Re: Seeking guidance on starting FreeBSD contribution

Hi Chris,

Thank you very much for your detailed and encouraging response! I really
appreciate the time you took to guide me. It is indeed a bit scary but I
will try my very best to be useful in some way.

I’ll start by going through the Porters Handbook and the Developers
Handbook, along with the Committers Guide and Code Review documentation, to
build a solid foundation. I also plan to subscribe to the ports category
mailing once I get a good idea of the contents of those guides.

I’m excited to dive in, and your advice has made the path forward much
clearer. I hope to make my first contribution soon and will be sure to
engage with the Stable and Current mailing lists as I get more comfortable
with the system.

Thank you again for your guidance and encouragement!

Best regards,
Ananay Sharma


On Tue, 16 Sept 2025, 00:37 Chris, <bsd-lists@bsdforge.com> wrote:

> On 2025-09-14 16:10, Ananay Sharma wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> Greetings, Ananay and welcome aboard!
>
> Nothing would jump start your adventure better than giving the Porters
> Hnadbook[1]
> and the Developers Handbook[2] a good read. The latter of which requires
> the
> Committers Guide[3] and Code Review[4]. A strong knowledge of git(1) and
> how
> we
> use it will also be necessary. If I were you. I'd probably adopt, or
> contribute a
> port [ports(7)]. This would be a great first step to get your "feet wet"
> and
> give
> you a feel for how things work. You'll need to subscribe to the ports
> category on
> the FreeBSD mailing lists[5]. When you feel comfortable enough to take a
> stab
> at
> the system. You'll probably also want to join (at least) the Stable and
> Current
> mailing lists.
>
> This is all probably a lot to digest. I hope I haven't scared you off. :)
>
> Happy hacking and thanks for your interest!
>
> --Chris
>
> >
> > I’m Ananay Sharma, a 2nd-year undergraduate student in Computer Science.
> > For the past few months, I have been learning how computer systems work
> and
> > studying Operating Systems through the UCB OS lectures. I found FreeBSD
> > fascinating and would really love to contribute to it in the future.
> >
> > However, I don’t use FreeBSD regularly and I’m not sure where to start or
> > how its components work in practice. I would greatly appreciate any
> advice
> > on how to begin learning about FreeBSD development or how to get involved
> > with small contributions.
> >
> > Thank you very much for your time.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Ananay Sharma
>
> 1. https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/porters-handbook/
> 2. https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/developers-handbook/
> 3. https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/committers-guide
> 4. https://reviews.freebsd.org/
> 5. https://www.freebsd.org/community/mailinglists/
>
> --
> There is no such place as the internet