                               Committer's Guide

  The FreeBSD Documentation Project

   Revision: 43126

   Copyright (c) 1999-2013 The FreeBSD Documentation Project

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   Last modified on 2013-11-07 by gabor.
   Abstract

   This document provides information for the FreeBSD committer community.
   All new committers should read this document before they start, and
   existing committers are strongly encouraged to review it from time to
   time.

   Almost all FreeBSD developers have commit rights to one or more
   repositories. However, a few developers do not, and some of the
   information here applies to them as well. (For instance, some people only
   have rights to work with the Problem Report database). Please see
   Section 15, "Issues Specific to Developers Who Are Not Committers" for
   more information.

   This document may also be of interest to members of the FreeBSD community
   who want to learn more about how the project works.

     ----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Table of Contents

   1. Administrative Details

   2. Commit Bit Types

   3. Subversion Primer

   4. Conventions and Traditions

   5. Preferred License for New Files

   6. Developer Relations

   7. If in doubt...

   8. GNATS

   9. Who's Who

   10. SSH Quick-Start Guide

   11. Coverity Prevent(R) Availability for FreeBSD Committers

   12. The FreeBSD Committers' Big List of Rules

   13. Support for Multiple Architectures

   14. Ports Specific FAQ

   15. Issues Specific to Developers Who Are Not Committers

   16. Information About Google Analytics

   17. Perks of the Job

   18. Miscellaneous Questions

1. Administrative Details

   Login Methods   ssh(1), protocol 2 only                                    
   Main Shell Host freefall.FreeBSD.org                                       
   src/ Subversion svn+ssh://svn.FreeBSD.org/base (see also Section 3.2.3,    
   Root            "RELENG_* Branches and General Layout").                   
   doc/ Subversion svn+ssh://svn.FreeBSD.org/doc (see also Section 3.2.4,     
   Root            "FreeBSD Documentation Project Branches and Layout").      
   ports/          svn+ssh://svn.FreeBSD.org/ports (see also Section 3.2.5,   
   Subversion Root "FreeBSD Ports Tree Branches and Layout").                 
                   developers (technically called all-developers),            
                   doc-developers, doc-committers, ports-developers,          
                   ports-committers, src-developers, src-committers. (Each    
   Internal        project repository has its own -developers and -committers 
   Mailing Lists   mailing lists. Archives for these lists may be found in    
                   files /home/mail/repository-name-developers-archive and    
                   /home/mail/repository-name-committers-archive on the       
                   FreeBSD.org cluster.)                                      
   Core Team       /home/core/public/monthly-reports on the FreeBSD.org       
   monthly reports cluster.                                                   
   Ports           /home/portmgr/public/monthly-reports on the FreeBSD.org    
   Management Team cluster.                                                   
   monthly reports 
   Noteworthy src/ stable/8 (8.X-STABLE), stable/9 (9.X-STABLE), stable/10    
   SVN Branches    (10.X-STABLE), head (-CURRENT)                             

   ssh(1) is required to connect to the project hosts. For more information,
   see Section 10, "SSH Quick-Start Guide".

   Useful links:

     * FreeBSD Project Internal Pages

     * FreeBSD Project Hosts

     * FreeBSD Project Administrative Groups

2. Commit Bit Types

   The FreeBSD repository has a number of components which, when combined,
   support the basic operating system source, documentation, third party
   application ports infrastructure, and various maintained utilities. When
   FreeBSD commit bits are allocated, the areas of the tree where the bit may
   be used are specified. Generally, the areas associated with a bit reflect
   who authorized the allocation of the commit bit. Additional areas of
   authority may be added at a later date: when this occurs, the committer
   should follow normal commit bit allocation procedures for that area of the
   tree, seeking approval from the appropriate entity and possibly getting a
   mentor for that area for some period of time.

   Committer Type    Responsible   Tree Components                            
   src               core@         src/, doc/ subject to appropriate review   
   doc               doceng@       doc/, src/ documentation                   
   ports             portmgr@      ports/                                     

   Commit bits allocated prior to the development of the notion of areas of
   authority may be appropriate for use in many parts of the tree. However,
   common sense dictates that a committer who has not previously worked in an
   area of the tree seek review prior to committing, seek approval from the
   appropriate responsible party, and/or work with a mentor. Since the rules
   regarding code maintenance differ by area of the tree, this is as much for
   the benefit of the committer working in an area of less familiarity as it
   is for others working on the tree.

   Committers are encouraged to seek review for their work as part of the
   normal development process, regardless of the area of the tree where the
   work is occurring.

  2.1. Policy for doc/ Committer Activity in src/

     * doc committers may commit documentation changes to src files, such as
       man pages, READMEs, fortune databases, calendar files, and comment
       fixes without approval from a src committer, subject to the normal
       care and tending of commits.

     * doc committers may commit minor src changes and fixes, such as build
       fixes, small features, etc, with an "Approved by" from a src
       committer.

     * doc committers may seek an upgrade to a src commit bit by acquiring a
       mentor, who will propose the doc committer to core. When approved,
       they will be added to 'access' and the normal mentoring period will
       ensue, which will involve a continuing of "Approved by" for some
       period.

     * "Approved by" is only acceptable from non-mentored src committers --
       mentored committers can provide a "Reviewed by" but not an "Approved
       by".

3. Subversion Primer

   It is assumed that you are already familiar with the basic operation of
   the version control systems in use. Traditionally this was CVS. Subversion
   is used for the src tree as of May 2008, the doc/www tree as of May 2012
   and the ports tree as of July 2012.

   There is a list of things missing in Subversion when compared to CVS. The
   notes at http://people.freebsd.org/~peter/svn_notes.txt might also be
   useful.

  3.1. Introduction

   The FreeBSD source repository switched from CVS to Subversion on May 31st,
   2008. The first real SVN commit is r179447.

   The FreeBSD doc/www repository switched from CVS to Subversion on May
   19th, 2012. The first real SVN commit is r38821.

  Note:

   Part of the doc/www CVS to SVN conversion included an infrastructural
   change to the build process. The most notable change is the location of
   the FreeBSD website www tree, which has been moved from www/lang/ to
   head/lang/htdocs/.

   The FreeBSD ports repository switched from CVS to Subversion on July 14th,
   2012. The first real SVN commit is r300894.

   There are mechanisms in place to automatically merge changes back from the
   Subversion src repository to the CVS repository for some FreeBSD branches
   (releng/6 through releng/9), however this is purely to support
   pre-existing end-user installs and should not be relied upon, recommended
   or advertised. Future branches will not be exported to CVS at all. The
   ports repository was exported to CVS for a period of time to aid end user
   migration, but as of 28th February 2013 is no longer exported.

   Subversion is not that different from CVS when it comes to daily use, but
   there are differences. Subversion has a number of features that should
   make developers' lives easier. The most important advantage to Subversion
   (and the reason why FreeBSD switched) is that it handles branches and
   merging much better than CVS does. Some of the principal differences are:

     * Commits are atomic.

     * Revision numbers apply across the repository-all files that were
       modified in the same commit have the same revision number.

     * Branching and tagging are namespace operations.

     * Directories are versioned.

     * Files and directories can have arbitrary, versioned metadata attached
       to them.

     * Files and directories can be copied, with full history tracking.

     * No more contortions due to CVS weakness such as applying patch(1)
       files at compile time in order to avoid touching vendor branch code.

     * No more repo-copies.

   Subversion can be installed from the FreeBSD Ports Collection by issuing
   these commands:

 # cd /usr/ports/devel/subversion
 # make clean install

  3.2. Getting Started

   There are a few ways to obtain a working copy of the tree from Subversion.
   This section will explain them.

    3.2.1. Direct Checkout

   The first is to check out directly from the main repository. For the src
   tree, use:

 % svn checkout svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/head /usr/src

   For the doc tree, use:

 % svn checkout svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/doc/head /usr/doc

   For the ports tree, use:

 % svn checkout svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/ports/head /usr/ports

  Note:

   Though the remaining examples in this document are written with the
   workflow of working with the src tree in mind, the underlying concepts are
   the same for working with the doc and the ports tree. Ports related
   Subversion operations are listed in Section 14, "Ports Specific FAQ".

   The above command will check out a CURRENT source tree as /usr/src/, which
   can be any target directory on the local filesystem. Omitting the final
   argument of that command causes the working copy, in this case, to be
   named "head", but that can be renamed safely.

   svn+ssh means the SVN protocol tunnelled over SSH. The name of the server
   is svn.freebsd.org, base is the path to the repository, and head is the
   subdirectory within the repository.

   If your FreeBSD login name is different from your login name on your local
   machine, you must either include it in the URL (for example
   svn+ssh://jarjar@svn.freebsd.org/base/head), or add an entry to your
   ~/.ssh/config in the form:

 Host svn.freebsd.org
         User jarjar

   This is the simplest method, but it's hard to tell just yet how much load
   it will place on the repository. Subversion is much faster than CVS,
   however.

  Note:

   The svn diff does not require access to the server as SVN stores a
   reference copy of every file in the working copy. This, however, means
   that Subversion working copies are very large in size.

    3.2.2. Checkout from a Mirror

   Check out a working copy from a mirror by substituting the mirror's URL
   for svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base. This can be an official mirror or a
   mirror maintained by using svnsync.

   There is a serious disadvantage to this method: every time something is to
   be committed, a svn relocate to the master repository has to be done,
   remembering to svn relocate back to the mirror after the commit. Also,
   since svn relocate only works between repositories that have the same
   UUID, some hacking of the local repository's UUID has to occur before it
   is possible to start using it.

   Unlike with CVS, the hassle of a local svnsync mirror probably is not
   worth it unless the network connectivity situation or other factors demand
   it. If it is needed, see the end of this chapter for information on how to
   set one up.

    3.2.3. RELENG_* Branches and General Layout

   In svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base, base refers to the source tree.
   Similarly, ports refers to the ports tree, and so on. These are separate
   repositories with their own change number sequences, access controls and
   commit mail.

   For the base repository, HEAD refers to the -CURRENT tree. For example,
   head/bin/ls is what would go into /usr/src/bin/ls in a release. Some key
   locations are:

     * /head/ which corresponds to HEAD, also known as -CURRENT.

     * /stable/n which corresponds to RELENG_n.

     * /releng/n.n which corresponds to RELENG_n_n.

     * /release/n.n.n which corresponds to RELENG_n_n_n_RELEASE.

     * /vendor* is the vendor branch import work area. This directory itself
       does not contain branches, however its subdirectories do. This
       contrasts with the stable, releng and release directories.

     * /projects and /user feature a branch work area, like in Perforce. As
       above, the /user directory does not contain branches itself.

    3.2.4. FreeBSD Documentation Project Branches and Layout

   In svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/doc, doc refers to the repository root of the
   source tree.

   In general, most FreeBSD Documentation Project work will be done within
   the head/ branch of the documentation source tree.

   FreeBSD documentation is written and/or translated to various languages,
   each in a separate directory in the head/ branch.

   Each translation set contains several subdirectories for the various parts
   of the FreeBSD Documentation Project. A few noteworthy directories are:

     * /articles/ contains the source code for articles written by various
       FreeBSD contributors.

     * /books/ contains the source code for the different books, such as the
       FreeBSD Handbook.

     * /htdocs/ contains the source code for the FreeBSD website.

    3.2.5. FreeBSD Ports Tree Branches and Layout

   In svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/ports, ports refers to the repository root of
   the ports tree.

   In general, most FreeBSD port work will be done within the head/ branch of
   the ports tree which is the actual ports tree used to install software.
   Some other key locations are:

     * /branches/RELENG_n_n_n which corresponds to RELENG_n_n_n is used to
       merge back security updates in preparation for a release.

     * /tags/RELEASE_n_n_n which corresponds to RELEASE_n_n_n represents a
       release tag of the ports tree.

     * /tags/RELEASE_n_EOL represents the end of life tag of a specific
       FreeBSD branch.

  3.3. Daily Use

   This section will explain how to perform common day-to-day operations with
   Subversion.

    3.3.1. Help

   SVN has built in help documentation. It can be accessed by typing the
   following command:

 % svn help

   Additional information can be found in the Subversion Book.

    3.3.2. Checkout

   As seen earlier, to check out the FreeBSD head branch:

 % svn checkout svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/head /usr/src

   At some point, more than just HEAD will probably be useful, for instance
   when merging changes to stable/7. Therefore, it may be useful to have a
   partial checkout of the complete tree (a full checkout would be very
   painful).

   To do this, first check out the root of the repository:

 % svn checkout --depth=immediates svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base

   This will give base with all the files it contains (at the time of
   writing, just ROADMAP.txt) and empty subdirectories for head, stable,
   vendor and so on.

   Expanding the working copy is possible. Just change the depth of the
   various subdirectories:

 % svn up --set-depth=infinity base/head
 % svn up --set-depth=immediates base/release base/releng base/stable

   The above command will pull down a full copy of head, plus empty copies of
   every release tag, every releng branch, and every stable branch.

   If at a later date merging to 7-STABLE is required, expand the working
   copy:

 % svn up --set-depth=infinity base/stable/7

   Subtrees do not have to be expanded completely. For instance, expanding
   only stable/7/sys and then later expand the rest of stable/7:

 % svn up --set-depth=infinity base/stable/7/sys
 % svn up --set-depth=infinity base/stable/7

   Updating the tree with svn update will only update what was previously
   asked for (in this case, head and stable/7; it will not pull down the
   whole tree.

