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2021-09-23

Hacktoberfest 2021

Are you ready for Hacktoberfest 2021? Void Linux is! We’re excited to be participating for our 5th year. Contributions that help to address our out-of-date packages queue are especially welcome. This is a great way to dip your feet into the world of Linux distro package management and what happens behind the scenes to provide a wide selection of packages and make sure your system remains up to date.

Updating packages is very easy. You can select a package from the list of out of date packages and update it using the tools in the void-packages repo. The manual might be of assistance when you are updating packages.

As a general rule, we recommend that newcommers to the Void Linux project steer clear of “structural” packages unless you have specific domain knowledge that qualifies you to work on high-risk packages. When selecting a package to update, prefer packages registered to orphan@voidlinux.org. These packages are otherwise unmaintained, and your contribution will have a bigger impact. You can update packages that have a maintainer assigned, but understand that conflicting changes between a maintainer and contributor will be resolved at the discretion of Void staff.

Here are some useful tips when updating packages:

  • While we’re not completely opposed to PRs that add new packages, you’re much more likely to get your PR approved and merged if it’s a well written update.
  • Don’t PR broken code. Our maintainers are much less likely to give a second look to a PR that didn’t build when it was submitted.
  • While it’s possible to run xbps-src from an alien distro, this isn’t really supported. If you’re a seasoned Linux user and want to try Void, now is the time!
  • The update list is sometimes wrong. We’d love to get patches that improve its reliability by ignoring beta versions or adding checks to packages that are not correctly detected as out of date.
  • If you have expertise in C, GNU Autotools, or other build systems, taking a look at projects that we’ve marked as incompatible with cross compilation and fixing the upstream issue can be an amazing contribution that impacts more than just Void.

We look forward to working with the amazing world of open source developers this month to improve Void and continue our high standards for quality and reliability. To ensure your PR has the best chance at being accepted, feel free to reach out for help as explained in the manual. Together, we can make this a high-impact Hacktoberfest.