Outreach Program Projects: Difference between revisions

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The Xen Project is a Linux Foundation collaborative project that develops the
The Xen Project is a Linux Foundation collaborative project that develops the
* Xen Hypervisor (for x86 and ARM) - the bulk of this page
* Xen Hypervisor (for x86 and ARM) - the bulk of this page. IRC channel #xendevel
* The XAPI toolstack (see [[#Mirage_OS]])
* Unikraft (see [[#Unikraft]]). IRC channel #unikraft
* Mirage OS (see [[#XAPI]])
* Mirage OS (see [[#Mirage_OS]]). IRC channel #mirage
* We also have some infrastructure, tooling and community related projects that run across '''all''' the sub-projects. These are sllightly different from other projects, in terms of skills: see [[#Infra_and_Community]]
* We also have some infrastructure, tooling and community related projects that run across '''all''' the sub-projects. These are slightly different from other projects, in terms of skills: see [[#Infra_and_Community]]
The project also has excellent relationships with its upstreams (Linux Kernel, the BSDs, QEMU and other projects) and upstreams such as Linux distributions. This is reflected in the project list, which contains many interesting cross-project development projects for applicants.
The project also has excellent relationships with its upstreams (Linux Kernel, the BSDs, QEMU and other projects) and upstreams such as Linux distributions. This is reflected in the project list, which contains many interesting cross-project development projects for applicants.


=== Finding a project that fits you ===
=== Finding a project that fits you ===
This page lists Xen Project development projects for Outreachy (formerly the Outreach Program for Women) that can be picked up by anyone! If you're interesting in hacking Xen Project code and want to become a part of our friendly developer community this is the place to start! Ready for the challenge?
This page lists Xen Project development projects for Google Summer of Code and Outreachy (formerly the Outreach Program for Women). But projects can be picked up by anyone! If you're interesting in hacking Xen Project code and want to become a part of our friendly developer community this is the place to start! Ready for the challenge?


'''To work on a project:'''
'''To work on a project:'''
* Find a peer-reviewed project from below that looks interesting. If you do not find an interesting issue, you can also go to [http://xenorg.uservoice.com/forums/172169-xen-development/filters/top Xen UserVoice], pick a few projects from there and ask on [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html xen-devel@] whether the chosen project(s) would be suitable for Outreachy. Note that some of them may be too large or complex for Outreachy.
* Send an email to the relevant [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html mailing list] (see '''Developer Mailing Lists''') and let us know if you are interested in starting to work or applying on a specific project.
* Send an email to the relevant [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html mailing list] (see '''Developer Mailing Lists''') and let us know if you are interested in starting to work or applying on a specific project.
* Post your ideas, questions, RFCs to the relevant [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html mailing list] sooner than later so you can get comments and feedback.
* Post your ideas, questions, RFCs to the relevant [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html mailing list] sooner than later so you can get comments and feedback.
* '''Easy test projects''' to fulfil the [https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy#Make_a_Small_Contribution Make a Small Code Contribution Requirement]: An easy way to get started (and show that you can set up the Xen Development Environment, fix an issue, build and test Xen, submit a patch, etc.) is to address a suitable number of [https://scan.coverity.com/projects/606 Coverity Scan issues]. Ask on [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html xen-devel@] for a set of suitable issues and later you may ask for [http://www.xenproject.org/help/contribution-guidelines.html access to coverity scan] or for a bug on [http://bugs.xenproject.org/xen/ /bugs.xenproject.org].
* An easy way to get started (and show that you can set up the Xen Development Environment, fix an issue, build and test Xen, submit a patch, etc.) is to address a suitable number of [https://www.xenproject.org/help/contribution-guidelines.html#coverity Coverity Scan issues].
* '''Small Contribution Requirement''': Outreachy requires that youfulfil the [https://wiki.gnome.org/Outreachy#Make_a_Small_Contribution Make a Small Code Contribution Requirement]. This is not strictly necessary for GSoC, but a small contribution to the project during the application period gives you an advantage


'''You have your own project idea: no problem!'''
'''You have your own project idea: no problem!'''
* If you have your own project idea, outline what you are trying to do on the mailing list. If you know the right list, post your project idea on [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html mailing list]. Failing that post on xen-devel and we can redirect you to the right list. Make sure you add '''OPW 2014''' to the subject line.
* If you have your own project idea, outline what you are trying to do on the mailing list. If you know the right list, post your project idea on [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html mailing list]. Failing that post on xen-devel and we can redirect you to the right list. Make sure you add '''Outreachy <round>''' or '''GSoC <year>''' to the subject line.


