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Xref: sserve comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:4055 comp.os.linux.advocacy:15063 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!newshost.marcam.com!usc!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!dish.news.pipex.net!pipex!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!KremlSun!rivendell.elvis.msk.su!news.uni-stuttgart.de!uni-regensburg.de!lrz-muenchen.de!fauern!news.tu-chemnitz.de!irz401!uriah.heep!bonnie.heep!not-for-mail From: j@bonnie.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: FreeBSD devlopment [Was: Sun/Solaris or Pentium/Linux...] Date: 3 Aug 1995 10:04:12 +0200 Organization: Private U**x site, Dresden. Lines: 59 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <3vpvts$2j4@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de> References: <3vlpgk$rdk@graphite.comco.com> <3vmgmn$jt6@brasil.moneng.mei.com> <3vnme6$rtu@sundog.tiac.net> Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.109.108.139 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Jim Williams <williams@tiac.net> wrote: >I know nothing about how FreeBSD is developed, and would like like to know >how FreeBSD development happens. In a slightly less `anarchic' way. :) Briefly: o FreeBSD is developed as a whole system, not just a kernel only. The entire source tree is centrally maintained as a CVS repository on freefall.cdrom.com (except the foreign crypto code, for US legal reasons). This includes the kernel and the system utilities. (Plus the add-on `packages', a collection of ported software from various sources in the Internet. It's no direct part of the system, but maintained similarly.) o Technical discussions about the development are held on several mailing list, with freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org being the most general one. If you wanna know more about the various lists and their topics, write to majordomo@freebsd.org with a line saying just `help' in the body of the mail. o There are currently ~ 50 people from all over the world who have privileges to directly manipulate the CVS tree. Those people are held responsible for their doing, i.e. if anybody of those folks did break something when commiting new code or bug fixes, he'll have to fix his breakage. Those who don't have commit privilege are free to contribute code, but this will have to be passed through somebody with priv's, and the _latter_ one being responsible for it. (This usually happens via one of the mailing lists.) o There's a protocol to report problems and bug fixes back (those who are email-connected to the Internet are encouraged to do it directly with the send-pr program). The reports are collected in a database and are being tracked, including automatically reporting status changes back to the user who has submitted the report. (Quality control.) o There's a protocol to finalize new releases of the system. It basically consists of one or more (but very few) people as the `release engineer(s)', who control the final development steps of a release. Releases normally undergo alpha and beta cycles. (Quality assurance.) o There's an ability to run the `latest and greatest' bits of the system, called ``-current''. It can be obtained via two different transport protocols (SUP and CTM), even through email if desired. This is basically intented as a development basis for people who are interested in participating in the development (including testing), it is *not* intented for people who wish to run a stable system. They are better served by running a release. I hope i didn't forget anything. -- cheers, J"org private: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)