Re: CFD: linux-wanking@vger.kernel.org (was [PATCH] Standard indentation of arguments)

[Johannes Weiner <hannes@saeurebad.de>]

Hi,

"Jesper Juhl" <jesper.juhl@gmail.com> writes:

> 2. How to find things to work on as a beginner
> ---
>
> Many people new to kernel development have a hard time finding
> projects to start out with. The kernel is a large project and it's not
> surprising that some people find it hard to work out where to begin.
>
> A good way to start is by trying to fix some bugs.
>
> There are plenty of bugs to go around and fixing bugs is a great way
> to learn since you need to understand (and thus learn) the code
> surrounding the bug in order to fix it properly, so it usually teaches
> a lot.  Submitting small bug fixes is also a great way to get
> comfortable with the patch submission process.
>
> Finding bugs to fix is easy. Here are some ways to find useful work to
> do:
>
  - Run a recent development kernel.  If you already know an area that
    might interest you, use the tree of that subsystem.  Otherwise
    Linus' tree.  Or the -mm tree.

> - Build a bunch of 'randconfig' kernels and log the output from the
> build. Building some 10-20 randconfig kernels usually exposes plenty
> of warnings and/or errors during the build. Fixing some of those
> should keep you busy for a while.
>
> - Grep the kernel source for "FIXME", "XXX" and similar comments. They
> often describe areas of the code that has known bugs, could be
> optimized, needs review etc. Lots of work to do can be found that way.
>
> - Look through the Kernel Janitors TODO list
> (http://kernelnewbies.org/KernelJanitors/Todo) for items of interest,
> then try to fix some of the issues on the list.
>
> - Go through the kernel Bugzilla (http://bugzilla.kernel.org/) and see
> if you can fix any of the many bugs filed in it. There's a metric
> butload of bugs filed in there that need attention.

  - Read the mailing list.  Again, if you are interested in a specific
    area, there are also subsystem-related mailing lists, check
    http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html.

Probably needs some rephrasing...

	Hannes