[Gsoc2015]-Help needed to get started

[Rajul Srivastava]

Hi Kushal,

My primary areas of interests are operating systems , computer organization
> and architecture.  I am interested in participating in Google Summer of
> Code this year and I came across 'strace' as an organization.
>

Looking at your interests, I would say that you have reached the right
place and I would definitely encourage you to apply to 'strace'


>  It is a tool which I have been using for quite some time now.   I had a
> look through the ideas page and I loved the project called
> " *Comprehensive test suite".*
>

This is definitely a really good project, especially for someone who is
starting with strace and will for sure familiarize you with the entire
strace codebase. ldv (Dimitry Levin) is the assigned mentor for this
project and he will be able to give more technical details, but I will
encourage you to post any of your questions on this general mailing list.


>  I will be grateful if I could get some help in order to get started with
> the code-base and some reference to the documentation.
>

I would suggest that you start with taking a look at the README-* files in
the main codebase of strace and also throughly read and try out the
commands in the strace man-page. Then you can go about looking around in
the codebase



> Kindly also do tell where do I find bugs and fix them ?. Also , is there
> an IRC channel present ( I searched but couldn't find one ) .
>

As, strace is an Operating System utility, it comes as packages for
different operating systems. To take a look at a few outstanding bug
tickets about strace, you may take a look at [1]
<https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=strace;dist=unstable> [2]
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/strace> for starters and can
very well look at other distribution bugs for strace. There is no IRC
channel for strace yet. But, as listed on the GSoC ideas page, "All the
communication is going through a single mailing list:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/strace-devel". this list is
quite active and you can always post your queries here and hope to get good
answers.


> Please also do shed some light on how I should go about in order to work
> so that I can make a successful proposal.
>

Having a good understanding of the project and its scope will be the first
step. You must first take a look at the areas of the codebase that are in
dire need of testing and then go about listing them in your proposal. the
project description lists a few places where you can look as starting
point. Also, you must break the task into a number of logical sub-tasks and
specify a clear cut plan about how you plan to tackle them. It will be
great if you can list the tools and technologies you plan to use and your
background in those. Your proposal should give us a fair idea about your
understanding of the project and your capabilities. I will also suggest
that you try to make your proposal as soon as possible so that we can over
it for a number of iterations before the final submission.

In the end, it is really great to have on board with strace and we really
look forward to seeing your proposal.

Hope this helps,

Regards,
Rajul

[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=strace;dist=unstable
[2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/strace
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