'''It is a good idea to ...'''<br>
'''It is a good idea to ...'''<br>
The Xen Project has also participated in the Gnome Outreach Program for Women (OPW) and Google Summer of Code (GSoC) in the past. One of the things we learned by participating in these programs is that you will be more successful, happier and get more out of participating in internship programs, if you do a bit of prep-work before writing an application. Here is some stuff you can do:
The Xen Project has participated in Outreachy and Google Summer of Code (GSoC) in the past. One of the things we learned by participating in these programs is that you will be more successful, happier and get more out of participating in internship programs, if you do a bit of prep-work before writing an application. Here is some stuff you can do:
* Contact your mentor early and get to know him or her
* Contact your mentor early and get to know him or her
* Start hanging out on our IRC channel. You can use the #xen-opw IRC channel on freenode.net for now
* Start hanging out on our IRC channels (#xendevel, #unikraft, #mirage)
* You may want to ask the mentor for a couple of small bitesize work-items (such as reviewing someones patch, a bitesize bug, ...) and start communicating on the relevant [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html mailing list]. That helps you become familiar with our development process, the mentor and other community members and will help you chose the right project and help you decide whether the Xen project is for you.
* You may want to ask the mentor for a couple of small bitesize work-items (such as reviewing someones patch, a bitesize bug, ...) and start communicating on the relevant [http://www.xenproject.org/help/mailing-list.html mailing list]. That helps you become familiar with our development process, the mentor and other community members and will help you chose the right project and help you decide whether the Xen project is for you.
* Note that quite a few Xen maintainers used to be GSoC participants once. Feel free to ask community dot manager at xenproject dot org to put you in touch with them if you have questions about their experience.
* Note that quite a few Xen maintainers used to be GSoC participants once. Feel free to ask community dot manager at xenproject dot org to put you in touch with them if you have questions about their experience.
* Any work you submit before applying for a project should be based on xen-unstable development tree, if the project is Xen Hypervisor and/or tools related. Linux kernel related patches should be based on upstream kernel.org Linux git tree (latest version). XAPI and Mirage OS patches should be based on the right codeline too. Check out the '''navigation by audience''' section on the left to find resources.
* Any work you submit before applying for a project should be based on xen-unstable development tree, if the project is Xen Hypervisor and/or tools related. Linux kernel related patches should be based on upstream kernel.org Linux git tree (latest version). Mirage OS patches should be based on the right codeline too. Check out the '''navigation by audience''' section on the left to find resources.


==== More resources ====
==== More resources ====
Line 62: Line 62:
=== GSoC Projects that were accepted in 2014 ===
=== GSoC Projects that were accepted in 2014 ===
-->
-->



== List of peer reviewed Projects ==
== List of peer reviewed Projects ==


=== Xen Hypervisor Userspace Tools ===
=== Xen Hypervisor Userspace Tools ===

{{project
{{project
|Project=golang consumer for the `xenlight` golang package
|Project=CPU/RAM/PCI diagram tool
|Date=01/30/2014
|Date=28/01/2020
|Verified=09/17/2015
|Verified=17/02/2022
|Contact=Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@citrix.com>
|Contact=George Dunlap <george.dunlap@citrix.com>, IRC nick: gwd
|List=Make sure you CC xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org on all communications; tag mails with [GSoC] or [Outreachy] as appropriate#
|Difficulty=Moderate, to Extremely Difficult (depending on which area of the problem you choose to tackle)
|IRC=#xendevel
|Skills=Understanding of PC server hardware, Understanding of ACPI/SMBios tables, Linux scripting or kernel hacking (depending on which area of the problem you choose to tackle)
|Difficulty=Straightforward
|Desc=It is often useful in debugging kernel, hypervisor or performance problems to understand the bus topology of a server. This project will create a layout diagram for a server automatically using data from ACPI Tables, SMBios Tables, lspci output etc. This tool would be useful in general Linux environments including Xen and KVM based virtualisation systems.
|Skills=Familiarity with the Go language
|Desc=The `xenlight` golang package consists of golang bindings for libxl, a robust library designed to be able to drive all necessary interaction with a Xen system; it's the library on which both xl and libvirt-xen are written.


