;</term>
<term>&a.mjacob;</term>
<term>&a.dfr;</term>
<term>&a.obrien;</term>
<listitem>
<para>These are the primary developers and overseers of the
DEC Alpha AXP platform.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.dg;</term>
<listitem>
<para>David is the overseer of the
VM system. If you have a VM system change in mind,
coordinate it with David.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.jkh;</term>
<listitem>
<para>Jordan is the release engineer. He is responsible for
setting release deadlines and controlling the release
process. During code freezes, he also has final authority
on all changes to the system for whichever branch is
pending release status. If there is something you want
merged from <literal>-CURRENT</literal> to
<literal>-STABLE</literal> (whatever values those may have
at any given time), he is also the one to talk to about
it.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.obrien;</term>
<listitem>
<para>David is the unofficial Obersturmbahnfuhrer of
<filename>src/contrib</filename>. If you have something
significant you'd like to do there, you should probably
coordinate it with David first. Please consult him before
importing into <filename>src/contrib</filename> if you have
never done this before in the FreeBSD CVS repository. Also
if you need to commit to something you do not maintain in
<filename>src/contrib</filename> and it is unclear who the
maintainer / point of contact is. (It is also not a bad idea
to consult David if you need to make a non-import commit to
something you maintain in <filename>src/contrib</filename> and
you are new to how FreeBSD does things.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.steve;</term>
<listitem>
<para>Steve is the unofficial maintainer of
<filename>src/bin</filename>. If you have something
significant you'd like to do there, you should probably
coordinate it with Steve first. He is also a Problem
Report-meister, along with &a.phk;.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.brian;</term>
<listitem>
<para>Official maintainer of
<filename>/usr/sbin/ppp</filename>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.wollman;</term>
<listitem>
<para>If you need advice on obscure network internals or
aren't sure of some potential change to the networking
subsystem you have in mind, Garrett is someone to talk
to. Garrett is also very knowledgeable on the various
standards applicable to FreeBSD.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.bmah;</term>
<listitem>
<para>Bruce is keeper of the release notes
(<filename>src/release/texts/*</filename>). If you commit a
change that you think is worthy of mention in the release notes,
please make sure Bruce knows about it. Better still, send him
a patch with your suggested commentary for the release
notes.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.ru;</term>
<listitem>
<para>Ruslan is Mr mdoc(7). If you are writing a man page and need
some advice on the structure, or the markup, ask Ruslan.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.committers;</term>
<listitem>
<para>cvs-committers is the entity that CVS uses to send you all your
commit messages. You should <emphasis>never</emphasis> send email
directly to this list. You should only send replies to this list
when they are short and are directly related to a commit.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&a.developers;</term>
<listitem>
<para>developers is all committers. This list was created to be a
forum for the committers "community" issues. Examples are Core
voting, announcements, etc... developers@FreeBSD.org is
<emphasis>not</emphasis> intended as a place for code reviews or a
replacement for arch@FreeBSD.org or audit@FreeBSD.org. In fact
using it as such hurts the FreeBSD Project as it gives a sense of a
closed list where general decisions affecting all of the FreeBSD
using community are made with out being "open".</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="ssh.guide">
<title>SSH Quick-Start Guide</title>
<procedure>
<step>
<para>If you are using FreeBSD 4.0 or later,
OpenSSH is included in the base system.
If you are using an earlier release,
update and install one of the SSH ports. In general,
you will probably want to get OpenSSH from the port in
<filename>/usr/ports/security/openssh</filename>. You
may also wish to check out the original ssh1 in
<filename>/usr/ports/security/ssh</filename>, but make
certain you pay attention to its license. Note that both
of these ports cannot be installed at the same time.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>If you do not wish to type your password in every
time you use &man.ssh.1;, and you use RSA keys to
authenticate, &man.ssh-agent.1; is there for your
convenience. If you want to use &man.ssh-agent.1;, make
sure that you run it before running other applications. X
users, for example, usually do this from their
<filename>.xsession</filename> or
<filename>.xinitrc</filename> file. See &man.ssh-agent.1;
for details.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Generate a key pair using &man.ssh-keygen.1;. The key
pair will wind up in the
<filename><envar>$HOME</envar>/.ssh</filename>
directory.</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Send your public key
(<filename><envar>$HOME</envar>/.ssh/identity.pub</filename>)
to the person setting you up as a committer so it can be put
into your <filename>authorized_keys</filename> file in your
home directory on <hostid>freefall</hostid>
(i.e.
