[oi-dev] How to properly contribute 3rd party software packages for illumos and/or OpenIndiana?

[Jim Klimov]

Hello all,

   May I ask some questions on how I could help with integration
of popular software with illumos and/or openindiana?

   Some of my bugs/rfes deal with "I'd like to have such-and-such
software in OI repo out of the box"; recent examples include NUT
and OpenVPN. Say I did this and tested on my systems - compiled,
made SMF methods, maybe some lower-level OS changes (i.e. shutdown
handlers for NUT, drivers/tuning for OpenVPN), and personally
liked the result.

   Then what? How does it get upstream for everybodys benefit?
What do I send upstream, and how, and to which upstream?

   Should I make some packaging descriptors (SVR4/IPS)?
   Should there be some specialized build manifests (i.e. spec-files
like in RedHat SRPMs for automated rpm-builds?)
   What is the product I should try to push into the source code
repository, and which one - illumos-userland, openindiana-userland,
or are these two particular projects (NUT, OpenVPN) "lowlevel"
enough to get into the main ON gate (at least partially)?

   I guess the upstream project won't need the binaries, but rather
the source code (original 3rd party code and my OI-integration
patches to it)?

   I roamed around the wikis, but either I missed the page where
such contribution procedure is outlined, or it is not there =)

Thanks,
//Jim Klimov