  Note:

   Decreasing the depth of a working copy is not possible.

    3.3.3. Anonymous Checkout

   It is possible to anonymously check out the FreeBSD repository with
   Subversion. This will give access to a read-only tree that can be updated,
   but not committed back to the main repository. To do this, use the
   following command:

 % svn co https://svn0.us-west.FreeBSD.org/base/head /usr/src

   Select the closest mirror and verify the mirror server certificate from
   the list of Subversion mirror sites.

    3.3.4. Updating the Tree

   To update a working copy to either the latest revision, or a specific
   revision:

 % svn update
 % svn update -r12345

    3.3.5. Status

   To view the local changes that have been made to the working copy:

 % svn status

   To show local changes and files that are out-of-date do:

 % svn status --show-updates

    3.3.6. Editing and Committing

   Unlike Perforce, SVN does not need to be told in advance about file
   editing.

   svn commit works like the equivalent CVS command. To commit all changes in
   the current directory and all subdirectories:

 % svn commit

   To commit all changes in, for example, lib/libfetch/ and usr/bin/fetch/ in
   a single operation:

 % svn commit lib/libfetch usr/bin/fetch

   There is also a commit wrapper for the ports tree to handle the properties
   and sanity checking your changes:

 % /usr/ports/Tools/scripts/psvn commit
          

    3.3.7. Adding and Removing Files

  Note:

   Before adding files, get a copy of auto-props.txt (there is also a ports
   tree specific version) and add it to ~/.subversion/config according to the
   instructions in the file. If you added something before reading this, use
   svn rm --keep-local for just added files, fix your config file and re-add
   them again. The initial config file is created when you first run a svn
   command, even something as simple as svn help.

   Files are added to a SVN repository with svn add. To add a file named foo,
   edit it, then:

 % svn add foo

  Note:

   Most new source files should include a $FreeBSD$ string near the start of
   the file. On commit, svn will expand the $FreeBSD$ string, adding the file
   path, revision number, date and time of commit, and the username of the
   committer. Files which cannot be modified may be committed without the
   $FreeBSD$ string.

   Files can be removed with svn remove:

 % svn remove foo

   Subversion does not require deleting the file before using svn rm, and
   indeed complains if that happens.

   It is possible to add directories with svn add:

 % mkdir bar
 % svn add bar

   Although svn mkdir makes this easier by combining the creation of the
   directory and the adding of it:

 % svn mkdir bar

   Like files, directories are removed with svn rm. There is no separate
   command specifically for removing directories.

 % svn rm bar

    3.3.8. Copying and Moving Files

   This command creates a copy of foo.c named bar.c, with the new file also
   under version control:

 % svn copy foo.c bar.c

   The example above is equivalent to:

 % cp foo.c bar.c
 % svn add bar.c

   To move and rename a file:

 % svn move foo.c bar.c

    3.3.9. Log and Annotate

   svn log shows revisions and commit messages, most recent first, for files
   or directories. When used on a directory, all revisions that affected the
   directory and files within that directory are shown.

   svn annotate, or equally svn praise or svn blame, shows the most recent
   revision number and who committed that revision for each line of a file.

    3.3.10. Diffs

   svn diff displays changes to the working copy. Diffs generated by SVN are
   unified and include new files by default in the diff output.

   svn diff can show the changes between two revisions of the same file:

 % svn diff -r179453:179454 ROADMAP.txt

   It can also show all changes for a specific changeset. The following will
   show what changes were made to the current directory and all
   subdirectories in changeset 179454:

 % svn diff -c179454 .

    3.3.11. Reverting

   Local changes (including additions and deletions) can be reverted using
   svn revert. It does not update out-of-date files, but just replaces them
   with pristine copies of the original version.

    3.3.12. Conflicts

   If an svn update resulted in a merge conflict, Subversion will remember
   which files have conflicts and refuse to commit any changes to those files
   until explicitly told that the conflicts have been resolved. The simple,
   not yet deprecated procedure is the following:

 % svn resolved foo

   However, the preferred procedure is:

 % svn resolve --accept=working foo

   The two examples are equivalent. Possible values for --accept are:

     * working: use the version in your working directory (which one presumes
       has been edited to resolve the conflicts).

     * base: use a pristine copy of the version you had before svn update,
       discarding your own changes, the conflicting changes, and possibly
       other intervening changes as well.

     * mine-full: use what you had before svn update, including your own
       changes, but discarding the conflicting changes, and possibly other
       intervening changes as well.

     * theirs-full: use the version that was retrieved when you did svn
       update, discarding your own changes.

  3.4. Advanced Use

    3.4.1. Sparse Checkouts

   SVN allows sparse, or partial checkouts of a directory by adding --depth
   to a svn checkout.

   Valid arguments to --depth are:

     * empty: the directory itself without any of its contents.

     * files: the directory and any files it contains.

     * immediates: the directory and any files and directories it contains,
       but none of the subdirectories' contents.

     * infinity: anything.

   The --depth option applies to many other commands, including svn commit,
   svn revert, and svn diff.

   Since --depth is sticky, there is a --set-depth option for svn update that
   will change the selected depth. Thus, given the working copy produced by
   the previous example:

 % cd ~/freebsd
 % svn update --set-depth=immediates .

   The above command will populate the working copy in ~/freebsd with
   ROADMAP.txt and empty subdirectories, and nothing will happen when svn
   update is executed on the subdirectories. However, the following command
   will set the depth for head (in this case) to infinity, and fully populate
   it:

 % svn update --set-depth=infinity head

    3.4.2. Direct Operation

   Certain operations can be performed directly on the repository without
   touching the working copy. Specifically, this applies to any operation
   that does not require editing a file, including:

     * log, diff

     * mkdir

     * remove, copy, rename

     * propset, propedit, propdel

     * merge

   Branching is very fast. The following command would be used to branch
   RELENG_8:

 % svn copy svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/head svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/stable/8

   This is equivalent to the following set of commands which take minutes and
   hours as opposed to seconds, depending on your network connection:

 % svn checkout --depth=immediates svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base
 % cd base
 % svn update --depth=infinity head
 % svn copy head stable/8
 % svn commit stable/8

    3.4.3. Merging with SVN

   This section deals with merging code from one branch to another
   (typically, from head to a stable branch).

  Note:

   In all examples below, $FSVN refers to the location of the FreeBSD
   Subversion repository, svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/.

      3.4.3.1. About Merge Tracking

   From the user's perspective, merge tracking information (or mergeinfo) is
   stored in a property called svn:mergeinfo, which is a comma-separated list
   of revisions and ranges of revisions that have been merged. When set on a
   file, it applies only to that file. When set on a directory, it applies to
   that directory and its descendants (files and directories) except for
   those that have their own svn:mergeinfo.

   It is not inherited. For instance, stable/6/contrib/openpam/ does not
   implicitly inherit mergeinfo from stable/6/, or stable/6/contrib/. Doing
   so would make partial checkouts very hard to manage. Instead, mergeinfo is
   explicitly propagated down the tree. For merging something into
   branch/foo/bar/, the following rules apply:

    1. If branch/foo/bar/ does not already have a mergeinfo record, but a
       direct ancestor (for instance, branch/foo/) does, then that record
       will be propagated down to branch/foo/bar/ before information about
       the current merge is recorded.

    2. Information about the current merge will not be propagated back up
       that ancestor.

    3. If a direct descendant of branch/foo/bar/ (for instance,
       branch/foo/bar/baz/) already has a mergeinfo record, information about
       the current merge will be propagated down to it.

   If you consider the case where a revision changes several separate parts
   of the tree (for example, branch/foo/bar/ and branch/foo/quux/), but you
   only want to merge some of it (for example, branch/foo/bar/), you will see
   that these rules make sense. If mergeinfo was propagated up, it would seem
   like that revision had also been merged to branch/foo/quux/, when in fact
   it had not been.

      3.4.3.2. Selecting the Source and Target

   Because of mergeinfo propagation, it is important to choose the source and
   target for the merge carefully to minimise property changes on unrelated
   directories.

   The rules for selecting the merge target (the directory that you will
   merge the changes to) can be summarized as follows:

    1. Never merge directly to a file.

    2. Never, ever merge directly to a file.

    3. Never, ever, ever merge directly to a file.

    4. Changes to kernel code should be merged to sys/. For instance, a
       change to the ichwd(4) driver should be merged to sys/, not
       sys/dev/ichwd/. Likewise, a change to the TCP/IP stack should be
       merged to sys/, not sys/netinet/.

    5. Changes to code under etc/ should be merged at etc/, not below it.

    6. Changes to vendor code (code in contrib/, crypto/ and so on) should be
       merged to the directory where vendor imports happen. For instance, a
       change to crypto/openssl/util/ should be merged to crypto/openssl/.
       This is rarely an issue, however, since changes to vendor code are
       usually merged wholesale.

    7. Changes to userland programs should as a general rule be merged to the
       directory that contains the Makefile for that program. For instance, a
       change to usr.bin/xlint/arch/i386/ should be merged to usr.bin/xlint/.

    8. Changes to userland libraries should as a general rule be merged to
       the directory that contains the Makefile for that library. For
       instance, a change to lib/libc/gen/ should be merged to lib/libc/.

    9. There may be cases where it makes sense to deviate from the rules for
       userland programs and libraries. For instance, everything under
       lib/libpam/ is merged to lib/libpam/, even though the library itself
       and all of the modules each have their own Makefile.

   10. Changes to manual pages should be merged to share/man/manN/, for the
       appropriate value of N.

   11. Other changes to share/ should be merged to the appropriate
       subdirectory and not to share/ directly.

   12. Changes to a top-level file in the source tree such as UPDATING or
       Makefile.inc1 should be merged directly to that file rather than to
       the root of the whole tree. Yes, this is an exception to the first
       three rules.

   13. When in doubt, ask.

   If you need to merge changes to several places at once (for instance,
   changing a kernel interface and every userland program that uses it),
   merge each target separately, then commit them together. For instance, if
   you merge a revision that changed a kernel API and updated all the
   userland bits that used that API, you would merge the kernel change to
   sys, and the userland bits to the appropriate userland directories, then
   commit all of these in one go.

   The source will almost invariably be the same as the target. For instance,
   you will always merge stable/7/lib/libc/ from head/lib/libc/. The only
   exception would be when merging changes to code that has moved in the
   source branch but not in the parent branch. For instance, a change to
   pkill(1) would be merged from bin/pkill/ in head to usr.bin/pkill/ in
   stable/7.

      3.4.3.3. Preparing the Merge Target

   Because of the mergeinfo propagation issues described earlier, it is very
   important that you never merge changes into a sparse working copy. You
   must always have a full checkout of the branch you will merge into. For
   instance, when merging from HEAD to 7, you must have a full checkout of
   stable/7:

 % cd stable/7
 % svn up --set-depth=infinity

   The target directory must also be up-to-date and must not contain any
   uncommitted changes or stray files.

      3.4.3.4. Identifying Revisions

   Identifying revisions to be merged is a must. If the target already has
   complete mergeinfo, ask SVN for a list:

 % cd stable/6/contrib/openpam
 % svn mergeinfo --show-revs=eligible $FSVN/head/contrib/openpam

   If the target does not have complete mergeinfo, check the log for the
   merge source.

      3.4.3.5. Merging

   Now, let us start merging!

        3.4.3.5.1. The Principles

   Say you would like to merge:

     * revision $R

     * in directory $target in stable branch $B

     * from directory $source in head

     * $FSVN is svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base

   Assuming that revisions $P and $Q have already been merged, and that the
   current directory is an up-to-date working copy of stable/$B, the existing
   mergeinfo looks like this:

 % svn propget svn:mergeinfo -R $target
 $target - /head/$source:$P,$Q

   Merging is done like so:

 % svn merge -c$R $FSVN/head/$source $target

   Checking the results of this is possible with svn diff.

   The svn:mergeinfo now looks like:

 % svn propget svn:mergeinfo -R $target
 $target - head/$source:$P,$Q,$R

   If the results are not exactly as shown, assistance may be required before
   committing as mistakes may have been made, or there may be something wrong
   with the existing mergeinfo, or there may be a bug in Subversion.

        3.4.3.5.2. Practical Example

   As a practical example, consider the following scenario: The changes to
   netmap.4 in r238987 is to be merged from CURRENT to 9-STABLE. The file
   resides in head/share/man/man4 and according to Section 3.4.3, "Merging
   with SVN" this is also where to do the merge. Note that in this example
   all paths are relative to the top of the svn repository. For more
   information on the directory layout, see Section 3.2.3, "RELENG_* Branches
   and General Layout".

   The first step is to inspect the existing mergeinfo.

 % svn propget svn:mergeinfo -R stable/9/share/man/man4

   Take a quick note of how it looks before moving on to the next step; doing
   the actual merge:

 % svn merge -c r238987 svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/head/share/man/man4 stable/9/share/man/man4
 --- Merging r238987 into 'stable/9/share/man/man4':
 U    stable/9/share/man/man4/netmap.4
 --- Recording mergeinfo for merge of r238987 into
 'stable/9/share/man/man4':
  U   stable/9/share/man/man4

   Check that the revision number of the merged revision has been added. Once
   this is verified, the only thing left is the actual commit.

 % svn commit stable/9/share/man/man4

        3.4.3.5.3. Merging into the Kernel (sys/)

   As stated above, merging into the kernel is different from merging in the
   rest of the tree. In many ways merging to the kernel is simpler because
   there is always the same merge target (sys/).