The golang bindings are nearing completion, and so this project would be to create an in-tree consumer of those bindings; partly as an example, partly to be useful. Ideas include:
There are many avenues for extension such as labelling relevant hardware errata, performing bus throughput calculations etc.
|Outcomes=A tool is created that can either run on a live Linux system or offline using captured data to produce a graphical representation of the hardware topology of the system including bus topology, hardware device locations, memory bank locations, etc. The tool would be submitted to a suitable open-source project such as the Xen hypervisor project or XCP.
|GSoC=yes}}


* A simple `host status` daemon which would present information about the host: memory available, domains running, and so on
{{project
* A 'system stress tester', which would perform random operations (create / destroy / migrate / suspend VMs, create / destroy / migrate cpupools, &c) in quick succession to test the robustness of the system
|Project=KDD (Windows Debugger Stub) enhancements
* A re-implementation of the 'xl' command in Golang, suitable to be used as a drop-in replacement in our test system
|Date=01/30/2014
* A 'wrapper' library to make creation of guests simple and straightforward, with a minimum of boilerplate
|Verified=09/17/2015
|Contact=Paul Durrant <paul.durrant@citrix.com>
|Difficulty=Medium
|Skills=C, Kernel Debuggers, Xen, Windows
|Desc=kdd is a Windows Debugger Stub for Xen hypervisor. It is OSS found under http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb/?p=xen.git;a=tree;f=tools/debugger/kdd;h=fd82789a678fb8060cc74ebbe0a04dc58309d6d7;hb=refs/heads/master
kdd allows you to debug a running Windows virtual machine on Xen using standard Windows kernel debugging tools like WinDbg. kdd is an external debugger stub for the windows kernel.
Windows can be debugged without enabling the debugger stub inside windows kernel by using kdd. This is important for debugging hard to reproduce problems on Windows virtual machines that may not have debugging enabled.


Applicants are encouraged to come up with their own ideas as well.
Expected Results:
# Add support for Windows 8.1 and 10 (x86, x64) to kdd
# Add support for Windows Server 2012 to kdd
# Enhance kdd to allow WinDbg to write out usable Windows memory dumps (via .dump debugger extension) for all supported versions
# Produce a user guide for kdd on Xen wiki page


|Outcomes=A useful project or library which exercises and demonstrates how to use the `xenlight` golang package.
Nice to have: Allow kdd to operate on a Windows domain checkpoint file (output of xl save for e.g.)
|GSoC=yes
|Outcomes=Code is submitted to xen-devel@xen.org for inclusion in the xen-unstable project.
}}
|GSoC=yes}}


<br>
=== Xen Hypervisor ===


=== PCI Pass-through improvements ===
=== Xen Toolstack ===


<br>
{{project
|Project=Allowing guests to boot with a passed-through GPU as the primary display
|Date=01/22/2013
|Contact=George Dunlap <george.dunlap@eu.citrix.com>
|Desc=
One of the primary drivers of Xen in the "consumer market" of the open-source world is the ability to
pass through GPUs to guests -- allowing people to run Linux as their main desktop but easily play
games requiring proprietary operating systems without rebooting.


=== Xen Hypervisor ===
GPUs can be easily passed through to guests as secondary displays, but as of yet cannot be passed
through as primary displays. The main reason is the lack of ability to load the VGA BIOS from the card into the guest.


