Producing Open Source Software
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Producing Open Source Software

How to Run a Successful Free Software Project

Karl Fogel

Dedication

This book is dedicated to two dear friends without whom it would not have been possible: Karen Underhill and Jim Blandy.

Table of Contents

Preface

Why Write This Book?
Who Should Read This Book?
Sources
Acknowledgments
Disclaimer

1. Introduction

History

The Rise of Proprietary Software and Free Software

Conscious resistance
Accidental resistance

"Free" Versus "Open Source"

The Situation Today

2. Getting Started

Starting From What You Have

Choose a Good Name

Have a Clear Mission Statement

State That the Project is Free

Features and Requirements List

Development Status

Downloads

Version Control and Bug Tracker Access

Communications Channels

Developer Guidelines

Documentation

Availability of documentation
Developer documentation

Example Output and Screenshots

Canned Hosting

Choosing a License and Applying It

The "Do Anything" Licenses
The GPL
How to Apply a License to Your Software

Setting the Tone

Avoid Private Discussions
Nip Rudeness in the Bud
Practice Conspicuous Code Review
When Opening a Formerly Closed Project, be Sensitive to the Magnitude of the Change

Announcing

3. Technical Infrastructure

What a Project Needs

Mailing Lists

Spam Prevention

Filtering posts
Address hiding in archives

Identification and Header Management

The Great Reply-to Debate

Two fantasies

Archiving

Software

Version Control

Version Control Vocabulary

Choosing a Version Control System

Using the Version Control System

Version everything
Browsability
Commit emails
Use branches to avoid bottlenecks
Singularity of information
Authorization

Bug Tracker

Interaction with Mailing Lists
Pre-Filtering the Bug Tracker

IRC / Real-Time Chat Systems

Bots
Archiving IRC

Choosing a canned hosting site
Anonymity and involvement

4. Social and Political Infrastructure

Benevolent Dictators

Who Can Be a Good Benevolent Dictator?

Consensus-based Democracy

Version Control Means You Can Relax
When Consensus Cannot Be Reached, Vote
When To Vote
Who Votes?
Polls Versus Votes
Vetoes

Writing It All Down

5. Money

Types of Involvement

Hire for the Long Term

Appear as Many, Not as One

Be Open About Your Motivations

Money Can't Buy You Love

Contracting

Review and Acceptance of Changes

Case study: the CVS password-authentication protocol

Funding Non-Programming Activities

Quality Assurance (i.e., Professional Testing)
Legal Advice and Protection
Documentation and Usability
Providing Hosting/Bandwidth

Marketing

Remember That You Are Being Watched
Don't Bash Competing Open Source Products

6. Communications

You Are What You Write

Structure and Formatting
Content
Tone
Recognizing Rudeness
Face

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Don't Post Without a Purpose
Productive vs Unproductive Threads
The Softer the Topic, the Longer the Debate
Avoid Holy Wars
The "Noisy Minority" Effect

Difficult People

Handling Difficult People
Case study

Handling Growth

Conspicuous Use of Archives

Treat all resources like archives

Codifying Tradition

No Conversations in the Bug Tracker

Publicity

Announcing Security Vulnerabilities

Receive the report
Develop the fix quietly
CAN/CVE numbers
Pre-notification
Distribute the fix publicly

7. Packaging, Releasing, and Daily Development

Release Numbering

Release Number Components
The Simple Strategy
The Even/Odd Strategy

Release Branches

Mechanics of Release Branches

Stabilizing a Release

Dictatorship by Release Owner

Change Voting

Managing collaborative release stabilization
Release manager

Packaging

Format

Name and Layout

To capitalize or not to capitalize
Pre-releases

Compilation and Installation

Binary Packages

Testing and Releasing

Candidate Releases
Announcing Releases

Maintaining Multiple Release Lines

Security Releases

Releases and Daily Development

Planning Releases

8. Managing Volunteers

Getting the Most Out of Volunteers

Delegation

Distinguish clearly between inquiry and assignment
Follow up after you delegate
Notice what people are interested in

Praise and Criticism

Prevent Territoriality

The Automation Ratio

Automated testing

Treat Every User as a Potential Volunteer

Share Management Tasks as Well as Technical Tasks

Patch Manager
Translation Manager
Documentation Manager
Issue Manager
FAQ Manager

Transitions

Committers

Choosing Committers
Revoking Commit Access
Partial Commit Access
Dormant Committers
Avoid Mystery

Credit

Forks

Handling a Fork
Initiating a Fork

9. Licenses, Copyrights, and Patents

Terminology

Aspects of Licenses

The GPL and License Compatibility

Choosing a License

The MIT / X Window System License

The GNU General Public License

Is the GPL free or not free?

What About The BSD License?

Copyright Assignment and Ownership

Doing Nothing
Contributor License Agreements
Transfer of Copyright

Dual Licensing Schemes

Patents

Further Resources

A. Free Version Control Systems

B. Free Bug Trackers

C. Why Should I Care What Color the Bikeshed Is?

D. Example Instructions for Reporting Bugs

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