   Once svn merge has been executed, svn diff has to be run on the directory
   to check the changes. This may show some unrelated property changes, but
   these can be ignored. Next, build and test the kernel, and, once the tests
   are complete, commit the code as normal, making sure that the commit
   message starts with "Merge r226222 from head", or similar.

      3.4.3.6. Precautions Before Committing

   As always, build world (or appropriate parts of it).

   Check the changes with svn diff and svn stat. Make sure all the files that
   should have been added or deleted were in fact added or deleted.

   Take a closer look at any property change (marked by a M in the second
   column of svn stat). Normally, no svn:mergeinfo properties should be
   anywhere except the target directory (or directories).

   If something looks fishy, ask for help.

      3.4.3.7. Committing

   Make sure to commit a top level directory to have the mergeinfo included
   as well. Do not specify individual files on the command line. For more
   information about committing files in general, see the relevant section of
   this primer.

    3.4.4. Vendor Imports with SVN

  Important:

   Please read this entire section before starting a vendor import.

  Note:

   Patches to vendor code fall into two categories:

     * Vendor patches: these are patches that have been issued by the vendor,
       or that have been extracted from the vendor's version control system,
       which address issues which in your opinion cannot wait until the next
       vendor release.

     * FreeBSD patches: these are patches that modify the vendor code to
       address FreeBSD-specific issues.

   The nature of a patch dictates where it should be committed:

     * Vendor patches should be committed to the vendor branch, and merged
       from there to head. If the patch addresses an issue in a new release
       that is currently being imported, it must not be committed along with
       the new release: the release must be imported and tagged first, then
       the patch can be applied and committed. There is no need to re-tag the
       vendor sources after committing the patch.

     * FreeBSD patches should be committed directly to head.

      3.4.4.1. Preparing the Tree

   If importing for the first time after the switch to Subversion, flattening
   and cleaning up the vendor tree is necessary, as well as bootstrapping the
   merge history in the main tree.

        3.4.4.1.1. Flattening

   During the conversion from CVS to Subversion, vendor branches were
   imported with the same layout as the main tree. This means that the pf
   vendor sources ended up in vendor/pf/dist/contrib/pf. The vendor source is
   best directly in vendor/pf/dist.

   To flatten the pf tree:

 % cd vendor/pf/dist/contrib/pf
 % svn mv $(svn list) ../..
 % cd ../..
 % svn rm contrib
 % svn propdel -R svn:mergeinfo .
 % svn commit

   The propdel bit is necessary because starting with 1.5, Subversion will
   automatically add svn:mergeinfo to any directory that is copied or moved.
   In this case, as nothing is being merged from the deleted tree, they just
   get in the way.

   Tags may be flattened as well (3, 4, 3.5 etc.); the procedure is exactly
   the same, only changing dist to 3.5 or similar, and putting the svn commit
   off until the end of the process.

        3.4.4.1.2. Cleaning Up

   The dist tree can be cleaned up as necessary. Disabling keyword expansion
   is recommended, as it makes no sense on unmodified vendor code and in some
   cases it can even be harmful. OpenSSH, for example, includes two files
   that originated with FreeBSD and still contain the original version tags.
   To do this:

 % svn propdel svn:keywords -R .
 % svn commit

        3.4.4.1.3. Bootstrapping Merge History

   If importing for the first time after the switch to Subversion, bootstrap
   svn:mergeinfo on the target directory in the main tree to the revision
   that corresponds to the last related change to the vendor tree, prior to
   importing new sources:

 % cd head/contrib/pf
 % svn merge --record-only svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/vendor/pf/dist@180876 .
 % svn commit

      3.4.4.2. Importing New Sources

   With two commits-one for the import itself and one for the tag-this step
   can optionally be repeated for every upstream release between the last
   import and the current import.

        3.4.4.2.1. Preparing the Vendor Sources

   Unlike in CVS where only the needed parts were imported into the vendor
   tree to avoid bloating the main tree, Subversion is able to store a full
   distribution in the vendor tree. So, import everything, but merge only
   what is required.

   A svn add is required to add any files that were added since the last
   vendor import, and svn rm is required to remove any that were removed
   since. Preparing sorted lists of the contents of the vendor tree and of
   the sources that are about to be imported is recommended, to facilitate
   the process.

 % cd vendor/pf/dist
 % svn list -R | grep -v '/$' | sort >../old
 % cd ../pf-4.3
 % find . -type f | cut -c 3- | sort >../new

   With these two files, comm -23 ../old ../new will list removed files
   (files only in old), while comm -13 ../old ../new will list added files
   only in new.

        3.4.4.2.2. Importing into the Vendor Tree

   Now, the sources must be copied into dist and the svn add and svn rm
   commands should be used as needed:

 % cd vendor/pf/pf-4.3
 % tar cf - . | tar xf - -C ../dist
 % cd ../dist
 % comm -23 ../old ../new | xargs svn rm
 % comm -13 ../old ../new | xargs svn --parents add

   If any directories were removed, they will have to be svn rmed manually.
   Nothing will break if they are not, but they will remain in the tree.

   Check properties on any new files. All text files should have
   svn:eol-style set to native. All binary files should have svn:mime-type
   set to application/octet-stream unless there is a more appropriate media
   type. Executable files should have svn:executable set to *. No other
   properties should exist on any file in the tree.

   Committing is now possible, however it is good practice to make sure that
   everything is OK by using the svn stat and svn diff commands.

        3.4.4.2.3. Tagging

   Once committed, vendor releases should be tagged for future reference. The
   best and quickest way to do this is directly in the repository:

 % svn cp svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/vendor/pf/dist svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/vendor/pf/4.3

   Once that is complete, svn up the working copy of vendor/pf to get the new
   tag, although this is rarely needed.

   If creating the tag in the working copy of the tree, svn:mergeinfo results
   must be removed:

 % cd    vendor/pf
 % svn cp dist 4.3
 % svn propdel svn:mergeinfo -R 4.3

      3.4.4.3. Merging to Head

 % cd head/contrib/pf
 % svn up
 % svn merge --accept=postpone svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/vendor/pf/dist .

   The --accept=postpone tells Subversion that it should not complain because
   merge conflicts will be taken care of manually.

   It is necessary to resolve any merge conflicts. This process is the same
   in SVN as in CVS.

   Make sure that any files that were added or removed in the vendor tree
   have been properly added or removed in the main tree. To check diffs
   against the vendor branch:

 % svn diff --no-diff-deleted --old=svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/vendor/pf/dist --new=.

   The --no-diff-deleted tells Subversion not to complain about files that
   are in the vendor tree but not in the main tree, i.e., things that would
   have previously been removed before the vendor import, like for example
   the vendor's makefiles and configure scripts.

   Using CVS, once a file was off the vendor branch, it was not able to be
   put back. With Subversion, there is no concept of on or off the vendor
   branch. If a file that previously had local modifications, to make it not
   show up in diffs in the vendor tree, all that has to be done is remove any
   left-over cruft like FreeBSD version tags, which is much easier.

   If any changes are required for the world to build with the new sources,
   make them now, and keep testing until everything builds and runs
   perfectly.

      3.4.4.4. Committing the Vendor Import

   Committing is now possible! Everything must be committed in one go. If
   done properly, the tree will move from a consistent state with old code,
   to a consistent state with new code.

      3.4.4.5. From Scratch

        3.4.4.5.1. Importing into the Vendor Tree

   This section is an example of importing and tagging byacc into head.

   First, prepare the directory in vendor:

 % svn co --depth immediates $FSVN/vendor
 % cd vendor
 % svn mkdir byacc
 % svn mkdir byacc/dist

   Now, import the sources into the dist directory. Once the files are in
   place, svn add the new ones, then svn commit and tag the imported version.
   To save time and bandwidth, direct remote committing and tagging is
   possible:

 % svn cp -m "Tag byacc 20120115" $FSVN/vendor/byacc/dist $FSVN/vendor/byacc/20120115

        3.4.4.5.2. Merging to head

   Due to this being a new file, copy it for the merge:

 % svn cp -m "Import byacc to contrib" $FSVN/vendor/byacc/dist $FSVN/head/contrib/byacc

   Working normally on newly imported sources is still possible.

    3.4.5. Reverting a Commit

   Reverting a commit to a previous version is fairly easy:

 % svn merge -r179454:179453 ROADMAP.txt
 % svn commit

   Change number syntax, with negative meaning a reverse change, can also be
   used:

 % svn merge -c -179454 ROADMAP.txt
 % svn commit

   This can also be done directly in the repository:

 % svn merge -r179454:179453 svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/ROADMAP.txt

  Note:

   It is important to ensure that the mergeinfo is correct when reverting a
   file in order to permit svn mergeinfo --eligible to work as expected.

   Reverting the deletion of a file is slightly different. Copying the
   version of the file that predates the deletion is required. For example,
   to restore a file that was deleted in revision N, restore version N-1:

 % svn copy svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/ROADMAP.txt@179454
 % svn commit

   or, equally:

 % svn copy svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/ROADMAP.txt@179454 svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base

   Do not simply recreate the file manually and svn add it-this will cause
   history to be lost.

    3.4.6. Fixing Mistakes

   While we can do surgery in an emergency, do not plan on having mistakes
   fixed behind the scenes. Plan on mistakes remaining in the logs forever.
   Be sure to check the output of svn status and svn diff before committing.

   Mistakes will happen but, they can generally be fixed without disruption.

   Take a case of adding a file in the wrong location. The right thing to do
   is to svn move the file to the correct location and commit. This causes
   just a couple of lines of metadata in the repository journal, and the logs
   are all linked up correctly.

   The wrong thing to do is to delete the file and then svn add an
   independent copy in the correct location. Instead of a couple of lines of
   text, the repository journal grows an entire new copy of the file. This is
   a waste.

    3.4.7. Setting up a svnsync Mirror

   You probably do not want to do this unless there is a good reason for it.
   Such reasons might be to support many multiple local read-only client
   machines, or if your network bandwidth is limited. Starting a fresh mirror
   from empty would take a very long time. Expect a minimum of 10 hours for
   high speed connectivity. If you have international links, expect this to
   take 4 to 10 times longer.

   A far better option is to grab a seed file. It is large (~1GB) but will
   consume less network traffic and take less time to fetch than a svnsync
   will. This is possible in one of the following three ways:

 % rsync -va --partial --progress freefall:/home/peter/svnmirror-base-r179637.tbz2 .

 % rsync -va --partial --progress rsync://repoman.freebsd.org:50873/svnseed/svnmirror-base-r215629.tar.xz .

 % fetch ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/development/subversion/svnmirror-base-r221445.tar.xz

   Once you have the file, extract it to somewhere like home/svnmirror/base/.
   Then, update it, so that it fetches changes since the last revision in the
   archive:

 % svnsync sync file:///home/svnmirror/base

   You can then set that up to run from cron(8), do checkouts locally, set up
   a svnserve server for your local machines to talk to, etc.

   The seed mirror is set to fetch from svn://svn.freebsd.org/base. The
   configuration for the mirror is stored in revprop 0 on the local mirror.
   To see the configuration, try:

 % svn proplist -v --revprop -r 0 file:///home/svnmirror/base

   Use propset to change things.

    3.4.8. Committing High-ASCII Data

   Files that have high-ASCII bits are considered binary files in SVN, so the
   pre-commit checks fail and indicate that the mime-type property should be
   set to application/octet-stream. However, the use of this is discouraged,
   so please do not set it. The best way is always avoiding high-ASCII data,
   so that it can be read everywhere with any text editor but if it is not
   avoidable, instead of changing the mime-type, set the fbsd:notbinary
   property with propset:

 % svn propset fbsd:notbinary yes foo.data

    3.4.9. Maintaining a Project Branch

   A project branch is one that is synced to head (or another branch) is used
   to develop a project then commit it back to head. In SVN, "dolphin"
   branching is used for this. A "dolphin" branch is one that diverges for a
   while and is finally committed back to the original branch. During
   development code migration in one direction (from head to the branch
   only). No code is committed back to head until the end. Once you commit
   back at the end, the branch is dead (although you can have a new branch
   with the same name after you delete the branch if you want).

   As per http://people.freebsd.org/~peter/svn_notes.txt, work that is
   intended to be merged back into HEAD should be in base/projects/. If you
   are doing work that is beneficial to the FreeBSD community in some way but
   not intended to be merged directly back into HEAD then the proper location
   is base/user/your-name/. This page contains further details.

   To create a project branch:

 % svn copy svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/head svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/projects/spif

   To merge changes from HEAD back into the project branch:

 % cd copy_of_spif
 % svn merge svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/base/head
 % svn commit

   It is important to resolve any merge conflicts before committing.

  3.5. Some Tips

   In commit logs etc., "rev 179872" should be spelled "r179872" as per
   convention.

   Do not remove and re-add the same file in a single commit as this will
   break the CVS exporter.

   Speeding up svn is possible by adding the following to ~/.ssh/config:

 Host *
 ControlPath ~/.ssh/sockets/master-%l-%r@%h:%p
 ControlMaster auto
 ControlPersist yes

   and then typing

 mkdir ~/.ssh/sockets

   Checking out a working copy with a stock Subversion client without
   FreeBSD-specific patches (OPTIONS_SET=FREEBSD_TEMPLATE) will mean that
   $FreeBSD$ tags will not be expanded. Once the correct version has been
   installed, trick Subversion into expanding them like so:

 % svn propdel -R svn:keywords .
 % svn revert -R .