<filename><envar>$HOME</envar>/.ssh/authorized_keys</filename>).
</para>
</step>
</procedure>
<para>Now you should be able to use &man.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 (&man.ssh-agent.1;). If you no longer
wish to have your key stored in the agent, issuing
<command>ssh-add -d</command> will remove it.</para>
<para>Test by doing something such as <command>ssh
freefall.FreeBSD.org ls /usr</command>.</para>
<para>For more information, see
<filename>/usr/ports/security/openssh</filename>, &man.ssh.1;,
&man.ssh-add.1;, &man.ssh-agent.1;, &man.ssh-keygen.1;, and
&man.scp.1;.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>The FreeBSD Committers' Big List of Rules</title>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Respect other committers.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Respect other contributors.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Discuss any significant change
<emphasis>before</emphasis> committing.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Respect existing maintainers if listed in the
(<makevar>MAINTAINER</makevar> field in
<filename>Makefile</filename> or in the
<filename>MAINTAINER</filename> file in the top-level
directory).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Never touch the repository directly. Ask a
Repomeister.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>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.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Changes go to <literal>-CURRENT</literal> before
<literal>-STABLE</literal> unless specifically permitted by
the release engineer or unless they're not applicable to
<literal>-CURRENT</literal>. Any non-trivial or non-urgent
change which is applicable should also be allowed to sit in
<literal>-CURRENT</literal> for at least 3 days before
merging so that it can be given sufficient testing. The
release engineer has the same authority over the
<literal>-STABLE</literal> branch as outlined for the
maintainer in rule #5.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks
bad. If you must <quote>strongly disagree</quote> about
something, do so only in private.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Respect all code freezes and read the
<literal>committers</literal> mailing list on a timely basis
so you know when a code freeze is in effect.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Test your changes before committing them.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>As noted, breaking some of these rules can be grounds for
suspension or, upon repeated offense, permanent removal of
commit privileges. Three or more members of core
acting in unison,
have the power to temporarily suspend commit privileges until
<literal>-core</literal> as a whole has the chance to review the
issue. In case of an <quote>emergency</quote> (a committer
doing damage to the repository), a temporary suspension may also
be done by the repository meisters or any other member of core
who may happen to be awake at the time. Only core as a whole
has the authority to suspend commit privileges for any
significant length of time or to remove them permanently, the
latter generally only being done after consultation with
committers. 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 seriously out of control, it's 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 <quote>hearing</quote>,
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 have elapsed.
