Looking for advice on getting started with kernel development professionally

Looking for advice on getting started with kernel development professionally

[Racz Zoli]

Hi all,

I hope it's okay to ask this here. I understand this list is mostly
for learning and discussion. I've been working on kernel-related
projects in my spare time, including an experimental filesystem, a
block level incremental backup utility, btrfs-progs and currently I`m
working on a multithreaded disk usage analyzer like "du" but written
from scratch.

I'm really interested in contributing to the Linux kernel
professionally and while I have over 15 years of programming
experience in different areas - was wondering if anyone had advice or
knew of any opportunities - internships, contract work, or mentoring
programs.

Totally understand if this isn't the right place to ask, but I'd be
grateful for any tips or redirections.

Thank you,
Zoltan Racz.

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Re: Looking for advice on getting started with kernel development professionally

[Lucas Tanure]

On Thu, Apr 24, 2025 at 4:47 PM Racz Zoli <racz.zoli@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I hope it's okay to ask this here. I understand this list is mostly
> for learning and discussion. I've been working on kernel-related
> projects in my spare time, including an experimental filesystem, a
> block level incremental backup utility, btrfs-progs and currently I`m
> working on a multithreaded disk usage analyzer like "du" but written
> from scratch.
>
> I'm really interested in contributing to the Linux kernel
> professionally and while I have over 15 years of programming
> experience in different areas - was wondering if anyone had advice or
> knew of any opportunities - internships, contract work, or mentoring
> programs.
>
Identify something in the kernel that can be improved, fixed, or
documented. Submit some patches and demonstrate to your future
employer that you have experience working with upstream projects and
the community.
Read: https://kernelnewbies.org/Outreachyfirstpatch

And when someone asks for your upstream experience, you can send this
grep on the kernel commits:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git/log/?qt=grep&q="YOUR
NAME OR EMAIL"
Like mine:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git/log/?qt=grep&q=tanure

This is just the first step.

Best of Luck
Lucas Tanure

> Totally understand if this isn't the right place to ask, but I'd be
> grateful for any tips or redirections.
>
> Thank you,
> Zoltan Racz.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies@kernelnewbies.org
> https://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies

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Re: Looking for advice on getting started with kernel development professionally

[Alison Schofield]

On Thu, Apr 24, 2025 at 10:44:14PM +0300, Racz Zoli wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I hope it's okay to ask this here. I understand this list is mostly
> for learning and discussion. I've been working on kernel-related
> projects in my spare time, including an experimental filesystem, a
> block level incremental backup utility, btrfs-progs and currently I`m
> working on a multithreaded disk usage analyzer like "du" but written
> from scratch.
> 
> I'm really interested in contributing to the Linux kernel
> professionally and while I have over 15 years of programming
> experience in different areas - was wondering if anyone had advice or
> knew of any opportunities - internships, contract work, or mentoring
> programs.
> 
> Totally understand if this isn't the right place to ask, but I'd be
> grateful for any tips or redirections.

Hi Zoltan,

If you haven't already, engage with the communities you are interested in
thought their mailing list - ie https://lore.kernel.org/linux-btrfs/
By engage, I mean follow their list, ask questions, review patches.
Even if you are a newbie, there are clarifying questions that you can
pose that others will appreciate. The point is, that before you start
asking for your contibutions to be reviewed and merged, become a known
quantity on the list. Support others. Another responder mentioned the
query that finds your tags - note we have tags for Tested-by, and 
Reviewed-by, in addition to Signed-off-by:  and all are valued.

I think this program is an option for and will get you a very 
structured start to kernel submission - https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/lkmp

Good luck!
Alison




> 
> Thank you,
> Zoltan Racz.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies@kernelnewbies.org
> https://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies

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