   This will wipe out uncommitted patches.

4. Conventions and Traditions

   As a new developer there are a number of things you should do first. The
   first set is specific to committers only. (If you are not a committer,
   e.g., have GNATS-only access, then your mentor needs to do these things
   for you.)

  4.1. Guidelines for Committers

  Note:

   The .ent, .xml, and .xml files listed below exist in the FreeBSD
   Documentation Project SVN repository at svn.FreeBSD.org/doc/.

   If you have been given commit rights to one or more of the repositories:

     * Add your author entity to head/share/xml/authors.ent; this should be
       done first since an omission of this commit will cause the next
       commits to break the doc/ build.

       This is a relatively easy task, but remains a good first test of your
       version control skills.

  Important:

       New files that do not have the FreeBSD=%H svn:keywords property will
       be rejected when attempting to commit them to the repository. Be sure
       to read Section 3.3.7, "Adding and Removing Files" regarding adding
       and removing files, in addition to verifying that ~/.subversion/config
       contains the necessary "auto-props" entries from auto-props.txt
       mentioned there.

  Note:

       Do not forget to get mentor approval for these patches!

     * Add yourself to the "Developers" section of the Contributors List
       (head/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/contrib.committers.xml)
       and remove yourself from the "Additional Contributors" section
       (head/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/contrib.additional.xml).
       Please note that entries are sorted by last name.

     * Add an entry for yourself to head/share/xml/news.xml. Look for the
       other entries that look like "A new committer" and follow the format.

     * You should add your PGP or GnuPG key to head/share/pgpkeys (and if you
       do not have a key, you should create one). Do not forget to commit the
       updated head/share/pgpkeys/pgpkeys.ent and
       head/share/pgpkeys/pgpkeys-developers.xml. Please note that entries
       are sorted by last name.

       Dag-Erling C. Smo/rgrav <des@FreeBSD.org> has written a shell script
       (head/share/pgpkeys/addkey.sh) to make this extremely simple. See the
       README file for more information.

  Note:

       It is important to have an up-to-date PGP/GnuPG key in the Handbook,
       since the key may be required for positive identification of a
       committer, e.g., by the FreeBSD Administrators <admins@FreeBSD.org>
       for account recovery. A complete keyring of FreeBSD.org users is
       available for download from http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/pgpkeyring.txt.

     * Add an entry for yourself to src/share/misc/committers-repository.dot,
       where repository is either doc, ports or src, depending on the commit
       privileges you obtained.

     * Some people add an entry for themselves to
       ports/astro/xearth/files/freebsd.committers.markers.

     * Some people add an entry for themselves to
       src/usr.bin/calendar/calendars/calendar.freebsd.

     * If you already have an account at the FreeBSD wiki, make sure your
       mentor moves you from the Contributors group to the Developers group.
       Otherwise, consider signing up for an account so you can publish
       projects and ideas you are working on.

     * Once you get access to the wiki, you may add yourself to the How We
       Got Here and Irc Nicks pages.

     * If you subscribe to svn-src-all, svn-ports-all or svn-doc-all, you
       will probably want to unsubscribe to avoid receiving duplicate copies
       of commit messages and their followups.

  Note:

   All src commits should go to FreeBSD-CURRENT first before being merged to
   FreeBSD-STABLE. No major new features or high-risk modifications should be
   made to the FreeBSD-STABLE branch.

  4.2. Guidelines for Everyone

   Whether or not you have commit rights:

     * Introduce yourself to the other developers, otherwise no one will have
       any idea who you are or what you are working on. You do not have to
       write a comprehensive biography, just write a paragraph or two about
       who you are and what you plan to be working on as a developer in
       FreeBSD. (You should also mention who your mentor will be). Email this
       to the FreeBSD developers mailing list and you will be on your way!

     * Log into hub.FreeBSD.org and create a /var/forward/user (where user is
       your username) file containing the e-mail address where you want mail
       addressed to yourusername@FreeBSD.org to be forwarded. This includes
       all of the commit messages as well as any other mail addressed to the
       FreeBSD committer's mailing list and the FreeBSD developers mailing
       list. Really large mailboxes which have taken up permanent residence
       on hub often get "accidentally" truncated without warning, so forward
       it or read it and you will not lose it.

       Due to the severe load dealing with SPAM places on the central mail
       servers that do the mailing list processing the front-end server does
       do some basic checks and will drop some messages based on these
       checks. At the moment proper DNS information for the connecting host
       is the only check in place but that may change. Some people blame
       these checks for bouncing valid email. If you want these checks turned
       off for your email you can place a file named .spam_lover in your home
       directory on freefall.FreeBSD.org to disable the checks for your
       email.

  Note:

   If you are a developer but not a committer, you will not be subscribed to
   the committers or developers mailing lists; the subscriptions are derived
   from the access rights.

  4.3. Mentors

   All new developers also have a mentor assigned to them for the first few
   months. Your mentor is responsible for teaching you the rules and
   conventions of the project and guiding your first steps in the developer
   community. Your mentor is also personally responsible for your actions
   during this initial period.

   For committers: until your mentor decides (and announces with a forced
   commit to access) that you have learned the ropes and are ready to commit
   on your own, you should not commit anything without first getting your
   mentor's review and approval, and you should document that approval with
   an Approved by: line in the commit message.

5. Preferred License for New Files

   Currently the FreeBSD Project suggests and uses the following text as the
   preferred license scheme:

 /*-
  * Copyright (c) [year] [your name]
  * All rights reserved.
  *
  * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
  * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
  * are met:
  * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
  *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
  * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
  *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
  *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  *
  * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
  * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
  * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
  * ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
  * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
  * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
  * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
  * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
  * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
  * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
  * SUCH DAMAGE.
  *
  * [id for your version control system, if any]
  */

   The FreeBSD project strongly discourages the so-called "advertising
   clause" in new code. Due to the large number of contributors to the
   FreeBSD project, complying with this clause for many commercial vendors
   has become difficult. If you have code in the tree with the advertising
   clause, please consider removing it. In fact, please consider using the
   above license for your code.

   The FreeBSD project discourages completely new licenses and variations on
   the standard licenses. New licenses require the approval of the Core Team
   <core@FreeBSD.org> to reside in the main repository. The more different
   licenses that are used in the tree, the more problems that this causes to
   those wishing to utilize this code, typically from unintended consequences
   from a poorly worded license.

   Project policy dictates that code under some non-BSD licenses must be
   placed only in specific sections of the repository, and in some cases,
   compilation must be conditional or even disabled by default. For example,
   the GENERIC kernel must be compiled under only licenses identical to or
   substantially similar to the BSD license. GPL, APSL, CDDL, etc, licensed
   software must not be compiled into GENERIC.

   Developers are reminded that in open source, getting "open" right is just
   as important as getting "source" right, as improper handling of
   intellectual property has serious consequences. Any questions or concerns
   should immediately be brought to the attention of the core team.

6. Developer Relations

   If you are working directly on your own code or on code which is already
   well established as your responsibility, then there is probably little
   need to check with other committers before jumping in with a commit. If
   you see a bug in an area of the system which is clearly orphaned (and
   there are a few such areas, to our shame), the same applies. If, however,
   you are about to modify something which is clearly being actively
   maintained by someone else (and it is only by watching the
   repository-committers mailing list that you can really get a feel for just
   what is and is not) then consider sending the change to them instead, just
   as you would have before becoming a committer. For ports, you should
   contact the listed MAINTAINER in the Makefile. For other parts of the
   repository, if you are unsure who the active maintainer might be, it may
   help to scan the revision history to see who has committed changes in the
   past. Bill Fenner <fenner@FreeBSD.org> has written a nice shell script
   that can help determine who the active maintainer might be. It lists each
   person who has committed to a given file along with the number of commits
   each person has made. It can be found on freefall at ~fenner/bin/whodid.
   If your queries go unanswered or the committer otherwise indicates a lack
   of interest in the area affected, go ahead and commit it.

   If you are unsure about a commit for any reason at all, have it reviewed
   by -hackers before committing. Better to have it flamed then and there
   rather than when it is part of the repository. If you do happen to commit
   something which results in controversy erupting, you may also wish to
   consider backing the change out again until the matter is settled.
   Remember - with a version control system we can always change it back.

   Do not impugn the intentions of someone you disagree with. If they see a
   different solution to a problem than you, or even a different problem, it
   is not because they are stupid, because they have questionable parentage,
   or because they are trying to destroy your hard work, personal image, or
   FreeBSD, but simply because they have a different outlook on the world.
   Different is good.

   Disagree honestly. Argue your position from its merits, be honest about
   any shortcomings it may have, and be open to seeing their solution, or
   even their vision of the problem, with an open mind.

   Accept correction. We are all fallible. When you have made a mistake,
   apologize and get on with life. Do not beat up yourself, and certainly do
   not beat up others for your mistake. Do not waste time on embarrassment or
   recrimination, just fix the problem and move on.

   Ask for help. Seek out (and give) peer reviews. One of the ways open
   source software is supposed to excel is in the number of eyeballs applied
   to it; this does not apply if nobody will review code.

7. If in doubt...

   When you are not sure about something, whether it be a technical issue or
   a project convention be sure to ask. If you stay silent you will never
   make progress.

   If it relates to a technical issue ask on the public mailing lists. Avoid
   the temptation to email the individual person that knows the answer. This
   way everyone will be able to learn from the question and the answer.

   For project specific or administrative questions you should ask, in order:

     * Your mentor or former mentor.

     * An experienced committer on IRC, email, etc.

     * Any team with a "hat", as they should give you a definitive answer.

     * If still not sure, ask on FreeBSD developers mailing list.

   Once your question is answered, if no one pointed you to documentation
   that spelled out the answer to your question, document it, as others will
   have the same question.

8. GNATS

   The FreeBSD Project utilizes GNATS for tracking bugs and change requests.
   Be sure that if you commit a fix or suggestion found in a GNATS PR, you
   use edit-pr pr-number on freefall to close it. It is also considered nice
   if you take time to close any PRs associated with your commits, if
   appropriate. You can also make use of send-pr(1) yourself for proposing
   any change which you feel should probably be made, pending a more
   extensive peer-review first.

   You can find out more about GNATS at:

     * FreeBSD Problem Report Handling Guidelines

     * http://www.cs.utah.edu/csinfo/texinfo/gnats/gnats.html

     * http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html

     * send-pr(1)

   You can run a local copy of GNATS, and then integrate the FreeBSD GNATS
   tree by creating an rsync mirror. Then you can run GNATS commands locally,
   allowing you to query the PR database without an Internet connection.

  8.1. Mirroring the GNATS Tree

   It is possible to mirror the GNATS database by installing net/rsync, and
   executing:

 % rsync -va rsync://bit0.us-west.freebsd.org/FreeBSD-bit/gnats .

  8.2. Useful Tools

   Other than edit-pr there are a collection of tools in ~gnats/tools/ on
   freefall which can make working with PRs much easier.

   open-pr, close-pr, take-pr, and feedback-pr take PR numbers as arguments
   and then ask you to select from a preexisting list of change reasons or
   let you type in your own.

   change-pr is a multi purpose tool that lets you make multiple changes at
   the same time with one command.

   For example, to assign PR 123456 to yourself type take-pr 123456. If you
   want to set the PR to patched awaiting an MFC at the same time use:
   change-pr -t -p -m "awaiting MFC" 123456

9. Who's Who

   Besides the repository meisters, there are other FreeBSD project members
   and teams whom you will probably get to know in your role as a committer.
   Briefly, and by no means all-inclusively, these are:

   Documentation Engineering Team <doceng@FreeBSD.org>

           doceng is the group responsible for the documentation build
           infrastructure, approving new documentation committers, and
           ensuring that the FreeBSD website and documentation on the FTP
           site is up to date with respect to the CVS tree. It is not a
           conflict resolution body. The vast majority of documentation
           related discussion takes place on the FreeBSD documentation
           project mailing list. More details regarding the doceng team can
           be found in its charter. Committers interested in contributing to
           the documentation should familiarize themselves with the
           Documentation Project Primer.

   Ruslan Ermilov <ru@FreeBSD.org>

           Ruslan is Mister mdoc(7). If you are writing a manual page and
           need some advice on the structure, or the markup, ask Ruslan.

   Bruce Evans <bde@FreeBSD.org>

           Bruce is the Style Police-Meister. When you do a commit that could
           have been done better, Bruce will be there to tell you. Be
           thankful that someone is. Bruce is also very knowledgeable on the
           various standards applicable to FreeBSD.

   Marcus von Appen <mva@FreeBSD.org>, Glen Barber <gjb@FreeBSD.org>,
   Konstantin Belousov <kib@FreeBSD.org>, Joel Dahl <joel@FreeBSD.org>, Marc
   Fonvieille <blackend@FreeBSD.org>, Steven Kreuzer <skreuzer@FreeBSD.org>,
   Xin Li <delphij@FreeBSD.org>, Josh Paetzel <jpaetzel@FreeBSD.org>, Craig
   Rodrigues <rodrigc@FreeBSD.org>, Hiroki Sato <hrs@FreeBSD.org>, Gleb
   Smirnoff <glebius@FreeBSD.org>, Ken Smith <kensmith@FreeBSD.org>, Marius
   Strobl <marius@FreeBSD.org>

           These are the members of the re@FreeBSD.org. This team is
           responsible for setting release deadlines and controlling the
           release process. During code freezes, the release engineers have
           final authority on all changes to the system for whichever branch
           is pending release status. If there is something you want merged
           from FreeBSD-CURRENT to FreeBSD-STABLE (whatever values those may
           have at any given time), these are the people to talk to about it.