This review policy is <emphasis>strictly informal</emphasis>
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.</para>
<para>In all other aspects of project operation, core is a subset
of committers and is bound by the <emphasis>same
rules</emphasis>. Just because someone is in core doesn't mean
that they have special dispensation to step outside of any of
the lines painted here; core's <quote>special powers</quote>
only kick in when it acts as a group, not on an individual
basis. As individuals, we are all committers first and core
second.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Details</title>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Respect other committers.</para>
<para>This means that you need to treat other committers as
the peer-group developers that they are. Despite our
occasional attempts to prove the contrary, one doesn't get
into committers by being stupid and nothing rankles more
than being treated that way by one of your peers. Whether
we always feel respect for one another or not (and
everyone has off days), we still have to
<emphasis>treat</emphasis> other committers with respect
at all times or the whole team structure rapidly breaks
down.</para>
<para>Being able to work together long term is this project's
greatest asset, one far more important than any set of
changes to the code, and turning arguments about code into
issues that affect our long-term ability to work
harmoniously together is just not worth the trade-off by
any conceivable stretch of the imagination.</para>
<para>To comply with this rule, don't send email when you're
angry or otherwise behave in a manner which is likely to
strike others as needlessly confrontational. First calm
down, then think about how to communicate in the most
effective fashion for convincing the other person(s) that
your side of the argument is correct, don't just blow off
some steam so you can feel better in the short term at the
cost of a long-term flame war. Not only is this very bad
<quote>energy economics</quote>, but repeated displays of
public aggression which impair our ability to work well
together will be dealt with severely by the project
leadership and may result in suspension or termination of
your commit privileges. That's never an option which the
project's leadership enjoys in the slightest, but unity
comes first. No amount of code or good advice is worth
trading that away.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Respect other contributors.</para>
<para>You weren't always a committer. At one time you were
a contributor. Remember that at all times. Remember what
it was like trying to get help and attention. Don't forget
that your work as a contributor time was very important to
you. Remember what it was like. Don't discourage, belittle,
or demean contributors. Treat them with respect. They are
our committers in waiting. They are every bit as important
to the project as committers. Their contributions are as
valid and as important as your own. After all, you made
many contributions before you became a committer. Always
remember that. </para>
<para>Consider the points raised under 'Respect other committers'
and apply them also to contributors.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Discuss any significant change
<emphasis>before</emphasis> committing.</para>
<para>The CVS repository is not where changes should be
initially submitted for correctness or argued over, that
should happen first in the mailing lists and then
committed only once something resembling consensus has
been reached. This doesn't mean that you have to ask
permission before correcting every obvious syntax error or
man page misspelling, simply that you should try to
develop a feel for when a proposed change isn't quite such
a no-brainer and requires some feedback first. People
really don't mind sweeping changes if the result is
something clearly better than what they had before, they
just don't like being <emphasis>surprised</emphasis> by
those changes. The very best way of making sure that
you're on the right track is to have your code reviewed by
one or more other committers.</para>
<para>When in doubt, ask for review!</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Respect existing maintainers if listed.</para>
<para>Many parts of FreeBSD aren't <quote>owned</quote> in
the sense that any specific individual will jump up and
yell if you commit a change to <quote>their</quote> area,
but it still pays to check first. One convention we use
is to put a maintainer line in the
<filename>Makefile</filename> for any package or subtree
which is being actively maintained by one or more people;
see <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/policies.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/policies.html</ulink>
for documentation on this. Where sections of code have
several maintainers, commits to affected areas by one
maintainer need to be reviewed by at least one other
maintainer. In cases where the
<quote>maintainer-ship</quote> of something isn't clear,
you can also look at the CVS logs for the file(s) in
question and see if someone has been working recently or
predominantly in that area.</para>
<para>Other areas of FreeBSD fall under the control of
someone who manages an overall category of FreeBSD
evolution, such as internationalization or networking.
