How to contribute (was Re: Kernelnewbies Digest, Vol 77, Issue 7

[aishpant@gmail.com (Aishwarya Pant)]

On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 08:34:51AM -0400, valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> On Wed, 12 Apr 2017 10:30:27 +0800, Tran Ly Vu said:
> 
> > How exactly do i start to contribute to linux community, i.e fix bug, etc
> 
> Step 0:  Figure out *why* you want to contribute to the Linux kernel.
> 
> Did your boss just tell you that you have 6 weeks to write a driver for
> your company's new widget?
> 
> Do you have a device that doesn't have Linux support?
> 
> Is your kernel crashing/misbehaving?
> 
> Do you have an intense interest in filesystems, or memory management, or
> networking, or process scheduling, or other aspect of kernels?
> 
> Do you just want to give back to the community?
> 
> Did you think it was a good way to attract members of the appropriate gender?
> 
> What you do next will depend on *why* you're here, and what your current
> technical skills are.
> 
> Note that asking others for what you should do is as bad an idea as
> asking people whether you should write a murder mystery or a romance novel,
> and for exactly the same reason.  If you're doing it because somebody else
> suggested it but you don't care for it, the results will be bad.
> 
> Though if you just want to give back to the community, the easiest thing
> to do, and the most useful, is to build and boot linux-next kernels and
> see if anything breaks on your system.  We have *lots* of people slinging
> code, and not so many testing.  And testing is easier than coding. :)
> 
> Here's the cheat sheet for linux-next:
> 
> $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
> $ cd linux
> $ git remote add linux-next git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git
> $ git fetch linux-next
> $ git fetch --tags linux-next
> 
> (now get a .config file - grabbing your distro's config is a good place
> to start. 'make locallmodconfig' if you want a faster build by not building
> device driver modules for devices you don't have.
> Then do a 'make' and install/boot your kernel.  Google for detailed
> instructions for how to build/install your own kernel on your distro
> 
> ... # later on - do this once every 1-3 weeks or as time permits
> $ git remote update
> $ make oldconfig
> $ make
> (install as above)
> Boot it, and report any problems.
> 
> Do *not* do a 'git pull' to get the most recent linux-next, it won't do what
> you think.

As far as I understand unless a git pull or fetch + merge/rebase is run, 
nothing would change locally. make oldconfig would result in the same config.
Then what are we testing for here?

Thanks
Aishwarya

> 
> Yes, it really *is* that simple.
> 
> 



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