Ingo Schwarze <schwa...@usta.de> writes: > Hi Stuart, > > Stuart Longland wrote on Thu, Jan 09, 2020 at 09:07:38AM +1000: >> Somebody wrote: > >>> - If we could clean-room implement a BSD-licensed >>> EXT3/EXT4/BTRFS/XFS/JFS/whatever, following style(8), would there be >>> interest in supporting that in OpenBSD? > >> I'm hoping it will be more than one person assisting in this, >> and yes, I include myself in that group. > > schwarze@cvs $ grep -Fi longland /cvs/CVSROOT/ChangeLog* > > schwarze@cvs $ > > And https://stuartl.longlandclan.id.au/ lists a single free software > project, about 190 commits of Python code, with one single contributor. > > > I'm sorry that i have to use somewhat strong wording here, i'm > generally trying to help making our lists as friendly as possible, > but in this case, a clear answer is really required. > > There is few code that is as difficult as a file system. > There is few code that is as closely entangled with the hardest > parts of there kernel like file system code. > There is few code where touching it is as dangerous as touching > file system code. > There are few areas of the system where people get as upset > when you break it as with file systems. You literally make people > lose their personal data, and when they realize something went wrong, > it's usually too late, the data is usually already gone for good. > > You are certainly welcome to contribute if you want to: start with > sending samll bugfix patches. Progress to small feature additions > or small cleanup patches in areas that are not too dangerous. > Then grow. Anything beyond that is impossible to predict. > > For a newbie, there is really no point in dreaming about > implementing or changing file systems. > > You need to learn what you are capable of and then convince others > of your abilities *by getting good patches committed*. Idle talk > announcing bizarre dreams doesn't really help anyone. > > Are you aware that even Bob Beck@ is seriously scared of some > parts of our file system code, and of touching some parts of it? > Yes, this Bob Beck, who isn't really all that easily scared: > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnBbhXBDmwU > > One of our most senior developers, regularly and continuously > contributing since 1997, and among those who understand our > file system code best. Most recently, he was among the main > driving forces behind unveil(2). > > > Becoming able to approximately judge the difficulty and size of > tasks relative to your own abilities is extremely important when > you want to contribute to free software. > > Even if you had, let's say, a whole year to spend full-time, you > would not really be making any sense right now. So, could we drop > this thread, please? > > Yours, > Ingo
Some guy asks whether there's any plan to improve file system performance, the answer given is the code is right there if you want to contribute. Then some other guy offers a proposal to start working on it, and the answer now becomes you are hardly qualified for such kind of work. Sorry but such kinds of answers are not helpful, and gives the (potentially wrong) impression that OpenBSD doesn't welcome contributions. It would be better to point out where to start, what hard problems to solve, what work has been done in this area that people can continue to work on.
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