See <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/staff-who.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/staff-who.html</ulink>
for more information on this.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Never touch the repository directly. Ask a
Repomeister.</para>
<para>This is pretty clear - you're not allowed to make
direct modifications to the CVS repository, period. In
case of difficulty, ask one of the repository meisters by
sending mail to <email>cvs@FreeBSD.org</email> and simply
wait for them to fix the problem and get back to you. Do
not attempt to fix the problem yourself!</para>
<para>If you're thinking about putting down a tag or doing a
new import of code on a vendor branch, you might also find
it useful to ask for advice first. A lot of people get
this wrong the first few times and the consequences are
expensive in terms of files touched and angry CVSup/CTM
folks who are suddenly getting a lot of changes sent over
unnecessarily.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>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.</para>
<para>This may be hard to swallow in times of conflict (when
each side is convinced that they're in the right, of
course) but CVS makes it unnecessary to have an ongoing
dispute raging when it's far easier to simply reverse the
disputed change, get everyone calmed down again and then
try and figure out how best to proceed. If the change
turns out to be the best thing after all, it can be easily
brought back. If it turns out not to be, then the users
didn't have to live with the bogus change in the tree
while everyone was busily debating its merits. People
very very rarely call for back-outs in the repository
since discussion generally exposes bad or controversial
changes before the commit even happens, but on such rare
occasions the back-out should be done without argument so
that we can get immediately on to the topic of figuring
out whether it was bogus or not.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Changes go to <literal>-CURRENT</literal> before
<literal>-STABLE</literal> unless specifically permitted
by the release engineer or unless they're not applicable
to <literal>-CURRENT</literal>. Any non-trivial or
non-urgent change which is applicable should also be
allowed to sit in <literal>-CURRENT</literal> for at least
3 days before merging so that it can be given sufficient
testing. The release engineer has the same authority over
the <literal>-STABLE</literal> branch as outlined in rule
#5.</para>
<para>This is another <quote>don't argue about it</quote>
issue since it's the release engineer who is ultimately
responsible (and gets beaten up) if a change turns out to
be bad. Please respect this and give the release engineer
your full cooperation when it comes to the
<literal>-STABLE</literal> branch. The management of
<literal>-STABLE</literal> may frequently seem to be
overly conservative to the casual observer, but also bear
in mind the fact that conservatism is supposed to be the
hallmark of <literal>-STABLE</literal> and different rules
apply there than in <literal>-CURRENT</literal>. There's
also really no point in having <literal>-CURRENT</literal>
be a testing ground if changes are merged over to
<literal>-STABLE</literal> immediately. Changes need a
chance to be tested by the <literal>-CURRENT</literal>
developers, so allow some time to elapse before merging
unless the <literal>-STABLE</literal> fix is critical,
time sensitive or so obvious as to make further testing
unnecessary (spelling fixes to manpages, obvious bug/typo
fixes, etc.) In other words, apply common sense.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Don't fight in public with other committers; it looks
bad. If you must <quote>strongly disagree</quote> about
something, do so only in private.</para>
<para>This project has a public image to uphold and that
image is very important to all of us, especially if we are
to continue to attract new members. There will be
occasions when, despite everyone's very best attempts at
self-control, tempers are lost and angry words are
exchanged, and the best we can do is try and minimize the
effects of this until everyone has cooled back down. That
means that you should not air your angry words in public
and you should not forward private correspondence to
public mailing lists or aliases. What people say
one-to-one is often much less sugar-coated than what they
would say in public, and such communications therefore
have no place there - they only serve to inflame an
already bad situation. If the person sending you a
flame-o-gram at least had the grace to send it privately,
then have the grace to keep it private yourself. If you
feel you are being unfairly treated by another developer,
and it is causing you anguish, bring the matter up with
core rather than taking it public. We will do our best to
play peace makers and get things back to sanity. In cases
where the dispute involves a change to the codebase and
the participants do not appear to be reaching an amicable
agreement, core may appoint a mutually-agreeable 3rd party
to resolve the dispute. All parties involved must then
agree to be bound by the decision reached by this 3rd
party.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Respect all code freezes and read the
<literal>committers</literal> mailing list on a timely
basis so you know when they are.</para>
<para>Committing changes during a code freeze is a really
big mistake and committers are expected to keep up-to-date
on what's going on before jumping in after a long absence
and committing 10 megabytes worth of accumulated stuff.