{{project
The purpose of this project would be to allow HVM guests to load the physical card's VGA bios, so that the guest can
|Project=Xen on ARM: Performance Counters Virtualization
boot with it as the primary display.
|Date=01/02/2019

|Verified=01/28/2020
[[GSoC_2013#gpu-passthrough|More Information ...]]
|Difficulty=Hard
|Contact=Stefano Stabellini <sstabellini@kernel.org>, IRC nick: sstabellini; Julien Grall <julien@xen.org>, IRC nick: julieng
|List=Make sure you CC xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org on all communications; tag mails with [GSoC] or [Outreachy] as appropriate
|IRC=#xendevel
|Skills=Good C, assembly, and kernel programming skills
|GSoC=Yes
|GSoC=Yes
|Desc=Performance counters are a family of ARM registers used to measure performance. Today they are not virtualized by Xen, they are just trapped and implemented as read-as-zero/write-ignore, see xen/arch/arm/arm64/vsysreg.c and xen/arch/arm/arm64/vsysreg.c.

This project is about properly virtualizing these registers, so that guests can use them to measure their own performance. It involves saving and restoring the performance counters registers in Xen during VM context switch.

|Outcomes=Xen guests can use performance counters.
}}
}}


<br>
{{project
|Project=Improve PCIe Advanced Error Reporting (AER) handling for passed-through devices
|Date=03/04/2014
|Difficulty=Medium-High
|Skills=Understanding of PC server hardware, PCIe, C
|Contact=Matt Wilson <msw@amazon.com>
|Outcomes=Patches for libxl, qemu, and perhaps xen-pciback posted
|Desc=Today the xen-pciback driver handles an AER event for passed-through PCI devices. If the device is assigned to a PV guest, it uses xenstore to request a reset from xen-pcifront. If the device is assigned to a HVM guest, the toolstack is notified and is expected to take corrective action.


=== Unikraft ===
The toolstack support for taking corrective action is only implemented in [http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb/?p=xen.git;a=blob;f=tools/python/xen/xend/server/pciif.py;h=27c1b75cfcf2695740e57bde557d2ee04c4d7322;hb=HEAD#l459 xend], not libxl. For HVM guests ideally, the AER event would be propagated into the guest through the device model (qemu) so that the driver inside the guest can take reset actions.
'''Verified: 15/02/2021'''


Unikraft is a unikernel build system that enables developers to build
|GSoC=Yes
light-weight services starting from a highly customizable library base.
}}
(for more information see [http://unikraft.org here]).

We keep an up-to-date list of Unikraft-related projects as issues on github [https://github.com/unikraft/unikraft/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Akind%2Fproject+-label%3Alifecycle%2Factive here]. If you're interested in one of them, or have project suggestions, please write us at <simon.kuenzer@neclab.eu> and <felipe.huici@neclab.eu>, cc minios-devel@lists.xenproject.org.

<br>


=== Mirage OS ===
=== Mirage OS ===
Line 142: Line 133:
==== Several different projects (follow link) ====
==== Several different projects (follow link) ====


For Mirage OS, please check out the [https://github.com/mirage/mirage-www/wiki/Pioneer-Projects Mirage OS Pioneer-Projects page]. If you are interested in one of these projects, please e-mail [http://lists.xenproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mirageos-devel mirageos-devel@lists.xenproject.org] and CC the mentor from the page (the project will contain a link to the mentor's GitHub account, which normally contains an email address and IRC information). You can also ask questions on the #mirage [http://xenproject.org/help/irc.html IRC] channel and usually find mentors on there.
For Mirage OS, please check out the [http://canopy.mirage.io/tags/help%20needed list of Mirage OS projects where help is needed]. If you are interested in one of these projects, please e-mail [http://lists.xenproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mirageos-devel mirageos-devel@lists.xenproject.org] and CC the mentor from the page (the project will contain a link to the mentor's GitHub account, which normally contains an email address and IRC information). You can also ask questions on the #mirage [http://xenproject.org/help/irc.html IRC] channel and usually find mentors on there.


<br>
=== XAPI ===
=== XAPI ===


No projects at this stage.
No projects at this stage.

<br>


=== Infra and Community ===
=== Infra and Community ===
Line 152: Line 146:
We also have some infrastructure, tooling and community related projects that run across all the sub-projects. These are slightly different from other projects, in terms of skills and working with the community. Please check extra information below the project.
We also have some infrastructure, tooling and community related projects that run across all the sub-projects. These are slightly different from other projects, in terms of skills and working with the community. Please check extra information below the project.


