Unlike some past bugathons, we've decided to set a particular focus for Bugathon #5: to try to evaluate and possibly commit as many PRs with patches as is possible. Around 1300 PRs contain patches, and a significant number of these may well be committable as-is. I've documented why we're focussing on this in more detail [wiki:self:Bugathons/patch here].

Since the last bugathon, MarkLinimon has put a huge amount of work into the [“BugBusting”] wiki page, and the pages leading from it. There is now a large quantity of information available on the [wiki:self:BugBusting/Resources resources available] for anyone interested in helping out. For those wanting to help out, please add your details to [“BugBusting/Volunteers”], and join us on IRC on #freebsd-bugbusters on efnet.

We'll convene on the IRC channel during Friday 20th June, and start to look through PRs. A list of PRs tagged as containing patches is posted weekly to freebsd-bugs@, and is also available as [http://people.freebsd.org/~linimon/studies/prs/prs_for_tag_patch.html an interactive version].

For those helping out who are not committers, the best plan is to pick a PR in an area that you are familiar with and/or can test, and try the patch. If you've tested it and are confident that the patch is correct, submit a followup to the PR saying so, and if possible (and concise enough), submit an example of behaviour before and after. Then, drop a message into the IRC channel. Hopefully a committer will pick the PR up, verify that it looks sensible and commit it. If not, the PR can be added to the [http://people.freebsd.org/~linimon/studies/prs/recommended_prs.html PRs recommended for committer evaluation by the bugbusting team] by anyone with freefall access so that it doesn't get lost.

For those with freefall access, a list of unallocated PRs containing patches can be generated with: query-pr -q -x -t '\[patch\]' -r freebsd- Similarly, to list (e.g.) non-ports PRs, use: query-pr -q -x -t '\[patch\]' -r freebsd- | awk '$3 !~ /ports/ { print }'

It would be good if any commits originating from this bugathon bade mention of the fact in the commit message - this helps to get word out that it is occuring, and also shows people how effective bugathons can be.