           Hiroki is also the keeper of the release documentation
           (src/release/doc/*). If you commit a change that you think is
           worthy of mention in the release notes, please make sure he knows
           about it. Better still, send him a patch with your suggested
           commentary.

   Dag-Erling C. Smo/rgrav <des@FreeBSD.org>

           Dag-Erling is the FreeBSD Security Officer and oversees the
           Security Officer Team <security-officer@FreeBSD.org>.

   Garrett Wollman <wollman@FreeBSD.org>

           If you need advice on obscure network internals or are not sure of
           some potential change to the networking subsystem you have in
           mind, Garrett is someone to talk to. Garrett is also very
           knowledgeable on the various standards applicable to FreeBSD.

   FreeBSD committer's mailing list

           svn-src-all, svn-ports-all and svn-doc-all are the mailing lists
           that the version control system uses to send commit messages to.
           You should never send email directly to these lists. You should
           only send replies to this list when they are short and are
           directly related to a commit.

   FreeBSD developers mailing list

           All committers are subscribed to -developers. This list was
           created to be a forum for the committers "community" issues.
           Examples are Core voting, announcements, etc.

           The FreeBSD developers mailing list is for the exclusive use of
           FreeBSD committers. In order to develop FreeBSD, committers must
           have the ability to openly discuss matters that will be resolved
           before they are publicly announced. Frank discussions of work in
           progress are not suitable for open publication and may harm
           FreeBSD.

           All FreeBSD committers are reminded to obey the copyright of the
           original author(s) of FreeBSD developers mailing list mail. Do not
           publish or forward messages from the FreeBSD developers mailing
           list outside the list membership without permission of all of the
           authors.

           Copyright violators will be removed from the FreeBSD developers
           mailing list, resulting in a suspension of commit privileges.
           Repeated or flagrant violations may result in permanent revocation
           of commit privileges.

           This list is not intended as a place for code reviews or a
           replacement for the FreeBSD architecture and design mailing list.
           In fact using it as such hurts the FreeBSD Project as it gives a
           sense of a closed list where general decisions affecting all of
           the FreeBSD using community are made without being "open". Last,
           but not least never, never ever, email the FreeBSD developers
           mailing list and CC:/BCC: another FreeBSD list. Never, ever email
           another FreeBSD email list and CC:/BCC: the FreeBSD developers
           mailing list. Doing so can greatly diminish the benefits of this
           list.

10. SSH Quick-Start Guide

    1. If you do not wish to type your password in every time you use ssh(1),
       and you use RSA or DSA keys to authenticate, ssh-agent(1) is there for
       your convenience. If you want to use ssh-agent(1), make sure that you
       run it before running other applications. X users, for example,
       usually do this from their .xsession or .xinitrc. See ssh-agent(1) for
       details.

    2. Generate a key pair using ssh-keygen(1). The key pair will wind up in
       your $HOME/.ssh/ directory.

    3. Send your public key ($HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.pub or $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)
       to the person setting you up as a committer so it can be put into the
       yourlogin file in /etc/ssh-keys/ on freefall.

   Now you should be able to use ssh-add(1) for authentication once per
   session. This will prompt you for your private key's pass phrase, and then
   store it in your authentication agent (ssh-agent(1)). If you no longer
   wish to have your key stored in the agent, issuing ssh-add -d will remove
   it.

   Test by doing something such as ssh freefall.FreeBSD.org ls /usr.

   For more information, see security/openssh, ssh(1), ssh-add(1),
   ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), and scp(1).

11. Coverity Prevent(R) Availability for FreeBSD Committers

   In January 2006, the FreeBSD Foundation obtained a license for Coverity
   Prevent(R) from Coverity(R) Ltd. With this donation, all FreeBSD
   developers can obtain access to Coverity Prevent analysis results of all
   FreeBSD Project software.

   FreeBSD developers who are interested in obtaining access to the analysis
   results of the automated Coverity Prevent runs, can find out more by
   logging into freefall and reading the relevant bits of the files:

   /usr/local/coverity/coverity_license.txt

           The license terms to which the FreeBSD developers will have to
           agree in order to use Coverity Prevent(R) analysis results.

   /usr/local/coverity/coverity_announcement.txt

           The announcement posted to the developers' mailing list of the
           FreeBSD Project. It contains useful information about the FreeBSD
           Foundation and Coverity(R) Ltd., as well as signup information for
           registering with the Coverity Prevent(R) installation of the
           FreeBSD Cluster.

           After reading and understanding the license terms of
           coverity_license.txt, all FreeBSD developers who are interested in
           using the analysis results of Coverity Prevent(R) should read this
           file.

   /usr/local/coverity/coverity_readme.txt

           A short guide about fixes which are committed to the FreeBSD
           source tree after being detected by Coverity Prevent(R) and
           analyzed by a FreeBSD developer.

   The FreeBSD Wiki includes a mini-guide for developers who are interested
   in working with the Coverity Prevent(R) analysis reports:
   http://wiki.freebsd.org/CoverityPrevent. Please note that this mini-guide
   is only readable by FreeBSD developers, so if you cannot access this page,
   you will have to ask someone to add you to the appropriate Wiki access
   list.

   Finally, all FreeBSD developers who are going to use Coverity Prevent(R)
   are always encouraged to ask for more details and usage information, by
   posting any questions to the mailing list of the FreeBSD developers.

12. The FreeBSD Committers' Big List of Rules

    1. Respect other committers.

    2. Respect other contributors.

    3. Discuss any significant change before committing.

    4. Respect existing maintainers (if listed in the MAINTAINER field in
       Makefile or in the MAINTAINER file in the top-level directory).

    5. Any disputed change must be backed out pending resolution of the
       dispute if requested by a maintainer. Security related changes may
       override a maintainer's wishes at the Security Officer's discretion.

    6. Changes go to FreeBSD-CURRENT before FreeBSD-STABLE unless
       specifically permitted by the release engineer or unless they are not
       applicable to FreeBSD-CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent change
       which is applicable should also be allowed to sit in FreeBSD-CURRENT
       for at least 3 days before merging so that it can be given sufficient
       testing. The release engineer has the same authority over the
       FreeBSD-STABLE branch as outlined for the maintainer in rule #5.

    7. Do not fight in public with other committers; it looks bad. If you
       must "strongly disagree" about something, do so only in private.

    8. Respect all code freezes and read the committers and developers
       mailing lists in a timely manner so you know when a code freeze is in
       effect.

    9. When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!

   10. Test your changes before committing them.

   11. Do not commit to anything under the src/contrib, src/crypto, or
       src/sys/contrib trees without explicit approval from the respective
       maintainer(s).

   As noted, breaking some of these rules can be grounds for suspension or,
   upon repeated offense, permanent removal of commit privileges. Individual
   members of core have the power to temporarily suspend commit privileges
   until core as a whole has the chance to review the issue. In case of an
   "emergency" (a committer doing damage to the repository), a temporary
   suspension may also be done by the repository meisters. Only a 2/3
   majority of core has the authority to suspend commit privileges for longer
   than a week or to remove them permanently. This rule does not exist to set
   core up as a bunch of cruel dictators who can dispose of committers as
   casually as empty soda cans, but to give the project a kind of safety
   fuse. If someone is out of control, it is important to be able to deal
   with this immediately rather than be paralyzed by debate. In all cases, a
   committer whose privileges are suspended or revoked is entitled to a
   "hearing" by core, the total duration of the suspension being determined
   at that time. A committer whose privileges are suspended may also request
   a review of the decision after 30 days and every 30 days thereafter
   (unless the total suspension period is less than 30 days). A committer
   whose privileges have been revoked entirely may request a review after a
   period of 6 months has elapsed. This review policy is strictly informal
   and, in all cases, core reserves the right to either act on or disregard
   requests for review if they feel their original decision to be the right
   one.

   In all other aspects of project operation, core is a subset of committers
   and is bound by the same rules. Just because someone is in core this does
   not mean that they have special dispensation to step outside any of the
   lines painted here; core's "special powers" only kick in when it acts as a
   group, not on an individual basis. As individuals, the core team members
   are all committers first and core second.

  12.1. Details

    1. Respect other committers.

       This means that you need to treat other committers as the peer-group
       developers that they are. Despite our occasional attempts to prove the
       contrary, one does not get to be a committer by being stupid and
       nothing rankles more than being treated that way by one of your peers.
       Whether we always feel respect for one another or not (and everyone
       has off days), we still have to treat other committers with respect at
       all times, on public forums and in private email.

       Being able to work together long term is this project's greatest
       asset, one far more important than any set of changes to the code, and
       turning arguments about code into issues that affect our long-term
       ability to work harmoniously together is just not worth the trade-off
       by any conceivable stretch of the imagination.

       To comply with this rule, do not send email when you are angry or
       otherwise behave in a manner which is likely to strike others as
       needlessly confrontational. First calm down, then think about how to
       communicate in the most effective fashion for convincing the other
       person(s) that your side of the argument is correct, do not just blow
       off some steam so you can feel better in the short term at the cost of
       a long-term flame war. Not only is this very bad "energy economics",
       but repeated displays of public aggression which impair our ability to
       work well together will be dealt with severely by the project
       leadership and may result in suspension or termination of your commit
       privileges. The project leadership will take into account both public
       and private communications brought before it. It will not seek the
       disclosure of private communications, but it will take it into account
       if it is volunteered by the committers involved in the complaint.

       All of this is never an option which the project's leadership enjoys
       in the slightest, but unity comes first. No amount of code or good
       advice is worth trading that away.

    2. Respect other contributors.

       You were not always a committer. At one time you were a contributor.
       Remember that at all times. Remember what it was like trying to get
       help and attention. Do not forget that your work as a contributor was
       very important to you. Remember what it was like. Do not discourage,
       belittle, or demean contributors. Treat them with respect. They are
       our committers in waiting. They are every bit as important to the
       project as committers. Their contributions are as valid and as
       important as your own. After all, you made many contributions before
       you became a committer. Always remember that.

       Consider the points raised under 1 and apply them also to
       contributors.

    3. Discuss any significant change before committing.

       The repository is not where changes should be initially submitted for
       correctness or argued over, that should happen first in the mailing
       lists and the commit should only happen once something resembling
       consensus has been reached. This does not mean that you have to ask
       permission before correcting every obvious syntax error or manual page
       misspelling, simply that you should try to develop a feel for when a
       proposed change is not quite such a no-brainer and requires some
       feedback first. People really do not mind sweeping changes if the
       result is something clearly better than what they had before, they
       just do not like being surprized by those changes. The very best way
       of making sure that you are on the right track is to have your code
       reviewed by one or more other committers.

       When in doubt, ask for review!

    4. Respect existing maintainers if listed.

       Many parts of FreeBSD are not "owned" in the sense that any specific
       individual will jump up and yell if you commit a change to "their"
       area, but it still pays to check first. One convention we use is to
       put a maintainer line in the Makefile for any package or subtree which
       is being actively maintained by one or more people; see
       http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/policies.html
       for documentation on this. Where sections of code have several
       maintainers, commits to affected areas by one maintainer need to be
       reviewed by at least one other maintainer. In cases where the
       "maintainer-ship" of something is not clear, you can also look at the
       repository logs for the file(s) in question and see if someone has
       been working recently or predominantly in that area.

       Other areas of FreeBSD fall under the control of someone who manages
       an overall category of FreeBSD evolution, such as internationalization
       or networking. See http://www.FreeBSD.org/administration.html for more
       information on this.

    5. Any disputed change must be backed out pending resolution of the
       dispute if requested by a maintainer. Security related changes may
       override a maintainer's wishes at the Security Officer's discretion.

       This may be hard to swallow in times of conflict (when each side is
       convinced that they are in the right, of course) but a version control
       system makes it unnecessary to have an ongoing dispute raging when it
       is far easier to simply reverse the disputed change, get everyone
       calmed down again and then try to figure out what is the best way to
       proceed. If the change turns out to be the best thing after all, it
       can be easily brought back. If it turns out not to be, then the users
       did not have to live with the bogus change in the tree while everyone
       was busily debating its merits. People very rarely call for back-outs
       in the repository since discussion generally exposes bad or
       controversial changes before the commit even happens, but on such rare
       occasions the back-out should be done without argument so that we can
       get immediately on to the topic of figuring out whether it was bogus
       or not.

    6. Changes go to FreeBSD-CURRENT before FreeBSD-STABLE unless
       specifically permitted by the release engineer or unless they are not
       applicable to FreeBSD-CURRENT. Any non-trivial or non-urgent change
       which is applicable should also be allowed to sit in FreeBSD-CURRENT
       for at least 3 days before merging so that it can be given sufficient
       testing. The release engineer has the same authority over the
       FreeBSD-STABLE branch as outlined in rule #5.

       This is another "do not argue about it" issue since it is the release
       engineer who is ultimately responsible (and gets beaten up) if a
       change turns out to be bad. Please respect this and give the release
       engineer your full cooperation when it comes to the FreeBSD-STABLE
       branch. The management of FreeBSD-STABLE may frequently seem to be
       overly conservative to the casual observer, but also bear in mind the
       fact that conservatism is supposed to be the hallmark of
       FreeBSD-STABLE and different rules apply there than in
       FreeBSD-CURRENT. There is also really no point in having
       FreeBSD-CURRENT be a testing ground if changes are merged over to
       FreeBSD-STABLE immediately. Changes need a chance to be tested by the
       FreeBSD-CURRENT developers, so allow some time to elapse before
       merging unless the FreeBSD-STABLE fix is critical, time sensitive or
       so obvious as to make further testing unnecessary (spelling fixes to
       manual pages, obvious bug/typo fixes, etc.) In other words, apply
       common sense.