=== Xen Code Review Dashboard ===



<!--
{{project
{{project
|Project=Xen Code Review Dashboard (MetricsGrimoire, GrimoireNG)
|Project=Add more FreeBSD testing to osstest
|Date=09/28/2015
|Date=10/02/2017
|Verified=09/28/2015
|Verified=28/01/2019
|Difficulty=Medium
|Difficulty=Moderate
|Contact=Roger Pau Monné <roger.pau@citrix.com>, IRC nick: royger; Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@eu.citrix.com>, IRC nick: Diziet
|Contact=Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona <jgb@bitergia.com>, Lars Kurth <lars.kurth@xenproject.org>
|List=Make sure you CC xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org on all communications; tag mails with [GSoC] or [Outreachy] as appropriate
|Skills=Javascript programming, HTML5, basic software design knowledge (working with the mentors)
|IRC=#xendevel
|Skills=perl and shell (to write tests for osstest), FreeBSD system administration: pxe install, complete setup, build from sources, generate installer media.
|GSoC=Yes
|GSoC=Yes
|Desc=The current Xen Project test system only has minimal support for FreeBSD: it's able to test a FreeBSD guest, but it's only able to partially setup a FreeBSD host or perform a Xen compilation on FreeBSD. This project aims to solve this by providing better integration of FreeBSD into the Xen test system (osstest).
|Desc=The code review process in Xen is being analyzed, using [http://metricsgrimoire.github.io MetricsGrimoire] tools. As a result of that process, several parameters are identified for the review of each patch or patch set, such as number of iterations until accepted, time to review, time to attention, developer submitting the patch, employer, date of submission and acceptance, etc. Some summary parameters are produced as well, such as the total number of code reviews, or the number of people involved. Some of the early output of that work can be found at https://github.com/dicortazar/ipython-notebooks/tree/master/projects/xen-analysis and will be used as a baseline for further work (note that the project will be completed before Outreachy round 11 starts) and will be made available os open source.


First tasks will involve writing support for building the 3rd-party packages needed for the Xen build using poudriere and creating a custom pkg repository. Next steps will involve building FreeBSD guest images from source and integrating with the xen-unstable flight.
The purpose of this project is build an HTML5 application which consumes JSON documents with the data described above, and shows users a dashboard which allows them to watch the data, and interact with it
to filter, group and drill-down. Current ideas include using
* [https://angularjs.org/ AngularJS] as the Javascript framework,
* [http://square.github.io/crossfilter/ crossfilter] as the data manager,
* [https://dc-js.github.io/dc.js/ DC.js] as the graphics library, but
other options may be possible.


Initial support for FreeBSD host has been merged into osstest, but it's incomplete.
|Outcomes=The final result is expected to have some resemblance with the [GrimoireNG proof-of-concept dashboard for Xen https://projects.bitergia.com/previews/ng/dashboard.html?db=xen], which
|Outcomes=Be able to setup a FreeBSD host from osstest tracking upstream FreeBSD sources and perform a Xen build on it. Also generate FreeBSD guest images and integrate them into osstest testing.
uses information from git commits. Code is expected to be upstreamed to either GitHub or a code repository hosted on [http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb/ xenbits.xen.org/gitweb].
}}
}}
-->


<br>
'''Further Information''':
* '''Small code contribution requirement''': In the "[https://projects.bitergia.com/previews/ng/dashboard.html?db=xen GrimoireNG] proof-of-concept dashboard for Xen" (the code is on [https://github.com/Bitergia/newgen-dashboard/tree/refac github.com/Bitergia/newgen-dashboard/tree/refac]) add a new chart with the number of authors (distinct authors) per month, similar to the one with the number of commits per month which is already in the dashboard.
* '''[http://xenproject.org/help/irc.html IRC]:''' #metrics-grimoire at freenet (mentors are jgbarah and lars_kurth)
* '''Mailing List:''' : [https://lists.libresoft.es/listinfo/metrics-grimoire metrics-grimoire@lists.libresoft.es] and CC xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org
* '''Final Code Location:''' Decide final code location of output


== New Project Ideas ==
== New Project Ideas ==
Line 219: Line 208:


=== Choosing Projects ===
=== Choosing Projects ===
We have a bi-weekly mentor meeting overlooked by our program management team, which are a core team of 2-3 mentors and a program administrator. This group will work with mentors to ensure that project proposals are of good quality and whether mentors are engaging with the program management team and particpants in the weeks before the application period ends.
We have a bi-weekly mentor meeting overlooked by our program management team, which are a core team of 2-3 mentors and a program administrator. This group will work with mentors to ensure that project proposals are of good quality and whether mentors are engaging with the program management team and particpants in the weeks before the application period ends.

