Opensource Development

Starting an open source project
This document can be freely distributed under the Creative Commons license
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/cz/ By Petr Havel 2010

What is essential to get an open source project up and
running?
Slide Number: 2

• A problem that is bugging people
• Collaboration Software
• The right communication skills
• Capability to do what others don’t want to
• Lead by example
Slide Number: 3

Starting a project
Basic points for starting a new project:
• Choose a Good Name
• Have a Clear Mission Statement
• Put together the basic guidelines
• Version Control
• Bug Tracker
• Documentation (or at least the guidelines for it)
• Communication Channels
Slide Number: 4

Version control system
A combination of technologies and practices for tracking
and controlling changes to a project's files, in particular
to source code, documentation and web pages.
Slide Number: 5

Vocabulary:
– Commit
– Log message
– Update
– Repository
– Checkout
– Working copy
– Revision, change
– Diff
– Branch
– Merge
– Conflict
– lock
Slide Number: 6

• Version everything
• Commit emails
• Should be browsable
Examples:
• Concurrent Versions System (CVS,
http://www.cvshome.org/)
• Subversion (SVN, http://subversion.tigris.org/).
Slide Number: 7

Bug tracker
• Accessible to everyone
• Create a policy for adding bugs
• Connect to a mailing list
• Buddy system
• Should ask for the mailing address but also allow
anonymity
• Do not allow it to be used instead of other
communication channels
Slide Number: 8

Bug tracker software
• Bugzilla [http://www.bugzilla.org/]
• GNATS [http://www.gnu.org/software/gnats/]
• RequestTracker [http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/]
• Trac [http://trac.edgewall.com/]
• Flyspray [http://www.flyspray.org/]
• Debian Bug Tracking System
[http://www.chiark.greenend]
Slide Number: 9

Documentation
• Use a simple easy to edit format like HTML,plain text,
Textinfo, XML
• Limit the scope
• Describe clearly and thoroughly how to set up the
software
• Give one tutorial-style example of how to do a common
task
• Label the areas where the documentation is known to be
incomplete.
Slide Number: 10

Mailing lists
Are the main arteries of your project.
• Keep them to a minimum the basic are:
Developer
Bug reports
Announcements (annoucment@yourproject.com)
• Remember to archive
• Management
• Interaction
Slide Number: 11

Mailing list software
Mailing list management software:
– Mailman [http://www.list.org/]
– SmartList [http://www.procmail.org/]
– Ecartis [http://www.ecartis.org/]
– ListProc [http://listproc.sourceforge.net/]
– Ezmlm [http://cr.yp.to/ezmlm.html]
– Dada [http://mojo.skazat.com/]
Mailing list archiving:
– MHonArc [http://www.mhonarc.org/]
– Hypermail [http://www.hypermail.org/]
– Lurker [http://sourceforge.net/projects/lurker/]
– Procmail [http://www.procmail.org/]
Slide Number: 12

Other Communication
IRC and chat room
• Helps to create a sense of community
• Secondary
all agreements should go onto the mailing lists
• Archiving?
Wiki pages
• Open to the public
RSS feeds
Slide Number: 13

Web site
Binds everything together
Should include:
– Mission statement
– Sate that the project is free and the name of the license
– Features and requirements list
– Development status
– Downloads
– Version control and bug tracker access
– Communication channels
– Guidelines
– Documentation
– Screen shots
Slide Number: 14

Canned sites
• Everything set up and ready
• Adds
• Cannot customize
Examples:
– SourceForge [http://www.sourceforge.net/]
– savannah.gnu.org [http://savannah.gnu.org/]
– BerliOS.de [http://www.berlios.de/]
– Apache Software Foundation [http://www.apache.org/]
– Tigris.org [http://www.tigris.org/]
Slide Number: 15

Release Management
Release numbering
– Stability (alpha,beta,stable,unstable,development)
– Backwards, forward, compatibility
– Major.minor.micro (R2.3.11)
– Parity
Release branches
– Snapshot
– Stabilize
Release management
– Dictatorship by owner
– Change voting
Slide Number: 16

Release management
Slide Number: 17

Policy
• Benevolent Dictatorship
– final decision-making authority rests with one person
– Common founder of the project
– Forking keeps dictator in check
• Consensus based democracy
– Seems more evolutionarily stable
– Version control lets this happen
– Voting (last resort)
– Has to have good guidelines
– Who votes (very often commiters)
Slide Number: 18© 2008 Acision BV. All rights reserved
© 2008 Acision BV. All rights reserved

Money
• Direct investment
– People inside the company
– Need to be accepted by the community
– Each person for himself
• Contracting
– Best to hire a person already involved
– Let the other people know that you are working on a contract
• Contributions
– Finical sponsoring
– Quality insurance (testing)
– Documentation
– hosting
Slide Number: 19

Where to go from here?
• Producing oss [http://www.producingoss.com/]
• Open source software development
[http://www.pascal.case.unibz.it/retrieve/2760/greenberg
.pdf]
• The Cathedral and Bazaar
[http://catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/]
• Ecology of open source software development
[opensource.mit.edu/papers/healyschussman.pdf]
• Release management within open source projects
[www.erenkrantz.com/Geeks/Research/.../ReleaseMana
gement.pdf]
Slide Number: 20

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