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Ingres Janitors Project FEQ

Q: What's a FEQ?

Pronounced "feck" , a FEQ is a list of frequently expected questions. So far the only Ingres Janitors Project question that's been asked more than once is will Ingres Corp sponsor an Ingres Janitors project, and the answer is YES, we'd be happy to.

Q: What is Ingres Janitors?

A: Modeled after the Linux Kernel Janitors Project, the Ingres Janitors Project is designed to help would-be Ingres developers get their feet wet while doing something useful for the Ingres community.

Q: What will I be doing?

A: Basically, cleaning up the code, fixing problems and adding new features. Andrew Ross is currently compiling a to-do list which you can expect to find janitors_todo shortly, in the interim we've posted a to-do list that was provided by Karl Schendel. You can look at the to-do list for some example tasks, but we'd like for you to contact us first to discuss your plans, get some guidance and perhaps even have an Ingres Mentor assigned to assist you.

Q: What are the prerequisites?

A: Knowledge of C, being able to build and run a set of sanity tests on Ingres.

Hint. Why not use The Object Management Extension (OME) to give yourself a simple introduction to what you are in for without the overhead of installing and compiling the Opensource! Specifically, try to make a User Defined Function, compile it and link it in with an existing Ingres installation. [Martin Bowes is currently working on some examples. See: OME: User Defined Functions

Q: What documents should I read?

A: Well you should start with the Ingres Source Architecture Presentation and then follow that up with the Ingres C Coding Standard If you're planning on making changes to the Ingres build process, you'll also need to understand Jam, the Ingres build tool. Jam resources that will help you get started are located here

[Ingres back end introduction] [Ingres general coding guide] [Dipping a toe into Ingres development]

Q: Where can I find out more about how to build Ingres

See Ingres_Build_Help.

Q: What version of Ingres will I be patching?

A: The very latest version (currently Ingres 2006 r3) posted here

Q: What kinds of things should I avoid doing to ensure my update is accepted?

Items already fixed will be rejected (obviously).

No pre-approval on the approach will be less likely to be accepted in a timely manner.

Updates contributed with no test plans will be rejected.

Unrelated code cleanup as part of other updates will be rejected.

Please do not remove items from the revision history.

No profanity or unprofessional comments please.

Really large changes are less likely to be approved. (ensure there's pre-approval)

Updates fixing many bugs, or features with the same update will be rejected.

Changes that infringe intellectual property rights without permission will be rejected.

Changes that introduce unwarranted duplication of code/functions will be rejected.

Changes that violate the architecture model will be rejected.

Updates that cause handsoffqa (test suite) diffs will be rejected.

Q: Sounds interesting. Who do I contact to get started?

A: We have decided to build on the success of the well-established info-ingres mailing list and the comp.databases.ingres (c.d.i.) newsgroup for our communication rather than start a separate forum. We think these will give participants the widest choice of delivery format; they are completely independent and unmoderated, and they will promote wide-ranging discussions and digressions. To get started, just subscribe to info-ingres or comp.databases.ingres. (They are cross-posted, so you need to subscribe to only one or the other. ) You will soon start seeing postings relating to the Ingres Apprentice projects, starting with the Ingres Janitors project.