[[Category:Outreachy]]
[[Category:Outreachy Round11]]
[[Category:Developers]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Project]]
[[Category:Archived]]
[[Category:Transient]] <!-- as if not maintained it becomes stale -->

Latest revision as of 16:06, 17 February 2022

The Xen Project is a Linux Foundation collaborative project that develops the

  • Xen Hypervisor (for x86 and ARM) - the bulk of this page. IRC channel #xendevel
  • Unikraft (see #Unikraft). IRC channel #unikraft
  • Mirage OS (see #Mirage_OS). IRC channel #mirage
  • We also have some infrastructure, tooling and community related projects that run across all the sub-projects. These are slightly different from other projects, in terms of skills: see #Infra_and_Community

The project also has excellent relationships with its upstreams (Linux Kernel, the BSDs, QEMU and other projects) and upstreams such as Linux distributions. This is reflected in the project list, which contains many interesting cross-project development projects for applicants.

Finding a project that fits you

This page lists Xen Project development projects for Google Summer of Code and Outreachy (formerly the Outreach Program for Women). But projects can be picked up by anyone! If you're interesting in hacking Xen Project code and want to become a part of our friendly developer community this is the place to start! Ready for the challenge?

To work on a project:

  • Send an email to the relevant mailing list (see Developer Mailing Lists) and let us know if you are interested in starting to work or applying on a specific project.
  • Post your ideas, questions, RFCs to the relevant mailing list sooner than later so you can get comments and feedback.
  • An easy way to get started (and show that you can set up the Xen Development Environment, fix an issue, build and test Xen, submit a patch, etc.) is to address a suitable number of Coverity Scan issues.
  • Small Contribution Requirement: Outreachy requires that youfulfil the Make a Small Code Contribution Requirement. This is not strictly necessary for GSoC, but a small contribution to the project during the application period gives you an advantage

You have your own project idea: no problem!

  • If you have your own project idea, outline what you are trying to do on the mailing list. If you know the right list, post your project idea on mailing list. Failing that post on xen-devel and we can redirect you to the right list. Make sure you add Outreachy <round> or GSoC <year> to the subject line.

It is a good idea to ...
The Xen Project has participated in Outreachy and Google Summer of Code (GSoC) in the past. One of the things we learned by participating in these programs is that you will be more successful, happier and get more out of participating in internship programs, if you do a bit of prep-work before writing an application. Here is some stuff you can do:

  • Contact your mentor early and get to know him or her
  • Start hanging out on our IRC channels (#xendevel, #unikraft, #mirage)
  • You may want to ask the mentor for a couple of small bitesize work-items (such as reviewing someones patch, a bitesize bug, ...) and start communicating on the relevant mailing list. That helps you become familiar with our development process, the mentor and other community members and will help you chose the right project and help you decide whether the Xen project is for you.
  • Note that quite a few Xen maintainers used to be GSoC participants once. Feel free to ask community dot manager at xenproject dot org to put you in touch with them if you have questions about their experience.
  • Any work you submit before applying for a project should be based on xen-unstable development tree, if the project is Xen Hypervisor and/or tools related. Linux kernel related patches should be based on upstream kernel.org Linux git tree (latest version). Mirage OS patches should be based on the right codeline too. Check out the navigation by audience section on the left to find resources.

More resources

Quick links to changelogs of the various Xen related repositories/trees: Please see XenRepositories wiki page!

Before to submit patches, please look at Submitting Xen Patches wiki page and the relevant Xen Project team page. This will contain more information.

If you have new ideas, suggestions or development plans let us know and we'll update this list!

