How can I help FreeBSD?

[Mo.Keef via freebsd-questions]

Greetings,
I knew about FreeBSD long time ago, but only recently tried to install it.

I also researched a little bit about the main differences between kFreeBSD and Linux in general, and two of the things that attracted me were a more mature code base, and the amount of documentation.

I'm yet to become a decent programmer in general, yet to develop code for Operating systems.. but nevertheless I'm willing to study and learn more.. I disparately want to contribute and help the project, and be able to fight back (with patches and code) those who say that the BSDs are dying..

I really want to help. Unfortunately all I can do now is learning more.
If possible, can you please give me a list of headings for topics that I will need to understand in order to start reading the code base, and enjoy its elegance?

Regards,
(Hopefully a future developer).

[Robert Huff]

Post by Mo.Keef via freebsd-questions
I really want to help. Unfortunately all I can do now is learning more.

A good way to do that, while contributing to the project, is to
work on the documentation. Specifically, look for open bugs where
people complain the documentation is outdated or does not correctly
describe actual behaviour.
Develop a patch.
Submit it for review.
Get it committed.
In the process, meet knowledgable people and ask them incisive
questions. :-)

Post by Mo.Keef via freebsd-questions
(Hopefully a future developer).

We can always use more.


Respectfully,


Robert Huff

[Polytropon]

Post by Mo.Keef via freebsd-questions
I also researched a little bit about the main differences between
kFreeBSD and Linux in general, and two of the things that attracted
me were a more mature code base, and the amount of documentation.

It's not just about the amount, but also about the quality
and the accessibility of documentation where FreeBSD (and
the BSDs in general) are often considered superior to Linux
(which, to be fair, has a different approach to documentation,
which is fully valid for how they do things over there).

Post by Mo.Keef via freebsd-questions
I'm yet to become a decent programmer in general, yet to develop
code for Operating systems.. but nevertheless I'm willing to study
and learn more.. I disparately want to contribute and help the
project, and be able to fight back (with patches and code) those
who say that the BSDs are dying..

The BSDs aren't dying. In fact, they are quite alive, and
they keep the whole Internet running. :-)

Post by Mo.Keef via freebsd-questions
I really want to help. Unfortunately all I can do now is learning more.
If possible, can you please give me a list of headings for topics that
I will need to understand in order to start reading the code base, and
enjoy its elegance?

A fundamental understanding of C, maybe Assembly, make, and
of course sh shell script should be established. The TOC of
the FreeBSD handbook (accompanied by the FAQ) should give you
a good overview of how everything is structured and how the
parts fit into each other. The codebase reflects the logical
structure of the operating system's concepts, so you'll be
able to easily locate what particular part you are interested
in. Also check the "intro" manpages for the sections, and
of course things like "man 8 boot". Remember that there is
a manpage for almost everything in the system, so if you
stumble upon something you don't know yet, ask man about it.

Web resources:

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/

https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi