[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] [[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] [[!tag stable_URL]] So, you are interested in contributing to the GNU Hurd project? Welcome! Every single contribution is very much encouraged. There are various ways to contribute; read up on contributing to... [[!toc levels=3]] If someone of you is lurking around here and would like to contribute, but feels she / he could do so better under formal mentoring: please [[contact_us]], or just speak up at one of the [[regular IRC meetings|IRC#regular_meetings]]! We also have a list of [[open_issues]] and one for more elaborate [[project ideas|community/gsoc/project_ideas]] - the latter originally written for the [[Google Summer of Code|community/gsoc]], but not exclusively. Even just investigating open issues, without being able to fix them, can be useful, because a issue that has been tracked down often becomes obvious to address for people who know the stuff -- but these people typically don't have the time that is needed to track down the issues. # Documentation ## Technical Writer Our hackers (programmers) typically do what their kind always does: they code. What they don't like too much is documenting their wonderful achievements. On the other hand, there are people (you?) who enjoy documenting technical matters, so don't hesitate to [[contact_us]] if technical documentation shall be your contribution to GNU Hurd development. ## Web Pages Please read about [[how_to_contribute_to_these_web_pages|web_pages]]. # Improve GNU Hurd Running on GNU Mach The *[[GNU Hurd|hurd]] running on the [[GNU Mach microkernel|microkernel/mach/gnumach]]* is what is commonly meant when people are talking about GNU/Hurd systems. This system has mostly been designed and implemented [[in the '90s|history]]. It works and is usable. For example, these web pages have been rendered on a GNU/Hurd system. You can try it out for yourself: for getting access, installing [[Debian_GNU/Hurd|hurd/running/debian]] will probably be the easiest and most feature-complete solution. If you don't have spare hardware to use for doing so, you can also get a [[shell_account_on_a_public_Hurd_machine|public_hurd_boxen]]. Depending on the things you're going to work on (and on your internet connection), this may be an easy way of getting used to Hurd systems. Installing in a virtual machine is another possibility, see the page about [[running_a_Hurd_system|hurd/running]] for the full story. In particular, running a Debian GNU/Hurd [[QEMU image|hurd/running/QEMU]] may be a viable alternative. Then you can either play around and eventually strive to do something useful or -- if you want -- [[ask_us|contact_us]] to assign something to you, depending on the skills you have and the resources you intend to invest. Please spend some time with thinking about the items in this [[questionnaire]]. Before you can significantly contribute to the operating system itself, you'll need to take some time to learn about the system, for example: [[microkernels for beginners|microkernel/for_beginners]], [[Mach's concepts|microkernel/mach/concepts]], [[Hurd's concepts|hurd/concepts]], the *[[hurd/critique]]*. Until you can understand and do the basic exercises listed there, you won't be able to significantly contribute to the Hurd. For more reading resources, please see these web pages, for example, [[Hurd_documentation|hurd/documentation]] and [[Mach_documentation|microkernel/mach/documentation]] for links to a bunch of documents. ## Porting Packages Debian is currently the Hurd distribution of choice among Hurd users and developers. Here is a [[list_of_Debian_packages_that_need_porting|hurd/running/debian/porting]]. You can also just [[install_Debian_GNU/Hurd|hurd/running/debian]] and find what doesn't work or suit you and try to improve that. You can also have a look at the [List of failing packages](http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/failed_packages.txt). For guidelines, please have a look at the dedicated [[porting_page|hurd/porting]]. ## Open Issues There is a list of [[open_issues]]. This list includes everything from bug reports to open-ended research questions. ## Instant Development Environment *This is a very brief guide to get your development environment set up. Pester ArneBab @ irc.freenode.net on IRC if something does not work :)* ([[!taglink open_issue_documentation]]) * Install qemu-kvm via your distros packages. * Download the [qemu image](http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz): `wget http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz` * Unpack it: `tar xf debian-hurd.img.tar.gz` * Run it: `qemu-kvm debian-hurd.img -m 512 -no-kvm-irqchip` # …irq… is a currently necessary fix due to some changes in Linux. Optionally use `--curses` to keep your keyboard layout. If need be modprobe kvm_amd, kvm intel and kvm to get kvm support (which is much, much faster) * login as root * `apt-get update` * `apt-get install -y git mercurial emacs vim` * `apt-get build-dep -y hurd gnumach` * `git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/hurd/hurd.git` * `git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/hurd/gnumach.git` * `git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/hurd/incubator.git` * Get more from the [repo list](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/). * Read the docs on these pages. * Start hacking. * For shutting down, use `reboot`, then press `c` in grub and issue halt (to avoid filesystem corruption). Adding `--no-reboot` to the qemu line should help, too. # Design / Research: GNU Hurd on a Modern Microkernel Developers [[have_identified|hurd/critique]] a number of problem with the *Hurd on Mach* system. Problems, that can not easily be fixed by bug-fixing the existing code base, but which require design changes -- deep going ones actually. As such systems (as the desired one) are not in common use, but are -- if at all -- research projects, this new *Hurd on a modern microkernel* project itself is more a research project than a *sit down and implement/code/hack* project. If you're interested in contributing in this area, knowing the *Hurd on Mach* system (see [[above|contributing#hurd_on_mach]]) nevertheless is a prerequisite. At least have a deep look at the documentation pointers. Also read through the [[HurdNG|hurd/ng]] section. Please send email to the [[mailing lists/l4-hurd]] mailing list for discussing this post-Mach system design. # Final Words -- Difficulties Please note that doing substantial contributions to a project as big and as encompassing as the GNU Hurd is not a trivial task. For working on the GNU Hurd's inner guts and getting useful work done, you have to plan for a many-months learning experience which will need sufficient self-motivation. Working on an advanced operating system kernel isn't something you can do in a few free minutes -- even less so without any previous [[kernel]] hacking experience. Likewise, the Linux kernel maintainers are stating the exactly same difficulties, which is well presented by Jonathan Corbet in his 2010 Linux Kernel Summit report for the opening sessions about [*welcoming of newcomers*](http://lwn.net/Articles/412639/). But of course, none of this is meant to be dismissive, or to scare you away -- on the contrary: just [[start using|hurd/running]] the GNU Hurd, and either notice yourself what's not working as expected, or have a look at one of the [[Open Issues]], and we shall see if you'll evolve to be the next core Hurd hacker! You'll *just* have to get excited about it!