Aspiring Participants

  • Please contact the mentor and CC the most appropriate mailing list
  • Get a bite-size task from the mentor before the application starts
  • If you feel comfortable with an idea, please put your name to an idea using the following format
{{project
...
|Review=(delete as addressed)
* {{Comment|~~~~:}} I am interested in this idea ... 
                    (note that you may also want to link to the e-mail thread with the mentor)
  • You will need to request write access to the wiki by filling out this form


Outreach Program Project Ideas

List of peer reviewed Projects

Xen Hypervisor Userspace Tools

golang consumer for the `xenlight` golang package

Date of insert: 28/01/2020; Verified: 17/02/2022; GSoC: yes
Technical contact: George Dunlap <george.dunlap@citrix.com>, IRC nick: gwd
Mailing list/forum for project: Make sure you CC xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org on all communications; tag mails with [GSoC] or [Outreachy] as appropriate#
IRC channel for project: #xendevel
Difficulty: Straightforward
Skills Needed: Familiarity with the Go language
Description: The `xenlight` golang package consists of golang bindings for libxl, a robust library designed to be able to drive all necessary interaction with a Xen system; it's the library on which both xl and libvirt-xen are written.

The golang bindings are nearing completion, and so this project would be to create an in-tree consumer of those bindings; partly as an example, partly to be useful. Ideas include:

  • A simple `host status` daemon which would present information about the host: memory available, domains running, and so on
  • A 'system stress tester', which would perform random operations (create / destroy / migrate / suspend VMs, create / destroy / migrate cpupools, &c) in quick succession to test the robustness of the system
  • A re-implementation of the 'xl' command in Golang, suitable to be used as a drop-in replacement in our test system
  • A 'wrapper' library to make creation of guests simple and straightforward, with a minimum of boilerplate
Applicants are encouraged to come up with their own ideas as well.
Outcomes: A useful project or library which exercises and demonstrates how to use the `xenlight` golang package.


Xen Toolstack


Xen Hypervisor

Xen on ARM: Performance Counters Virtualization

Date of insert: 01/02/2019; Verified: 01/28/2020; GSoC: Yes
Technical contact: Stefano Stabellini <sstabellini@kernel.org>, IRC nick: sstabellini; Julien Grall <julien@xen.org>, IRC nick: julieng
Mailing list/forum for project: Make sure you CC xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org on all communications; tag mails with [GSoC] or [Outreachy] as appropriate
IRC channel for project: #xendevel
Difficulty: Hard
Skills Needed: Good C, assembly, and kernel programming skills
Description: Performance counters are a family of ARM registers used to measure performance. Today they are not virtualized by Xen, they are just trapped and implemented as read-as-zero/write-ignore, see xen/arch/arm/arm64/vsysreg.c and xen/arch/arm/arm64/vsysreg.c. This project is about properly virtualizing these registers, so that guests can use them to measure their own performance. It involves saving and restoring the performance counters registers in Xen during VM context switch.
Outcomes: Xen guests can use performance counters.


Unikraft

Verified: 15/02/2021

Unikraft is a unikernel build system that enables developers to build light-weight services starting from a highly customizable library base. (for more information see here).

We keep an up-to-date list of Unikraft-related projects as issues on github here. If you're interested in one of them, or have project suggestions, please write us at <simon.kuenzer@neclab.eu> and <felipe.huici@neclab.eu>, cc minios-devel@lists.xenproject.org.


Mirage OS

Several different projects (follow link)

For Mirage OS, please check out the list of Mirage OS projects where help is needed. If you are interested in one of these projects, please e-mail mirageos-devel@lists.xenproject.org and CC the mentor from the page (the project will contain a link to the mentor's GitHub account, which normally contains an email address and IRC information). You can also ask questions on the #mirage IRC channel and usually find mentors on there.


XAPI

No projects at this stage.


Infra and Community

We also have some infrastructure, tooling and community related projects that run across all the sub-projects. These are slightly different from other projects, in terms of skills and working with the community. Please check extra information below the project.




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Rules and Advice for Adding Ideas

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|Review=(delete as addressed)
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Choosing Projects

We have a bi-weekly mentor meeting overlooked by our program management team, which are a core team of 2-3 mentors and a program administrator. This group will work with mentors to ensure that project proposals are of good quality and whether mentors are engaging with the program management team and particpants in the weeks before the application period ends.