       Changes to the security branches (for example, RELENG_7_0) must be
       approved by a member of the Security Officer Team
       <security-officer@FreeBSD.org>, or in some cases, by a member of the
       re@FreeBSD.org.

    7. Do not fight in public with other committers; it looks bad. If you
       must "strongly disagree" about something, do so only in private.

       This project has a public image to uphold and that image is very
       important to all of us, especially if we are to continue to attract
       new members. There will be occasions when, despite everyone's very
       best attempts at self-control, tempers are lost and angry words are
       exchanged. The best thing that can be done in such cases is to
       minimize the effects of this until everyone has cooled back down. That
       means that you should not air your angry words in public and you
       should not forward private correspondence to public mailing lists or
       aliases. What people say one-to-one is often much less sugar-coated
       than what they would say in public, and such communications therefore
       have no place there - they only serve to inflame an already bad
       situation. If the person sending you a flame-o-gram at least had the
       grace to send it privately, then have the grace to keep it private
       yourself. If you feel you are being unfairly treated by another
       developer, and it is causing you anguish, bring the matter up with
       core rather than taking it public. Core will do its best to play peace
       makers and get things back to sanity. In cases where the dispute
       involves a change to the codebase and the participants do not appear
       to be reaching an amicable agreement, core may appoint a
       mutually-agreeable 3rd party to resolve the dispute. All parties
       involved must then agree to be bound by the decision reached by this
       3rd party.

    8. Respect all code freezes and read the committers and developers
       mailing list on a timely basis so you know when a code freeze is in
       effect.

       Committing unapproved changes during a code freeze is a really big
       mistake and committers are expected to keep up-to-date on what is
       going on before jumping in after a long absence and committing 10
       megabytes worth of accumulated stuff. People who abuse this on a
       regular basis will have their commit privileges suspended until they
       get back from the FreeBSD Happy Reeducation Camp we run in Greenland.

    9. When in doubt on any procedure, ask first!

       Many mistakes are made because someone is in a hurry and just assumes
       they know the right way of doing something. If you have not done it
       before, chances are good that you do not actually know the way we do
       things and really need to ask first or you are going to completely
       embarrass yourself in public. There is no shame in asking "how in the
       heck do I do this?" We already know you are an intelligent person;
       otherwise, you would not be a committer.

   10. Test your changes before committing them.

       This may sound obvious, but if it really were so obvious then we
       probably would not see so many cases of people clearly not doing this.
       If your changes are to the kernel, make sure you can still compile
       both GENERIC and LINT. If your changes are anywhere else, make sure
       you can still make world. If your changes are to a branch, make sure
       your testing occurs with a machine which is running that code. If you
       have a change which also may break another architecture, be sure and
       test on all supported architectures. Please refer to the FreeBSD
       Internal Page for a list of available resources. As other
       architectures are added to the FreeBSD supported platforms list, the
       appropriate shared testing resources will be made available.

   11. Do not commit to anything under the src/contrib, src/crypto, and
       src/sys/contrib trees without explicit approval from the respective
       maintainer(s).

       The trees mentioned above are for contributed software usually
       imported onto a vendor branch. Committing something there, even if it
       does not take the file off the vendor branch, may cause unnecessary
       headaches for those responsible for maintaining that particular piece
       of software. Thus, unless you have explicit approval from the
       maintainer (or you are the maintainer), do not commit there!

       Please note that this does not mean you should not try to improve the
       software in question; you are still more than welcome to do so.
       Ideally, you should submit your patches to the vendor. If your changes
       are FreeBSD-specific, talk to the maintainer; they may be willing to
       apply them locally. But whatever you do, do not commit there by
       yourself!

       Contact the Core Team <core@FreeBSD.org> if you wish to take up
       maintainership of an unmaintained part of the tree.

  12.2. Policy on Multiple Architectures

   FreeBSD has added several new architecture ports during recent release
   cycles and is truly no longer an i386(TM) centric operating system. In an
   effort to make it easier to keep FreeBSD portable across the platforms we
   support, core has developed the following mandate:

     Our 32-bit reference platform is i386, and our 64-bit reference platform
     is sparc64. Major design work (including major API and ABI changes) must
     prove itself on at least one 32-bit and at least one 64-bit platform,
     preferably the primary reference platforms, before it may be committed
     to the source tree.

   The i386 and sparc64 platforms were chosen due to being more readily
   available to developers and as representatives of more diverse processor
   and system designs - big versus little endian, register file versus
   register stack, different DMA and cache implementations, hardware page
   tables versus software TLB management etc.

   The ia64 platform has many of the same complications that sparc64 has, but
   is still limited in availability to developers.

   We will continue to re-evaluate this policy as cost and availability of
   the 64-bit platforms change.

   Developers should also be aware of our Tier Policy for the long term
   support of hardware architectures. The rules here are intended to provide
   guidance during the development process, and are distinct from the
   requirements for features and architectures listed in that section. The
   Tier rules for feature support on architectures at release-time are more
   strict than the rules for changes during the development process.

  12.3. Other Suggestions

   When committing documentation changes, use a spell checker before
   committing. For all SGML docs, you should also verify that your formatting
   directives are correct by running make lint.

   For all on-line manual pages, run manck (from ports) over the manual page
   to verify all of the cross references and file references are correct and
   that the man page has all of the appropriate MLINKs installed.

   Do not mix style fixes with new functionality. A style fix is any change
   which does not modify the functionality of the code. Mixing the changes
   obfuscates the functionality change when asking for differences between
   revisions, which can hide any new bugs. Do not include whitespace changes
   with content changes in commits to doc/ or www/. The extra clutter in the
   diffs makes the translators' job much more difficult. Instead, make any
   style or whitespace changes in separate commits that are clearly labeled
   as such in the commit message.

  12.4. Deprecating Features

   When it is necessary to remove functionality from software in the base
   system the following guidelines should be followed whenever possible:

    1. Mention is made in the manual page and possibly the release notes that
       the option, utility, or interface is deprecated. Use of the deprecated
       feature generates a warning.

    2. The option, utility, or interface is preserved until the next major
       (point zero) release.

    3. The option, utility, or interface is removed and no longer documented.
       It is now obsolete. It is also generally a good idea to note its
       removal in the release notes.

13. Support for Multiple Architectures

   FreeBSD is a highly portable operating system intended to function on many
   different types of hardware architectures. Maintaining clean separation of
   Machine Dependent (MD) and Machine Independent (MI) code, as well as
   minimizing MD code, is an important part of our strategy to remain agile
   with regards to current hardware trends. Each new hardware architecture
   supported by FreeBSD adds substantially to the cost of code maintenance,
   toolchain support, and release engineering. It also dramatically increases
   the cost of effective testing of kernel changes. As such, there is strong
   motivation to differentiate between classes of support for various
   architectures while remaining strong in a few key architectures that are
   seen as the FreeBSD "target audience".

  13.1. Statement of General Intent

   The FreeBSD Project targets "production quality commercial off-the-shelf
   (COTS) workstation, server, and high-end embedded systems". By retaining a
   focus on a narrow set of architectures of interest in these environments,
   the FreeBSD Project is able to maintain high levels of quality, stability,
   and performance, as well as minimize the load on various support teams on
   the project, such as the ports team, documentation team, security officer,
   and release engineering teams. Diversity in hardware support broadens the
   options for FreeBSD consumers by offering new features and usage
   opportunities (such as support for 64-bit CPUs, use in embedded
   environments, etc.), but these benefits must always be carefully
   considered in terms of the real-world maintenance cost associated with
   additional platform support.

   The FreeBSD Project differentiates platform targets into four tiers. Each
   tier includes a specification of the requirements for an architecture to
   be in that tier, as well as specifying the obligations of developers with
   regards to the platform. In addition, a policy is defined regarding the
   circumstances required to change the tier of an architecture.

  13.2. Tier 1: Fully Supported Architectures

   Tier 1 platforms are fully supported by the security officer, release
   engineering, and toolchain maintenance staff. New features added to the
   operating system must be fully functional across all Tier 1 architectures
   for every release (features which are inherently architecture-specific,
   such as support for hardware device drivers, may be exempt from this
   requirement). In general, all Tier 1 platforms must have build and
   Tinderbox support either in the FreeBSD.org cluster, or be easily
   available for all developers. Embedded platforms may substitute an
   emulator available in the FreeBSD cluster for actual hardware.

   Tier 1 architectures are expected to be Production Quality with respects
   to all aspects of the FreeBSD operating system, including installation and
   development environments.

   Tier 1 architectures are expected to be completely integrated into the
   source tree and have all features necessary to produce an entire system
   relevant for that target architecture. Tier 1 architectures generally have
   at least 6 active developers.

   Tier 1 architectures are expected to be fully supported by the ports
   system. All the ports should build on a Tier 1 platform, or have the
   appropriate filters to prevent the inappropriate ones from building there.
   The packaging system must support all Tier 1 architectures. To ensure an
   architecture's Tier 1 status, proponents of that architecture must show
   that all relevant packages can be built on that platform.

   Tier 1 embedded architectures must be able to cross-build packages on at
   least one other Tier 1 architecture. The packages must be the most
   relevant for the platform, but may be a non-empty subset of those that
   build natively.

   Tier 1 architectures must be fully documented. All basic operations need
   to be covered by the handbook or other documents. All relevant integration
   documentation must also be integrated into the tree, or readily available.

   Current Tier 1 platforms are i386 and amd64.

  13.3. Tier 2: Developmental Architectures

   Tier 2 platforms are not supported by the security officer and release
   engineering teams. Platform maintainers are responsible for toolchain
   support in the tree. The toolchain maintainer is expected to work with the
   platform maintainers to refine these changes. Major new toolchain
   components are allowed to break support for Tier 2 architectures if the
   FreeBSD-local changes have not been incorporated upstream. The toolchain
   maintainers are expected to provide prompt review of any proposed changes
   and cannot block, through their inaction, changes going into the tree. New
   features added to FreeBSD should be feasible to implement on these
   platforms, but an implementation is not required before the feature may be
   added to the FreeBSD source tree. New features that may be difficult to
   implement on Tier 2 architectures should provide a means of disabling them
   on those architectures. The implementation of a Tier 2 architecture may be
   committed to the main FreeBSD tree as long as it does not interfere with
   production work on Tier 1 platforms, or substantially with other Tier 2
   platforms. Before a Tier 2 platform can be added to the FreeBSD base
   source tree, the platform must be able to boot multi-user on actual
   hardware. Generally, there must be at least three active developers
   working on the platform.

   Tier 2 architectures are usually systems targeted at Tier 1 support, but
   that are still under development. Architectures reaching end of life may
   also be moved from Tier 1 status to Tier 2 status as the availability of
   resources to continue to maintain the system in a Production Quality state
   diminishes. Well supported niche architectures may also be Tier 2.

   Tier 2 architectures may have some support for them integrated into the
   ports infrastructure. They may have cross compilation support added, at
   the discretion of portmgr. Some ports must built natively into packages if
   the package system supports that architecture. If not integrated into the
   base system, some external patches for the architecture for ports must be
   available.

   Tier 2 architectures can be integrated into the FreeBSD handbook. The
   basics for how to get a system running must be documented, although not
   necessarily for every single board or system a Tier 2 architecture
   supports. The supported hardware list must exist and should be no more
   than a couple of months old. It should be integrated into the FreeBSD
   documentation.

   Current Tier 2 platforms are arm, ia64, pc98, powerpc, and sparc64.

  13.4. Tier 3: Experimental Architectures

   Tier 3 platforms are not supported by the security officer and release
   engineering teams. At the discretion of the toolchain maintainer, they may
   be supported in the toolchain. Tier 3 platforms are architectures in the
   early stages of development, for non-mainstream hardware platforms, or
   which are considered legacy systems unlikely to see broad future use. New
   Tier 3 systems will not be committed to the base source tree. Support for
   Tier 3 systems may be worked on in the FreeBSD Perforce Repository,
   providing source control and easier change integration from the main
   FreeBSD tree. Platforms that transition to Tier 3 status may be removed
   from the tree if they are no longer actively supported by the FreeBSD
   developer community at the discretion of the release engineer.

   Tier 3 platforms may have ports support, either integrated or external,
   but do not require it.

   Tier 3 platforms must have the basics documented for how to build a kernel
   and how to boot it on at least one target hardware or emulation
   environment. This documentation need not be integrated into the FreeBSD
   tree.

   Current Tier 3 platforms are mips and S/390(R).

  13.5. Tier 4: Unsupported Architectures

   Tier 4 systems are not supported in any form by the project.

   All systems not otherwise classified into a support tier are Tier 4
   systems.

  13.6. Policy on Changing the Tier of an Architecture

   Systems may only be moved from one tier to another by approval of the
   FreeBSD Core Team, which shall make that decision in collaboration with
   the Security Officer, Release Engineering, and toolchain maintenance
   teams.

