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DEVELOPMENT(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual DEVELOPMENT(7) NAME development -- introduction to FreeBSD development process DESCRIPTION FreeBSD development is split into three major subprojects: doc, ports, and src. Doc is the documentation, such as the FreeBSD Handbook. To read more, see: https://docs.FreeBSD.org/en/books/fdp-primer/ Ports, described further in ports(7), are the way to build, package, and install third party software. To read more, see: https://docs.FreeBSD.org/en/books/porters-handbook/ The last one, src, revolves around the source code for the base system, consisting of the kernel, and the libraries and utilities commonly called the world. The Committer's Guide, describing topics relevant to all committers, can be found at: https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/committers-guide/ FreeBSD src development takes place in the project-hosted Git reposi- tory, located at: https://git.FreeBSD.org/src.git The push URL is: ssh://git@gitrepo.FreeBSD.org/src.git There is also a list of public, read-only Git mirrors at: https://docs.FreeBSD.org/en/books/handbook/mirrors/#external-mirrors The `main' Git branch represents CURRENT; all changes are first commit- ted to CURRENT and then usually cherry-picked back to STABLE, which refers to Git branches such as `stable/14'. Every few years a new STA- BLE is branched from CURRENT, with an incremented major version number. Releases are then branched off STABLE and numbered with consecutive mi- nor numbers such as `releng/14.3' The layout of the source tree is described in its README.md file. Build instructions can be found in build(7) and release(7). Kernel programming interfaces (KPIs) are documented in section 9 manual pages; use `apropos -s 9 .' for a list. Regression test suite is described in tests(7). For coding conventions, see style(9). To ask questions regarding development, use the mailing lists, such as freebsd-arch@ and freebsd-hackers@: https://lists.FreeBSD.org To get your patches integrated into the main FreeBSD repository use Phabricator; it is a code review tool that allows other developers to review the changes, suggest improvements, and, eventually, allows them to pick up the change and commit it: https://reviews.FreeBSD.org Or Github: https://github.com/freebsd To check the latest FreeBSD build and test status of CURRENT and STABLE branches, the continuous integration system is at: https://ci.FreeBSD.org FILES /usr/src/CONTRIBUTING.md FreeBSD contribution guidelines /usr/src/tools/tools/git/git-arc.sh Phabricator review tooling /usr/ports/devel/freebsd-git-devtools Phabricator review tooling as a port EXAMPLES Apply a patch from Github pull #1234, using devel/gh: gh pr checkout 1234 Apply a patch from Phabricator review D1234, using git-arc(1): git arc patch -c D1234 Apply a manually downloaded git-format-patch(1), draft.patch, from Bugzilla or mail: git am draft.patch Apply a manually downloaded patch, draft.diff, from Bugzilla or mail: git apply draft.diff SEE ALSO git(1), git-arc(1), witness(4), build(7), hier(7), ports(7), release(7), tests(7), locking(9), style(9) HISTORY The development manual page was originally written by Matthew Dillon <dillon@FreeBSD.org> and first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0, December 2002. It was since extensively modified by Eitan Adler <eadler@FreeBSD.org> to reflect the repository conversion from CVS: https://www.nongnu.org/cvs/ to Subversion: https://subversion.apache.org/. It was rewritten from scratch by Edward Tomasz Napierala <trasz@FreeBSD.org> for FreeBSD 12.0. FreeBSD 15.0 September 24, 2025 DEVELOPMENT(7)
NAME | DESCRIPTION | FILES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY
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