Finding a Project

(Updated: Nov 2009)

This page describes how to find a bug to fix, select a project to enhance Lustre or help with Lustre testing. Lustre defects and features or to-do items are logged in the Bugzilla bug tracking system.

You can also also contact the Lustre Development mailing list (often referred to as [mailto:lustre-devel@lists.lustre.org lustre-devel]) to discuss ideas for projects that match your skills and interests. Note that Lustre encompasses a number of development areas, including user tools, documentation, disk filesystems, networking, kernel integration, etc., so you can almost always find a project that is interesting and challenging.

Having a specific problem to fix requires an understanding of the flow of operations and how that maps to specific code. It gives you a concrete goal that provides a context for investigating the code, rather than just reading vaguely through the vast Lustre code base.

Once you have selected a project, contact [mailto:lustre-devel@lists.lustre.org lustre-devel] to discuss the best approach to take and to keep others aware of what you are working on.

Finding a Bug to Fix
Fixing bugs in Lustre is a good way to become familiar with the Lustre code if you've not worked on it before. Some ways to find a bug you'd like to work on are:


 * Search Bugzilla key words for bugs designated "easy" bugs. Some Lustre developers use this keyword to indicate that a bug could be fixed by someone without in-depth familiarity with the Lustre code.
 * Search Bugzilla for very old Lustre bugs. These are typically non-critical bugs that are not dependent on a release timeline. They can vary widely in complexity.  In particular, doing an empty Bugzilla query and looking at the first 100 items (sorted by bug number) shows a lot of bugs that are either relatively hard to reproduce, not generally visible to users, or "nice-to-have" features that no customer has specifically prioritized to be fixed.

Selecting a Project to Enhance Lustre
If you'd like to take on a project to enhance or add a new feature to Lustre, consider one of these options:


 * Pick a project from the Lustre Project List. For guidance in selecting or proceeding with a project, contact [mailto:lustre-devel@lists.lustre.org lustre-devel].


 * Ask for a project on [mailto:lustre-devel@lists.lustre.org lustre-devel]. This mailing list is read by many of the Lustre developers and is a good place for questions, ideas, feedback.


 * Assist with keeping Lustre up-to-date with recent kernel changes. Porting Lustre to newer kernel versions is an ongoing effort, given the large number of vendor and upstream kernel releases.  For some changes, a simple fix to the Lustre code will be required, while for others, a good understanding of the Linux kernel and how Lustre interfaces with it is needed.
 * Propose a new feature that can be developed as a separate module on top of Lustre. Be sure to get feedback on your proposal by contacting [mailto:lustre-devel@lists.lustre.org lustre-devel] before you get started.

Helping with Lustre Testing
Testing Lustre under a variety of workloads is always of interest. The more unusual the IO pattern used by a benchmark, application, or testing tool, the more likely it is to find something of interest.

To find out how you can contribute to the testing of upcoming Lustre releases, see Lustre Test Plans.