14. Ports Specific FAQ

   14.1. Adding a New Port

                14.1.1. How do I add a new port?

                14.1.2. Any other things I need to know when I add a new
                port?

   14.2. Removing an Existing Port

                14.2.1. How do I remove an existing port?

   14.3. Re-adding a Deleted Port

                14.3.1. How do I re-add a deleted port?

   14.4. Repository Copies

                14.4.1. When do we need a repository copy?

                14.4.2. What do I need to do?

   14.5. Ports Freeze

                14.5.1. What is a "ports freeze"?

                14.5.2. What is a "ports slush" or "feature freeze"?

                14.5.3. How long is a ports freeze or slush?

                14.5.4. What does it mean to me?

                14.5.5. How do I know when the ports slush starts?

                14.5.6. How do I know when the freeze or slush ends?

   14.6. Creating a New Category

                14.6.1. What is the procedure for creating a new category?

                14.6.2. What do I need to do to implement a new physical
                category?

                14.6.3. What do I need to do to implement a new virtual
                category?

   14.7. Miscellaneous Questions

                14.7.1. How do I know if my port is building correctly or
                not?

                14.7.2. I added a new port. Do I need to add it to the INDEX?

                14.7.3. Are there any other files I am not allowed to touch?

                14.7.4. What is the proper procedure for updating the
                checksum for a port's distfile when the file changes without
                a version change?

    14.1. Adding a New Port
14.1.1. How do I add a new port?
        
14.1.2. Any other things I need to know when I add a new port?
14.1.1. How do I add a new port?                                                             
        First, please read the section about repository copies.                              
                                                                                             
        The easiest way to add a new port is to use the addport script from your machine     
        (located in the ports/Tools/scripts directory). It will add a port from the          
        directory you specify, determining the category automatically from the port          
        Makefile. It will also add an entry to the port's category Makefile. It was written  
        by Michael Haro <mharo@FreeBSD.org>, Will Andrews <will@FreeBSD.org>, and Renato     
        Botelho <garga@FreeBSD.org>. When sending questions about this script to the FreeBSD 
        ports mailing list, please also CC Chris Rees <crees@FreeBSD.org>, the current       
        maintainer.                                                                          
14.1.2. Any other things I need to know when I add a new port?                               
        Check the port, preferably to make sure it compiles and packages correctly. This is  
        the recommended sequence:                                                            
                                                                                             
        # make install                                                                       
        # make package                                                                       
        # make deinstall                                                                     
        # pkg_add package you built above                                                    
        # make deinstall                                                                     
        # make reinstall                                                                     
        # make package                                                                       
                                                                                             
        The Porters Handbook contains more detailed instructions.                            
                                                                                             
        Use portlint(1) to check the syntax of the port. You do not necessarily have to      
        eliminate all warnings but make sure you have fixed the simple ones.                 
                                                                                             
        If the port came from a submitter who has not contributed to the Project before, add 
        that person's name to the Additional Contributors section of the FreeBSD             
        Contributors List.                                                                   
                                                                                             
        Close the PR if the port came in as a PR. To close a PR, just do edit-pr PR# on      
        freefall and change the state from open to closed. You will be asked to enter a log  
        message and then you are done.                                                       
    14.2. Removing an Existing Port
14.2.1. How do I remove an existing port?
14.2.1. How do I remove an existing port?                                                    
        First, please read the section about repository copies. Before you remove the port,  
        you have to verify there are no other ports depending on it.                         
                                                                                             
          * Make sure there is no dependency on the port in the ports collection:            
                                                                                             
               * The port's PKGNAME should appear in exactly one line in a recent INDEX      
                 file.                                                                       
                                                                                             
               * No other ports should contain any reference to the port's directory or      
                 PKGNAME in their Makefiles                                                  
                                                                                             
          * Then, remove the port:                                                           
                                                                                             
              1. Remove the port's files and directory with svn remove.                      
                                                                                             
              2. Remove the SUBDIR listing of the port in the parent directory Makefile.     
                                                                                             
              3. Add an entry to ports/MOVED.                                                
                                                                                             
              4. Remove the port from ports/LEGAL if it is there.                            
                                                                                             
        Alternatively, you can use the rmport script, from ports/Tools/scripts. This script  
        was written by Vasil Dimov <vd@FreeBSD.org>. When sending questions about this       
        script to the FreeBSD ports mailing list, please also CC Chris Rees                  
        <crees@FreeBSD.org>, the current maintainer.                                         
    14.3. Re-adding a Deleted Port
14.3.1. How do I re-add a deleted port?
14.3.1. How do I re-add a deleted port?                                                      
        This is essentially the reverse of deleting a port.                                  
                                                                                             
         1. Figure out when the port was removed. Use this list and then copy the last       
            living revision of the port:                                                     
                                                                                             
         % cd /usr/ports/category                                                            
                                                                                             
         % svn cp 'svn+ssh://svn.freebsd.org/ports/category/portname/@{YYYY-MM-DD}' portname 
                                                                                             
                                                                                             
            Pick a date that is before the removal but after the last true commit.           
                                                                                             
         2. Perform whatever changes are necessary to make the port work again. If it was    
            deleted because the distfiles are no longer available you will need to volunteer 
            to host them yourself, or find someone else to do so.                            
                                                                                             
         3. svn add or svn remove any appropriate files.                                     
                                                                                             
         4. Restore the SUBDIR listing of the port in the parent directory Makefile, and     
            delete the entry from ports/MOVED.                                               
                                                                                             
         5. If the port had an entry in ports/LEGAL, restore it.                             
                                                                                             
         6. svn commit these changes, preferably in one step.                                
                                                                                             
          Tip:                                                                               
                                                                                             
        addport now detects when the port to add has previously existed, and should handle   
        all except the ports/LEGAL step automatically.                                       
    14.4. Repository Copies
14.4.1. When do we need a repository copy?
        
14.4.2. What do I need to do?
14.4.1. When do we need a repository copy?                                                   
        When you want to add a port that is related to any port that is already in the tree  
        in a separate directory, you have to do a repository copy. Here related means it is  
        a different version or a slightly modified version. Examples are print/ghostscript*  
        (different versions) and x11-wm/windowmaker* (English-only and internationalized     
        version).                                                                            
                                                                                             
        Another example is when a port is moved from one subdirectory to another, or when    
        you want to change the name of a directory because the author(s) renamed their       
        software even though it is a descendant of a port already in a tree.                 
14.4.2. What do I need to do?                                                                
        With Subversion, a repo copy can be done by any committer:                           
                                                                                             
          * Doing a repo copy:                                                               
                                                                                             
              1. First make sure that you were using an up to date ports tree and the target 
                 directory does not exist.                                                   
                                                                                             
              2. Use svn move or svn copy to do the repo copy.                               
                                                                                             
              3. Upgrade the copied port to the new version. Remember to change the          
                 LATEST_LINK so there are no duplicate ports with the same name. In some     
                 rare cases it may be necessary to change the PORTNAME instead of            
                 LATEST_LINK, but this should only be done when it is really needed - e.g.,  
                 using an existing port as the base for a very similar program with a        
                 different name, or upgrading a port to a new upstream version which         
                 actually changes the distribution name, like the transition from            
                 textproc/libxml to textproc/libxml2. In most cases, changing LATEST_LINK    
                 should suffice.                                                             
                                                                                             
              4. Add the new subdirectory to the SUBDIR listing in the parent directory      
                 Makefile. You can run make checksubdirs in the parent directory to check    
                 this.                                                                       
                                                                                             
              5. If the port changed categories, modify the CATEGORIES line of the port's    
                 Makefile accordingly                                                        
                                                                                             
              6. Add an entry to ports/MOVED, if you remove the original port.               
                                                                                             
              7. Commit all changes on one commit. A forced commit is no longer needed with  
                 Subversion.                                                                 
                                                                                             
          * When removing a port:                                                            
                                                                                             
              1. Perform a thorough check of the ports collection for any dependencies on    
                 the old port location/name, and update them. Running grep on INDEX is not   
                 enough because some ports have dependencies enabled by compile-time         
                 options. A full grep -r of the ports collection is recommended.             
                                                                                             
              2. Remove the old port and the old SUBDIR entry.                               
                                                                                             
              3. Add an entry to ports/MOVED.                                                
                                                                                             
          * After repo moves ("rename" operations where a port is copied and the old         
            location is removed):                                                            
                                                                                             
               * Follow the same steps that are outlined in the previous two entries, to     
                 activate the new location of the port and remove the old one.               
    14.5. Ports Freeze
14.5.1. What is a "ports freeze"?
        
14.5.2. What is a "ports slush" or "feature freeze"?
        
14.5.3. How long is a ports freeze or slush?
        
14.5.4. What does it mean to me?
        
14.5.5. How do I know when the ports slush starts?
        
14.5.6. How do I know when the freeze or slush ends?
14.5.1. What is a "ports freeze"?                                                            
        Before a release, it is necessary to restrict commits to the ports tree for a short  
        period of time while the packages and the release itself are being built. This is to 
        ensure consistency among the various parts of the release, and is called the "ports  
        freeze".                                                                             
                                                                                             
        For more information on the background and policies surrounding a ports freeze, see  
        the Portmgr Quality Assurance page.                                                  
14.5.2. What is a "ports slush" or "feature freeze"?                                         
        During a release cycle the ports tree may be in a "slush" state instead of in a hard 
        freeze. The goal during a slush is to reach a stable ports tree to avoid rebuilding  
        large sets of packages for the release and to tag the tree. During this time         
        "sweeping changes" are prohibited unless specifically permitted by portmgr. Complete 
        details about what qualifies as a sweeping change can be found on the Portmgr        
        Implementation page.                                                                 
                                                                                             
        The benefit of a slush as opposed to a complete freeze is that it allows maintainers 
        to continue adding new ports, making routine version updates, and bug fixes to most  
        existing ports, as long as the number of affected ports is minimal. For example,     
        updating the shared library version on a port that many other ports depend on.       
14.5.3. How long is a ports freeze or slush?                                                 
        A freeze only lasts long enough to tag the tree. A slush usually lasts a week or     
        two, but may last longer.                                                            
14.5.4. What does it mean to me?                                                             
        During a ports freeze, you are not allowed to commit anything to the tree without    
        explicit approval from the Ports Management Team. "Explicit approval" here means     
        that you send a patch to the Ports Management Team for review and get a reply        
        saying, "Go ahead and commit it."                                                    
                                                                                             
        Not everything is allowed to be committed during a freeze. Please see the Portmgr    
        Quality Assurance page for more information.                                         
                                                                                             
        Note that you do not have implicit permission to fix a port during the freeze just   
        because it is broken.                                                                
                                                                                             
        During a ports slush, you are still allowed to commit but you must exercise more     
        caution in what you commit. Furthermore a special note (typically "Feature Safe:     
        yes") must be added to the commit message.                                           
14.5.5. How do I know when the ports slush starts?                                           
        The Ports Management Team will send out warning messages to the FreeBSD ports        
        mailing list and FreeBSD committer's mailing list announcing the start of the        
        impending release, usually two or three weeks in advance. The exact starting time    
        will not be determined until a few days before the actual release. This is because   
        the ports slush has to be synchronized with the release, and it is usually not known 
        until then when exactly the release will be rolled.                                  
                                                                                             
        When the slush starts, there will be another announcement to the FreeBSD ports       
        mailing list and FreeBSD committer's mailing list, of course.                        
14.5.6. How do I know when the freeze or slush ends?                                         
        A few hours after the release, the Ports Management Team will send out a mail to the 
        FreeBSD ports mailing list and FreeBSD committer's mailing list announcing the end   
        of the ports freeze or slush. Note that the release being cut does not automatically 
        indicate the end of the freeze. We have to make sure there will be no last minute    
        snafus that result in an immediate re-rolling of the release.                        
    14.6. Creating a New Category
14.6.1. What is the procedure for creating a new category?
        
