How to contribute to Open Source on Ubuntu

January 17, 2007 at 2:12 pm · Filed under Programming, Linux

Last night I did a presentation for the OSU Open Source club on how to contribute to Open Source software, and here are my notes / commands:

1. Search in Bugzilla, then make a post:

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=392431

2. Download the source code:

Code Sample:
## You only have to run this command once, not every time

# Install compiler + tools

sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot vim-full dpkg-dev
# Get the source, Luke!

apt-get source gnome-applets && sudo apt-get build-dep gnome-applets

3. Edit the code:

Code Sample:
# Builds index of methods, constants, classes, etc

ctags -R .
# Use Control-], (Control-w, ]), and Ctrl-T to find definitions of functions in gVim

gvim

4. Create and test a patch:

To test:

Code Sample:
# Installs app to /usr/local

./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/local && make && sudo make install   
# Removes everything that was installed

sudo make uninstall && make distclean

To build and install packages:

Code Sample:
# Build Debian / Ubuntu package 

dpkg-buildpackages -rfakeroot                        
# Install it

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

To make a patch:

Code Sample:
# Remove intermediate files

cd [The top directory]

sudo debian/rules clean  
# Make the patch                                

diff -ur gnome-applets-orig gnome-applets-modified > the-fix.patch
# Check for errors / clean up extra lines that aren’t needed

vim the-fix.patch