Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2021 22:53:58 +0000 From: Rick Macklem <rmacklem@uoguelph.ca> To: Austin Shafer <amshafer64@gmail.com>, MANAV KUMAR <manav1811kumar@gmail.com>, "freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org" <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: How to start contributing Message-ID: <YQXPR0101MB0968A821F31878FE21629574DD479@YQXPR0101MB0968.CANPRD01.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM> In-Reply-To: <m2r1j3lccb.fsf@triplebuff.com> References: <BAC809FB-0B0D-4DD0-ABA0-4A906F31FD42@gmail.com>, <m2r1j3lccb.fsf@triplebuff.com>
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Austin Shafer wrote:=0A=
> Manav Kumar wrote:=0A=
[stuff snipped]=0A=
>> And I have shortage of space and computation power, is there any alterna=
tive to generate the build without me purchasing new machine.=0A=
>=0A=
>Honestly you may have to rent the cheapest freebsd instance you can on=0A=
>aws/digitalocean/ramnode/whatever and build there. The meta-mode route=0A=
>also works but I'm guessing low-end hardware is going to run into=0A=
>trouble building llvm if you don't have much RAM. I say give it a go on=0A=
>your machine and see what happens.=0A=
Yes, a "make buildworld" can be painfully slow, but can finish in a day or=
=0A=
so on pretty well anything with a x86-64 cpu and a few Gbytes of RAM.=0A=
=0A=
However, depending on what you are working, you may rarely need to=0A=
do so. Until about 1 year ago, my main FreeBSD development system was=0A=
a Pentium4 (x86-32 or i386 in FreeBSD lingo) with 256Mbytes (yes, M, not G)=
=0A=
of RAM and 40Gbytes of disk.=0A=
(I never was crazy enough to "make buildworld" om this system,=0A=
but I'm mostly a kernel guy;-)=0A=
FreeBSD is rapidly moving away from x86-32, so I would recommend=0A=
something that is x86-64 (amd64 in FreeBSD speak).=0A=
You can dual boot with Windows or Linux, but installation can be interestin=
g=0A=
and a little scary if you don't want to lose the other OS.=0A=
=0A=
--> As noted by Austin BELOW, you can easily build a kernel and you can usu=
ally=0A=
build userspace programs individually.=0A=
--> When APIs/library changes make a full system upgrade desirable,=0A=
you can just install from an .iso snapshot instead of doing the=0A=
build yourself.=0A=
--> If you become a committer, there are beefy build machines that=0A=
you have access to, to do the "universe" build to make sure your patc=
h=0A=
builds on all arches.=0A=
=0A=
20-30Gbytes of disk space should be enough and 50Gbytes is lots, from=0A=
my experience.=0A=
=0A=
>If you're only working on kernel stuff, you could just build the kernel=0A=
>(which literally any machine is capable of) and install it without=0A=
>building world. YMMV=0A=
=0A=
Yes, agreed, as above. =0A=
=0A=
Good luck with whatever you choose, rick=0A=
=0A=
Just keep in mind people like that you want to contribute, but=0A=
absolutely nobody is going to hold your hand and tell you how to do=0A=
stuff. You just gotta dive in headfirst and you'll get your legs under=0A=
you soon :) Again, the discord is active and people are very helpful there.=
=0A=
=0A=
Good luck!=0A=
Austin=0A=
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