# FreeBSD project suggestions



## Alt (Aug 7, 2009)

Did not found any topics where users can suggest their good(or not so good xD) ideas for project. I'll try to start:

I think gnats system is too 'strong developers - oriented', it must be extended somehow. The main idea is introduce mechanism for 'general' freebsd users(sysadmins, userland programmers, etc).
For example: i work as a network sysadmin and face a ng_nat bug. After googling i found that is bug not fixed yet. Now if i give info where and how to face this bug, it will help to fix. If another non-developer suggest a patch, then developers can just test it and commit.
The sysadmin that found bug do not want to join develop, subscribe any email group etc, he just want to help us - just drop quick info, so why we dont welcome him?
The main idea is add some http interface where *anonymous or minimum-register* users can talk about each PR in forum-like style (of course, there must be an moderator), they can quick-exchange their experience with bugs and patches.

P.S. Sorry for my terrible english. :stud


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## gilinko (Aug 7, 2009)

There is a running project to address this funded by the freebsd foundation: http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/press/2009Jul-newsletter.shtml#Project5


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## Alt (Aug 7, 2009)

Great! I hope this can greatly increase feedback from users community.


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## brd@ (Aug 9, 2009)

Well feedback from the user community is not always the problem. We need more developers interested in taking those ideas and working on them and submitting them to the project and eventually becoming committers. The FreeBSD Project is driven by what the developers who are working on the code want to do. If I want the Network support to work well, then I work on that and it gets improved. So it takes people having an interest in all the different parts for all of the OS to improve.


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## aragon (Aug 9, 2009)

brd, FWIW, I've got a growing list of PRs with attached patches that no one seems to be interested in committing.  Calling for more developers and having patches ignored seems like a paradox.  Personally if my patches suck I'd rather see them rejected than left hanging...


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## jb_fvwm2 (Aug 9, 2009)

As far as increasing the Freebsd user base,
if the standard documentation (imho [1]) were to
instead of solely the "upgrade all dependendent" instructions
commonly found in UPDATING, which originated when there
were far fewer ports, include another way, (which I 
recently began using), something like,
...............................
"if there are too many dependent ports to comfortably
upgrade, run 
	
	



```
ldd ./* | lookat
```
in /usr/local/sbin,
in /usr/local/bin,
and in /usr/local/lib.  Search for "found"
(the S key in /lookat/) and you will find
far fewer (maybe) to upgrade, as well as
binaries or .so files missed in previous
upgrades of other ports.
.....................
Then, perchance, millions of students (just the
first class of persons that comes to mind) (were those students to be using FreeBSD), who
need to be studying instead, could forgo UPDATING
hours (or days or weeks) several times a year
and monthly or so run the ldd checks, updating
just the binaries found instead.
..........
I read threads on freebsd-questions sometimes which
seemingly invite that procedure or a similar one
as an answer... ...  it also 
(somewhat) answers posts I've made in regards to
(some) upgrades over the years.

[1] As a part-time Freebsd user, in that the computer can
(several times yearly, some years) not *comfortably* be 
upgrading ports the amount of hours the UPDATING instructions
typically imply would be necc....


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## brd@ (Aug 9, 2009)

aragon said:
			
		

> brd, FWIW, I've got a growing list of PRs with attached patches that no one seems to be interested in committing.  Calling for more developers and having patches ignored seems like a paradox.  Personally if my patches suck I'd rather see them rejected than left hanging...



Please let me know what they are and I can try and locate interested parties and help get them in. Yes it is kind of a catch-22, we need more developers submitting new things, but we also need more developers looking at things that are coming in.


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## Alt (Aug 9, 2009)

brd@ said:
			
		

> Please let me know what they are and I can try and locate interested parties and help get them in. Yes it is kind of a catch-22, we need more developers submitting new things, but we also need more developers looking at things that are coming in.


Bah! Its what im talking about in 1st post xD 
A someone sysadmin can apply patch and say that it works or not, he need problem resolution, and project needs his testing! He just can't say anything atm


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## aragon (Aug 9, 2009)

brd@ said:
			
		

> Please let me know what they are and I can try and locate interested parties and help get them in. Yes it is kind of a catch-22, we need more developers submitting new things, but we also need more developers looking at things that are coming in.


Understandable and pardon my negativity just now.  They are:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=133227
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=136889
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=137379

Thanks for looking!


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## brd@ (Aug 10, 2009)

OK, I think I know who to poke about the nanobsd one, lets see what they say. If they approve them I'll commit them.. I'll have to poke around and find out about the whois(1) and ppp(8) ones.


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## brd@ (Aug 11, 2009)

I forgot to mention not much will happen on these for a bit since we are in the middle of a code freeze until 8.0 is released.


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## aragon (Dec 1, 2009)

brd@ said:
			
		

> I forgot to mention not much will happen on these for a bit since we are in the middle of a code freeze until 8.0 is released.


*friendly bump*


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