People who abuse this on a regular basis will have their
commit privileges suspended until they get back from the
FreeBSD Happy Reeducation Camp we run in Greenland.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!</para>
<para>Many mistakes are made because someone is in a hurry
and just assumes they know the right way of doing
something. If you have not done it before, chances are
good that you do not actually know the way we do things
and really need to ask first or you are going to
completely embarrass yourself in public. There's no shame
in asking <quote>how in the heck do I do this?</quote> We
already know you are an intelligent person; otherwise, you
would not be a committer.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Test your changes before committing them.</para>
<para>This may sound obvious, but if it really were so
obvious then we probably wouldn't see so many cases of
people clearly not doing this. If your changes are to the
kernel, make sure you can still compile both GENERIC and
LINT. If your changes are anywhere else, make sure you
can still make world. If your changes are to a branch,
make sure your testing occurs with a machine which is
running that code. If you have a change which also may
break another architecture, be sure and test on all
supported architectures. Currently, this is only the x86
and the Alpha so it's pretty easy to do. If you need to
test on the AXP, your account on <hostid
role="fqdn">beast.FreeBSD.org</hostid> will let you
compile and test Alpha binaries/kernels/etc. As other
architectures are added to the FreeBSD supported platforms
list, the appropriate shared testing resources will be
made available.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Other Suggestions</title>
<para>When committing documentation changes, use a spell checker
before committing. :) For all SGML docs, you should also
verify that your formatting directives are correct by running
<command>make lint</command>.</para>
<para>For all on-line manual pages, run <command>manck</command>
(from ports) over the man page to verify the all of the cross
references and file references are correct and that the man
page has all of the appropriate <makevar>MLINK</makevar>s
installed.</para>
<para>Do not mix style fixes with new functionality. A style
fix is any change which does not modify the functionality of
the code. Mixing the changes obfuscates the functionality
change when using <command>cvs diff</command>, which can hide
any new bugs. Do not include whitespace changes with content
changes in commits to <filename>doc/</filename> or
<filename>www/</filename>. The extra clutter in the diffs
makes the translators' job much more difficult. Instead, make
any style or whitespace changes in separate commits that are
clearly labeled as such in the commit message.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Ports Specific FAQ</title>
<qandaset>
<qandadiv>
<title>Adding a New Port</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I add a new port?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>First, please read the section about repository
copy.</para>
<para>The easiest way to add a new port is to use the
<command>addport</command> script on
<hostid>freefall</hostid>. It will add a port from the
directory you specify, determining the category automatically
from the port <filename>Makefile</filename>.
It will also add an entry to the
<filename>CVSROOT/modules</filename> file and the port's
category <filename>Makefile</filename>. It was
written by &a.mharo; and &a.will;, but Will is the current
maintainer so please send questions/patches about
<command>addport</command> to him.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Any other things I need to know when I add a new
port?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Check the port, preferably to make sure it compiles
and packages correctly. This is the recommended
sequence:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>make install</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make package</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make deinstall</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add <replaceable>package you built above</replaceable></userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make deinstall</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make reinstall</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make package</userinput>
</screen>
<para>The
<ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/porters-handbook/index.html">Porters
Handbook</ulink> contains more detailed
instructions.</para>
<para>Use &man.portlint.1; to check the syntax of the port.
You don't necessarily have to eliminate all warnings but
make sure you have fixed the simple ones.</para>
<para>If the port came from a submitter who has not
contributed to the project before, add that person's
name to the Handbook's <citetitle
pubwork="section">Additional Contributors</citetitle>
section.</para>
<para>Close the PR if the port came in as a PR. To close
a PR, just do
<userinput>edit-pr <replaceable>PR#</replaceable></userinput>
on <hostid>freefall</hostid> and change the
<varname>state</varname> from <constant>open</constant>
to <constant>closed</constant>. You will be asked to
enter a log message and then you are done.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv>
<title>Repository Copies</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>When do we need a repository copy?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>When you want to add a port that is related to
any port that is already in the tree in a separate
directory, please send mail to the ports manager asking
about it. Here <wordasword>related</wordasword> means
it is a different version or a slightly modified
version. Examples are
<filename>print/ghostscript*</filename> (different
versions) and <filename>x11-wm/windowmaker*</filename>
(English-only and internationalized version).</para>
<para>Another example is when a port is moved from one
subdirectory to another, or when you want to change the
name of a directory because the author(s) renamed their
software even though it is a
descendant of a port already in a tree.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>When do we <emphasis>not</emphasis> need a
repository copy?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>When there is no history to preserve. If a port is
added into a wrong category and is moved immediately,
it suffices to simply <command>cvs remove</command> the
old one and <command>addport</command> the new
one.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>What do I need to do?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Send mail to the ports manager, who will do a copy
from the old location/name to the new location/name.
You will then get a notice, at which point you are
expected to perform the following:</para>
<procedure>
<step>
<para><command>cvs remove</command> the old port (if
necessary)</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Adjust the parent (category)
<filename>Makefile</filename></para>
</step>
<step>
<para>Update <filename>CVSROOT/modules</filename></para>
</step>
<step>
<para>If other ports depend on the updated port,
change their <filename>Makefile</filename>s'
dependency lines</para>
</step>
<step>
<para>If the port changed categories, modify the
<makevar>CATEGORIES</makevar> line of the port's
<filename>Makefile</filename> accordingly</para>
</step>
</procedure>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv>
<title>Ports Freeze</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>What is a <quote>ports freeze</quote>?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Before a release, it is necessary to restrict
commits to the ports tree for a short period of time
while the packages and the release itself are being
built. This is to ensure consistency among the various
parts of the release, and is called the <quote>ports
freeze</quote>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How long is a ports freeze?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Usually an hour or two.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>What does it mean to me?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>During the ports freeze, you are not allowed to
commit anything to the tree without explicit approval
from the ports manager. <quote>Explicit
approval</quote> here means either of the
following:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>You asked the ports manager and got a reply
saying, <quote>Go ahead and commit
it.</quote></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The ports manager sent a mail to you or the
mailing lists during the ports freeze pointing out
that the port is broken and has to be fixed.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Note that you do not have implicit permission to fix
a port during the freeze just because it is
broken.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I know when the ports freeze starts?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>The ports manager will send out warning messages to
the <email>freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org</email> and
<email>cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org</email> mailing lists
announcing the start of the impending release, usually
two or three weeks in advance. The exact starting time
will not be determined until a few days before the
actual release. This is because the ports freeze has to
be synchronized with the release, and it is usually not
known until then when exactly the release will be
rolled.</para>
<para>When the freeze starts, there will be another
announcement to the
<email>cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org</email> list, of
course.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I know when the ports freeze ends?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>A few hours after the release, the ports manager
will send out a mail to the
<email>freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.org</email> and
<email>cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org</email> mailing lists
announcing the end of the ports freeze. Note that the
release being cut does not automatically end the freeze.
We have to make sure there will not be any last minute
snafus that result in an immediate re-rolling of the
release.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
<qandadiv>
<title>Miscellaneous Questions</title>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I know if my port is building correctly or
not?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>First, go check
<ulink url="http://bento.FreeBSD.org/~asami/errorlogs/">http://bento.FreeBSD.org/~asami/errorlogs/</ulink>.
