If, by any chance, you happen to like Java, we're looking for fresh blood. We're kinda short of manpower in the team at the moment: with over 1000 bugs assigned to java@g.o, any form of help is welcome. Further, you'll get to work on maintaining some of Chewi's ebuilds, some of which encompass Minecraft.
(you might wonder: who's interested in playing Minecraft on Gentoo? I asked myself the same question till I bumped into Chewi..) Patrice Monday 13 Apr 2015 14:20:56, Patrice Clement wrote : > Monday 13 Apr 2015 03:27:19, Daniel Campbell wrote : > > On 04/12/2015 05:17 AM, Yanestra wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > > > I am long time user of Gentoo and I tinker with the idea of becoming > > > Gentoo developer. > > > > > > I am a software developer by profession, but I am not quite sure if I > > > should involve with Gentoo ebuild development. > > > > > > To be honest, I have not the slightest imagination what becoming a > > > Gentoo developer might mean. Things seem to be abhorringly complicated. > > > > > > As far as I understand, there are developers, proxy developers, then > > > there is something like Project Sunrise which I don't understand. > > > > > > There are apparently several different portage source repositories, > > > basing on different software, and furthermore, there is layman. As far > > > as I remember, portage is stored in cvs, where there is also git, and > > > somewhere subversion seems to linger. > > > > > > And there is lots of documentation that appears to be outdated or > > > strangely unattached to questions concerning organisation and overall > > > structure. > > > > > > Can someone please tell me where to start becoming a developer? Do there > > > exist something like quality guidelines for ebuilds? > > > > > > Why is there such a chaos? > > > > > > Thanks! > > > > > > > As someone who is undergoing their IRC interview soon, I think I can > > answer some of these questions: > > > > * There are developers, proxy-maintainers, and the Sunrise project. > > Developers have access to the main Gentoo repository of ebuilds and do > > their best to maintain a quality tree. Proxy-maintainers are regular > > Gentoo users who "adopt" packages and pledge to help Gentoo developers > > in maintaining them until either they become a developer themselves or > > until another developer adopts the package officially. The Sunrise > > project is a separate tree where developers and users collaborate in > > getting new or specialized packages into a semi-official repository. > > Developers assist users in getting ebuilds up to snuff and help them > > build practical skills in contributing to Gentoo in a more structured > > manner. > > > > * Documentation, like the rest of Gentoo, is powered by volunteers. If > > you find any missing, erroneous, or outdated information, please file a > > bug or, if you have permissions on the Wiki, edit it yourself! > > > > * The general structure of Gentoo as an organization is somewhat simple. > > The Council makes all the big and important decisions, while developers > > have their own "herds" for specific goals (say, the perl, lisp, java, > > and games herds), which also correspond to projects with the same goals. > > The Foundation exists to give Gentoo adequate monetary and legal support > > in carrying out its goals as a distribution. Everything else is pretty > > much just a bunch of developers working together. > > > > * Gentoo's official tree is in CVS for now, but there is a git migration > > planned. I don't know the timing or exact plans for the immediate > > future, but my guess is things will be switching to git over the long > > term once logistic problems are solved. SVN repositories are available > > over layman only, as far as I'm aware. > > > > * Layman itself is a way to activate other repositories. That method is > > partially deprecated in favor of /etc/repos.conf/ files, which allow for > > greater, clearer control over repositories. Current releases of layman > > will interface with the new way of managing, and there are tools in > > place to make migration (mostly) painless. > > > > * The way to begin your journey to become a developer lies mostly in > > just helping out Gentoo, studying the Devmanual [0], and contacting > > recruiters to see if there is a mentor available for you. > > > > If you're interested in becoming an ebuild developer, you should try out > > the ebuild quiz [1]. For the most part it just takes a cautious and > > attentive eye, some adequate knowledge of bash, and familiarity with > > common building and admin tools. Since you're a developer by trade, I'm > > sure it wouldn't be a big problem for you to reach developer status. It > > takes time and effort, but in my personal opinion it's been worth every > > moment. > > > > I hope this helps! > > > > ~Daniel > > > > [0] https://devmanual.gentoo.org > > [1] https://wwwold.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/quiz/ebuild-quiz.txt > > > Hi Yanestra > > Daniel summed it up pretty well: becoming a dev is a long and lengthy process > but worth it in the end cause you'll get to meet smart and passionate folks > along the path. > > However, I'd like to point out yet another URL nobody has mentioned so far: > bugzilla [2] aka the Gentoo bug tracking system. There are always tons of bugs > waiting to get picked up. You're a software developer by profession so I would > advise you to look for bugs that lie in your field of interest. Gentoo isn't > one "big" aggregate of developers. We're broken down into small teams of > people > working on a specific topic. You can check out the list of "Projects" here > [3]. > For instance do you like Perl? Help out the Perl team package Perl packages. > Or > maybe you're a Pythonista? Give the Python team a hand. And so on and so > forth. > > Pick something you like and get involved. :) > > Patrice > > [2] https://bugs.gentoo.org/ > [3] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Gentoo > >