14.6.2. What do I need to do to implement a new physical category?
        
14.6.3. What do I need to do to implement a new virtual category?
14.6.1. What is the procedure for creating a new category?                                   
        Please see Proposing a New Category in the Porter's Handbook. Once that procedure    
        has been followed and the PR has been assigned to Ports Management Team              
        <portmgr@FreeBSD.org>, it is their decision whether or not to approve it. If they    
        do, it is their responsibility to do the following:                                  
                                                                                             
         1. Perform any needed moves. (This only applies to physical categories.)            
                                                                                             
         2. Update the VALID_CATEGORIES definition in ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk.                  
                                                                                             
         3. Assign the PR back to you.                                                       
14.6.2. What do I need to do to implement a new physical category?                           
         1. Upgrade each moved port's Makefile. Do not connect the new category to the build 
            yet.                                                                             
                                                                                             
            To do this, you will need to:                                                    
                                                                                             
              1. Change the port's CATEGORIES (this was the point of the exercise,           
                 remember?) The new category should be listed first. This will help to       
                 ensure that the PKGORIGIN is correct.                                       
                                                                                             
              2. Run a make describe. Since the top-level make index that you will be        
                 running in a few steps is an iteration of make describe over the entire     
                 ports hierarchy, catching any errors here will save you having to re-run    
                 that step later on.                                                         
                                                                                             
              3. If you want to be really thorough, now might be a good time to run          
                 portlint(1).                                                                
                                                                                             
         2. Check that the PKGORIGINs are correct. The ports system uses each port's         
            CATEGORIES entry to create its PKGORIGIN, which is used to connect installed     
            packages to the port directory they were built from. If this entry is wrong,     
            common port tools like pkg_version(1) and portupgrade(1) fail.                   
                                                                                             
            To do this, use the chkorigin.sh tool, as follows: env PORTSDIR=/path/to/ports   
            sh -e /path/to/ports/Tools/scripts/chkorigin.sh. This will check every port in   
            the ports tree, even those not connected to the build, so you can run it         
            directly after the move operation. Hint: do not forget to look at the PKGORIGINs 
            of any slave ports of the ports you just moved!                                  
                                                                                             
         3. On your own local system, test the proposed changes: first, comment out the      
            SUBDIR entries in the old ports' categories' Makefiles; then enable building the 
            new category in ports/Makefile. Run make checksubdirs in the affected category   
            directories to check the SUBDIR entries. Next, in the ports/ directory, run make 
            index. This can take over 40 minutes on even modern systems; however, it is a    
            necessary step to prevent problems for other people.                             
                                                                                             
         4. Once this is done, you can commit the updated ports/Makefile to connect the new  
            category to the build and also commit the Makefile changes for the old category  
            or categories.                                                                   
                                                                                             
         5. Add appropriate entries to ports/MOVED.                                          
                                                                                             
         6. Update the documentation by modifying the following:                             
                                                                                             
               * the list of categories in the Porter's Handbook                             
                                                                                             
               * www/en/ports/categories. Note that these are now displayed by sub-groups,   
                 as specified in www/en/ports/categories.descriptions.                       
                                                                                             
            (Note: these are in the docs, not the ports, repository). If you are not a docs  
            committer, you will need to submit a PR for this.                                
                                                                                             
         7. Only once all the above have been done, and no one is any longer reporting       
            problems with the new ports, should the old ports be deleted from their previous 
            locations in the repository.                                                     
                                                                                             
        It is not necessary to manually update the ports web pages to reflect the new        
        category. This is now done automatically via your change to www/en/ports/categories  
        and the daily automated rebuild of INDEX.                                            
14.6.3. What do I need to do to implement a new virtual category?                            
        This is much simpler than a physical category. You only need to modify the           
        following:                                                                           
                                                                                             
          * the list of categories in the Porter's Handbook                                  
                                                                                             
          * www/en/ports/categories                                                          
    14.7. Miscellaneous Questions
14.7.1. How do I know if my port is building correctly or not?
        
14.7.2. I added a new port. Do I need to add it to the INDEX?
        
14.7.3. Are there any other files I am not allowed to touch?
        
14.7.4. What is the proper procedure for updating the checksum for a port's distfile when
the file changes without a version change?
14.7.1. How do I know if my port is building correctly or not?                               
        First, go check http://pointyhat.FreeBSD.org/errorlogs/. There you will find error   
        logs from the latest package building runs on all supported platforms for the most   
        recent branches.                                                                     
                                                                                             
        However, just because the port does not show up there does not mean it is building   
        correctly. (One of the dependencies may have failed, for instance.) The relevant     
        directories are available on pointyhat under /a/portbuild/<arch>/<major_version> so  
        feel free to dig around. Each architecture and version has the following             
        subdirectories:                                                                      
                                                                                             
        errors        error logs from latest <major_version> run on <arch>                   
        logs          all logs from latest <major_version> run on <arch>                     
        packages      packages from latest <major_version> run on <arch>                     
        bak/errors    error logs from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>            
        bak/logs      all logs from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>              
        bak/packages  packages from last complete <major_version> run on <arch>              
                                                                                             
        Basically, if the port shows up in packages, or it is in logs but not in errors, it  
        built fine. (The errors directories are what you get from the web page.)             
14.7.2. I added a new port. Do I need to add it to the INDEX?                                
        No, INDEX is no longer stored in the SVN repository. The file can either be          
        generated by running make index, or a pre-generated version can be downloaded with   
        make fetchindex.                                                                     
14.7.3. Are there any other files I am not allowed to touch?                                 
        Any file directly under ports/, or any file under a subdirectory that starts with an 
        uppercase letter (Mk/, Tools/, etc.). In particular, the Ports Management Team is    
        very protective of ports/Mk/bsd.port*.mk so do not commit changes to those files     
        unless you want to face his wra(i)th.                                                
14.7.4. What is the proper procedure for updating the checksum for a port's distfile when    
        the file changes without a version change?                                           
        When the checksum for a port's distfile is updated due to the author updating the    
        file without changing the port's revision, the commit message should include a       
        summary of the relevant diffs between the original and new distfile to ensure that   
        the distfile has not been corrupted or maliciously altered. If the current version   
        of the port has been in the ports tree for a while, a copy of the old distfile will  
        usually be available on the ftp servers; otherwise the author or maintainer should   
        be contacted to find out why the distfile has changed.                               

15. Issues Specific to Developers Who Are Not Committers

   A few people who have access to the FreeBSD machines do not have commit
   bits. For instance, the project is willing to give access to the GNATS
   database to contributors who have shown interest and dedication in working
   on Problem Reports.

   Almost all of this document will apply to these developers as well (except
   things specific to commits and the mailing list memberships that go with
   them). In particular, we recommend that you read:

     * Administrative Details

     * Conventions

  Note:

       You should get your mentor to add you to the "Additional Contributors"
       (doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/contrib.additional.xml), if
       you are not already listed there.

     * Developer Relations

     * SSH Quick-Start Guide

     * The FreeBSD Committers' Big List of Rules

16. Information About Google Analytics

   As of December 12, 2012, Google Analytics was enabled on the
   FreeBSD Project website to collect anonymized usage statistics regarding
   usage of the site. The information collected is valuable to the
   FreeBSD Documentation Project, in order to identify various problems on
   the FreeBSD website.

  16.1. Google Analytics General Policy

   The FreeBSD Project takes visitor privacy very seriously. As such, the
   FreeBSD Project website honors the "Do Not Track" header before fetching
   the tracking code from Google. For more information, please see the
   FreeBSD Privacy Policy.

   Google Analytics access is not arbitrarily allowed - access must be
   requested, voted on by the Documentation Engineering Team
   <doceng@FreeBSD.org>, and explicitly granted.

   Requests for Google Analytics data must include a specific purpose. For
   example, a valid reason for requesting access would be "to see the most
   frequently used web browsers when viewing FreeBSD web pages to ensure page
   rendering speeds are acceptable."

   Conversely, "to see what web browsers are most frequently used" (without
   stating why) would be rejected.

   All requests must include the timeframe for which the data would be
   required. For example, it must be explicitly stated if the requested data
   would be needed for a timeframe covering a span of 3 weeks, or if the
   request would be one-time only.

   Any request for Google Analytics data without a clear, reasonable reason
   beneficial to the FreeBSD Project will be rejected.

  16.2. Data Available Through Google Analytics

   A few examples of the types of Google Analytics data available include:

     * Commonly used web browsers

     * Page load times

     * Site access by language

17. Perks of the Job

   Unfortunately, there are not many perks involved with being a committer.
   Recognition as a competent software engineer is probably the only thing
   that will be of benefit in the long run. However, there are at least some
   perks:

   Free 4-CD and DVD Sets

           FreeBSD committers can get a free 4-CD or DVD set at conferences
           from FreeBSD Mall, Inc.. The sets are no longer available as a
           subscription due to the high shipment costs to countries outside
           the USA.

   Freenode IRC Cloaks

           FreeBSD developers may request a cloaked hostmask for their
           account on the Freenode IRC network in the form of
           freebsd/developer/freefall name or freebsd/developer/NickServ
           name. To request a cloak, send an email to Eitan Adler
           <eadler@FreeBSD.org> with your requested hostmask and NickServ
           account name.

18. Miscellaneous Questions

   18.1. Why are trivial or cosmetic changes to files on a vendor branch a
   bad idea?

   18.2. How do I add a new file to a branch?

   18.3. What "meta" information should I include in a commit message?

   18.4. How do I access people.FreeBSD.org to put up personal or project
   information?

   18.5. Where are the mailing list archives stored?

   18.6. I would like to mentor a new committer. What process do I need to
   follow?

   18.1. Why are trivial or cosmetic changes to files on a vendor branch a    
         bad idea?                                                            
           * From now on, every new vendor release of that file will need to  
             have patches merged in by hand.                                  
                                                                              
           * From now on, every new vendor release of that file will need to  
             have patches verified by hand.                                   
   18.2. How do I add a new file to a branch?                                 
         To add a file onto a branch, simply checkout or update to the branch 
         you want to add to and then add the file using the add operation as  
         you normally would. This works fine for the doc and ports trees. The 
         src tree uses SVN and requires more care because of the mergeinfo    
         properties. See section 1.4.6 of the Subversion Primer for details.  
         Refer to SubversionPrimer/Merging for details on how to perform an   
         MFC.                                                                 
   18.3. What "meta" information should I include in a commit message?        
         As well as including an informative message with each commit you may 
         need to include some additional information as well.                 
                                                                              
         This information consists of one or more lines containing the key    
         word or phrase, a colon, tabs for formatting, and then the           
         additional information.                                              
                                                                              
         The key words or phrases are:                                        
                                                                              
         PR:            The problem report (if any) which is affected         
                        (typically, by being closed) by this commit.          
                        The name and e-mail address of the person that        
         Submitted by:  submitted the fix; for committers, just the username  
                        on the FreeBSD cluster.                               
                        The name and e-mail address of the person or people   
                        that reviewed the change; for committers, just the    
         Reviewed by:   username on the FreeBSD cluster. If a patch was       
                        submitted to a mailing list for review, and the       
                        review was favorable, then just include the list      
                        name.                                                 
                        The name and e-mail address of the person or people   
                        that approved the change; for committers, just the    
                        username on the FreeBSD cluster. It is customary to   
                        get prior approval for a commit if it is to an area   
                        of the tree to which you do not usually commit. In    
         Approved by:   addition, during the run up to a new release all      
                        commits must be approved by the release engineering   
                        team. If these are your first commits then you should 
                        have passed them past your mentor first, and you      
                        should list your mentor, as in ``username-of-mentor   
                        (mentor)''.                                           
         Obtained from: The name of the project (if any) from which the code  
                        was obtained.                                         
                        If you wish to receive an e-mail reminder to MFC at a 
         MFC after:     later date, specify the number of days, weeks, or     
                        months after which an MFC is planned.                 
                        If the change is related to a security vulnerability  
         Security:      or security exposure, include one or more references  
                        or a description of the issue.                        
                                                                              
         Example 1. Commit Log for a Commit Based on a PR                     
                                                                              
         You want to commit a change based on a PR submitted by John Smith    
         containing a patch. The end of the commit message should look        
         something like this.                                                 
                                                                              
         ...                                                                  
                                                                              
         PR:                foo/12345                                         
         Submitted by:      John Smith <John.Smith@example.com>               
                                                                              
         Example 2. Commit Log for a Commit Needing Review                    
                                                                              
         You want to change the virtual memory system. You have posted        
         patches to the appropriate mailing list (in this case, freebsd-arch) 
         and the changes have been approved.                                  
                                                                              
         ...                                                                  
                                                                              
         Reviewed by:       -arch                                             
                                                                              
         Example 3. Commit Log for a Commit Needing Approval                  
                                                                              
         You want to commit a change to a section of the tree with a          
         MAINTAINER assigned. You have collaborated with the listed           
         MAINTAINER, who has told you to go ahead and commit.                 
                                                                              
         ...                                                                  
                                                                              
         Approved by:        abc                                              
                                                                              
         Where abc is the account name of the person who approved.            
                                                                              
         Example 4. Commit Log for a Commit Bringing in Code from OpenBSD     
                                                                              
         You want to commit some code based on work done in the OpenBSD       
         project.                                                             
                                                                              
         ...                                                                  
                                                                              
         Obtained from:      OpenBSD                                          
                                                                              
         Example 5. Commit Log for a Change to FreeBSD-CURRENT with a Planned 
         Commit to FreeBSD-STABLE to Follow at a Later Date.                  
                                                                              
         You want to commit some code which will be merged from               
         FreeBSD-CURRENT into the FreeBSD-STABLE branch after two weeks.      
                                                                              
         ...                                                                  
                                                                              
         MFC after:      2 weeks                                              
                                                                              
         Where 2 is the number of days, weeks, or months after which an MFC   
         is planned. The weeks option may be day, days, week, weeks, month,   
         months, or may be left off (in which case, days will be assumed).    
                                                                              
         In some cases you may need to combine some of these.                 
                                                                              
         Consider the situation where a user has submitted a PR containing    
         code from the NetBSD project. You are looking at the PR, but it is   
         not an area of the tree you normally work in, so you have decided to 
         get the change reviewed by the arch mailing list. Since the change   
         is complex, you opt to MFC after one month to allow adequate         
         testing.                                                             
                                                                              
         The extra information to include in the commit would look something  
         like                                                                 
                                                                              
         PR:                 foo/54321                                        
         Submitted by:       John Smith <John.Smith@example.com>              
         Reviewed by:        -arch                                            
         Obtained from:      NetBSD                                           
         MFC after:          1 month                                          
   18.4. How do I access people.FreeBSD.org to put up personal or project     
         information?                                                         
         people.FreeBSD.org is the same as freefall.FreeBSD.org. Just create  
         a public_html directory. Anything you place in that directory will   
         automatically be visible under http://people.FreeBSD.org/.           
   18.5. Where are the mailing list archives stored?                          
         The mailing lists are archived under /g/mail which will show up as   
         /hub/g/mail with pwd(1). This location is accessible from any        
         machine on the FreeBSD cluster.                                      
   18.6. I would like to mentor a new committer. What process do I need to    
         follow?                                                              
         See the New Account Creation Procedure document on the internal      
         pages.                                                               