There you will find error logs from the latest package
building runs on 3-stable, 4-stable and 5-current.</para>
<para>However, just because the port doesn't show up there
doesn't mean it's building correctly. (One of the
dependencies may have failed, for instance.) Here are
the relevant directories on bento, so feel free to dig
around.</para>
<programlisting> /a/asami/portbuild/3/errors error logs from latest 3-stable run
/logs all logs from latest 3-stable run
/packages packages from latest 3-stable run
/bak/errors error logs from last complete 3-stable run
/bak/logs all logs from last complete 3-stable run
/bak/packages packages from last complete 3-stable run
/4/errors error logs from latest 4-stable run
/logs all logs from latest 4-stable run
/packages packages from latest 4-stable run
/bak/errors error logs from last complete 4-stable run
/bak/logs all logs from last complete 4-stable run
/bak/packages packages from last complete 4-stable run
/5/errors error logs from latest 5-current run
/logs all logs from latest 5-current run
/packages packages from latest 5-current run
/bak/errors error logs from last complete 5-current run
/bak/logs all logs from last complete 5-current run
/bak/packages packages from last complete 5-current run
</programlisting>
<para>Basically, if the port shows up in
<filename>packages</filename>, or it is in
<filename>logs</filename> but not in
<filename>errors</filename>, it built fine. (The
<filename>errors</filename> directories are what you get
from the web page.)</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>I added a new port. Do I need to add it to the
<filename>INDEX</filename>?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>No. The ports manager will regenerate the
<filename>INDEX</filename> and commit it every few
days.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Are there any other files I'm not allowed to
touch?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Any file directly under <filename>ports/</filename>, or
any file under a subdirectory that starts with an
uppercase letter (<filename>Mk/</filename>,
<filename>Tools/</filename>, etc.). In particular, the
ports manager is very protective of
<filename>ports/Mk/bsd.port*.mk</filename> so don't
commit changes to those files unless you want to face his
wra(i)th.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
</qandaset>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Miscellaneous Questions</title>
<qandaset>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Why are trivial or cosmetic changes to files on a vendor
branch a bad idea?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>The RCS file format is quite braindead and certain
operations to achieve things for CVS are hideously
expensive for the repository. Making changes to files on
a vendor branch, thereby pulling the file off that branch,
is one example of this.</para>
<para>Suppose you have a file which was first imported on a
vendor branch, and was then re-imported three times (still
on the vendor branch) as the vendor makes updates to the
file.</para>
<segmentedlist>
<seglistitem>
<seg>1.1.1.1</seg>
<seg>vendor import</seg>
</seglistitem>
<seglistitem>
<seg>1.1.1.2</seg>
<seg>vendor import, +1000, -500 lines</seg>
</seglistitem>
<seglistitem>
<seg>1.1.1.3</seg>
<seg>vendor import, +2000, -500 lines</seg>
</seglistitem>
<seglistitem>
<seg>1.1.1.4</seg>
<seg>vendor import, +1000, -1000 lines</seg>
</seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>
<para>Now suppose that one of the FreeBSD committers makes a
one line change to this file, causing it to go to version
1.2. This causes it to leave the branch, resulting in
4,001 lines being added to the file's history, and 2,001
lines being deleted.</para>
<para>This is because the 1.2 delta is stored relative to
1.1.1.1, <emphasis>not</emphasis> 1.1.1.4, and so the
entire vendor history is duplicated in the 1.2 delta.
Now, repeat this for 2000 files in a large directory, it
adds up a lot.</para>
<para><emphasis>This</emphasis> is why we have such
<quote>hands off</quote> policies for
<filename>src/contrib</filename> and other things that
track the vendor releases. This is why <quote>typo
fixes</quote> in man pages and spelling
<quote>corrections</quote> are so strongly discouraged for
vendor code.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I add a new file to a CVS branch?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>To add a file onto a branch, simply checkout or update
to the branch you want to add to and then add the file using
<command>cvs add</command> as you normally would. For
example, if you wanted to MFC the file
<filename>src/sys/alpha/include/smp.h</filename> from HEAD
to RELENG_4 and it does not exist in RELENG_4 yet, you would
use the following steps:</para>
<example>
<title>MFC'ing a New File</title>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>cd sys/alpha/include</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs update -rRELENG_4</userinput>
cvs update: Updating .
U clockvar.h
U console.h
...
&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs update -kk -Ap smp.h > smp.h</userinput>
===================================================================
Checking out smp.h
RCS: /usr/cvs/src/sys/alpha/include/smp.h,v
VERS: 1.1
***************
&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs add smp.h</userinput>
cvs add: scheduling file `smp.h' for addition on branch `RELENG_4'
cvs add: use 'cvs commit' to add this file permanently
&prompt.user; <userinput>cvs commit</userinput>
</screen>
</example>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandaset>
</sect1>
</article>